About Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen Expertise Freelance, magazine, & web writing are my specialities - and I know how to find the answers to most writing questions. Ask away!
Experience I'm a full-time freelance writer; my work has appeared in magazines such as Reader's Digest, Health, alive, and More. I also write regularly for online websites, including MSN Health, Woman'sDay.com, and BestHealthMag.com.
I created and maintain a series of "Quips and Tips" blogs: Quips and Tips for Successful Writers; Quips and Tips for Achieving Your Goals; and Quips and Tips for Couples Coping With Infertility. My fourth blog is called See Jane Soar: Life Lessons From Successful Women, and I can also be found at TheAdventurousWriter.com.
To visit me, simply Google "Quips and Tips" or "The Adventurous Writer."
Education/Credentials My degrees are in Education and Psychology, from the University of Alberta.
Question QUESTION: Hi Laurie,
I'm a journalism major from way back who worked in the field about 12 years, then had kids, freelanced for a few newspapers for a while, then basically stopped writing for the past 10 years. I enjoy writing on a variety of topics, and am wondering how difficult it is to write for syndication, or am I nuts to even think about it before getting a good stock of recent clips?
ANSWER: Hi Sue,
I don't think you're nuts for thinking about syndication -- you could always luck out and hit the jackpot! That said, however, I don't think it's likely you'll land a syndicated column right away...but if you know the right editors or publishers, it's certainly possible.
Your best bet would be to re-establish yourself in the freelancing and writing world. Get to know a few editors by pitching ideas and writing great articles. The advantage of writing a few articles before you start working towards syndication is that you'll get a feel for what you want to write about most often, the pay per word or per article, and what it's like to work for certain magazines, websites, or editors.
Good luck!
Laurie
Quips & Tips for Successful Writers
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: I guess I didn't explain myself well. When I see articles in my local paper written by someone from across the country, I assume the local editor saw the story somewhere and picked it up for local use. Were these stories carried in other publications? Or is there a "warehouse" for extra stories that editors can purchase? And if so, how does one write for that purpose?
Thanks for much for your answers.
Answer Hi Sue,
Thanks for the clarification -- my apologies for misunderstanding you!
I don't have personal/professional experience with syndication, but I found a wonderful article on syndicating your work. I can't post the link here (live links not permitted), but if you Google "Get Your Material Syndicated by Gini Graham Scott", it should be first in the results page. You could include the subtitle in your search, which is "How to Get Your Column or Article Syndicated" (but the first search should work fine).
