Successful Selling to Regional Parenting Publications E-Writing Kit: Reviews

A Review from OrganizedWriter.com by Julie Hood

If you write parenting articles, have you checked out the Parenting E-Writing Kit from MooseintheBirdbath.com? The kit includes an ebook on how to query regional parenting publications; three spreadsheets with to help manage and track articles, submissions and payments; and an email database of addresses for 175 regional parenting publications. Back in January, I started test-driving this kit for you, and it is definitely worth the money. I debated about how useful this kit would be... first of all, regional parenting publications do not pay very well (I received $15-$40 for my article). Were these really markets I wanted to pursue since they were so small? Was it worth [it]? Plus, couldn't I just gather the email addresses myself? Here's what I found: (1) The regional parenting market works a little differently than regular publications and the ebook explains how (I had several "Oh, really?" moments while reading the book). (2) The author explains how to send your queries to all 175 publications at once. This definitely saves time and makes it worth it to send queries to this market. Let's do some math... suppose five of the 175 publications are interested in your article. If they pay an average of $25, you are up to $125 which is a bit more tolerable than $15 for an article. One thing to check out...make sure your email provider will let you send out this many messages at once without considering it spamming. (3) While I probably could gather the email addresses myself, it would definitely take me much more time than the cost. (4) You can purchase an updated email list. (5) The method in this book saves you tons of time because instead of sending queries you send the editors the articles in your email (no waiting on responses to queries and no snail mail). I also didn't have to invoice any of the publications -- they just sent me the checks. My recommendation -- if you are trying to build your list of clips and like to write parenting articles, you definitely need this kit.

A Review from Inscriptions Magazine by Megan Kopp

Rating: "Selling to the Regional Parenting Publication Market" is not a book as much as it is a package. Drawing on her successes in this niche (published in over 120 markets in four years), Brette McWhorter Sember offers a summary of her knowledge, helping to kick-start the process of selling to parenting publications across the continent.The package consists of a short e-book (.pdf file) that runs through the basics: what are regional parenting publications, what kind of articles do they publish, rights, payments and querying vs. submitting on speculation.Not wasting the reader's time, Sember continues with how to contact these magazines, tracking submissions and payments and record keeping. She briefly delves into using local experts, writing columns and how to get assignments.The key to this package is not the e-book (it is a very short 27 pages without enough meat to be of much use to previously unpublished writers). It comes with the database of more than 150 regional parenting publication email addresses. There is a guide on how to incorporate these addresses into your address book and how to use this to mass mail articles -- of particular use in the sale of reprints.Sember's system is ingenious. While there is a small amount of work involved in setting up the system on your own computer, the benefits far outweigh time spent. Her instructions are explicit and, if you pay close attention, easy to follow.In addition to the e-mail addresses, the package also contains ready-to-use spreadsheets for income tracking (with a column that automatically totals year-to-date income) and article tracking (what has sold where). A third spreadsheet alphabetically lists magazines where your work has appeared. This information becomes valuable in subsequent book proposals, query letters and resumes.With this e-book, Sember has opened her private files and invited readers to dip in and share the benefits of her hard work. To keep the database current, updates are available yearly for a nominal fee."Selling to the Regional Parenting Publication Market" is more than a key to this niche market, for writers with a basic knowledge of writing and selling, it's the complete vehicle -- gassed up, running and waiting for you to get in and go.

A review from Humorwriters.org by Tim Bete

Brette McWhorter Sember's Web site reads like a late-night infomercial. "In about four hours, I had two acceptances, more than paying for the cost of your kit," writes one customer."I don't know if I've set a record, but a little over two hours after I finished e-mailing 152 regional parenting magazines from Brette's listing, I made a sale!" writes another.Sember, who has successfully worked in the regional parenting publication (RPP) market for four years and had her work appear in more than 130 publications, writes three monthly columns for regional parenting publications. Based on the information she has gathered from these magazines, Sember created Successful Selling to Regional Parenting Publications, a kit consisting of a 27-page e-book and database of more than 150 parenting publications with e-mail addresses that can be merged into any e-mail program. Instructions on how to use the database with Outlook, Outlook Express and Eudora address book are included in the e-book, which also explains the kinds of articles RPPs publish, the rights they buy, typical payments and how to contact editors among other topics. The cost of the package is $29.99.Good market for humor writers "The RPP market is good for humor writers, because it is hard to find good humor writers," says Sember. "It's also a good market for essays. Editors like to run essays because they provide personal and real glimpses into parents' and families' lives."And, you don't necessarily need a local angle to sell a story. "Local angles are only important if you want to write a large feature for a specific publication," says Sember. "In general, RPPs understand that it is simply not cost effective for a writer to run down local quotes for a $45 piece."Testing the product While the e-book provides some good tips and background on the market, the heart of Sember's kit is the database of editorial e-mail addresses. But why buy a database when you could compile your own list of editors? "Many people use the list of addresses available from Parenting Publications of America, which includes 118 magazines, says Sember. "If you visit this site, you will find many of the magazines either do not have e-mail addresses or list e-mail addresses that no longer work -- all of the family.com e-mail addresses are now defunct for example." Sember is right on target with her analysis of the Parenting Publications of America (PPA) directory. Before I purchased her product, I compiled my own list of editors from the PPA Web site. While I was able create a list of editors, it was much smaller than Sember's database and had many more bad e-mail addresses. Sember's e-mail database is remarkably clean. The first time I used it there were only three or four bad e-mail addresses -- an incredibly low rate since editors change so often. Sember updates her database on a monthly basis. Previous customers can purchase an updated list for $9.99. When I pitched a reprint of one of my humor columns to the list I compiled from the PPA Web site, I garnered one sale for $30. But, my list took me more than eight hours to compile. -- not a great use of my time. My results when I pitched a column (see sample e-mail pitch) to Sember's database I became a satisfied customer very quickly. Within two hours I sold a reprint to two magazines for $45 each -- $90 total -- three times what I paid for the database. Within 24 hours an editor contacted me to discuss a regular column in her six-times per year publication."The curious thing about this market is that you may hear back from only a handful intially, but then get a tear sheet and check in the mail or a panicked e-mail three hours before a magazine goes to print asking to use your piece," says Sember. "I don't think I have ever sent out a piece and not gotten at least one response."Sember's e-book and database live up to the testimonials on her Web site. Obviously, individual writer's results will vary. But, if you're looking for a way to enter the regional parenting publication market quickly and inexpensively, I highly recommend the Successful Selling to Regional Parenting Publications kit.Tim Bete is a regular contributor to the Christian Science Monitor and co-director of the Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop.

Read a review on http://www.ElectronicBookReviews.com

"This is an excellent resource for those interested in maxing the benefits of local magazines."
Hilary Evans, in Busy Freelancer

Recommended by www.TheDabblingMum.com
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From WritefromHome.com:
Featured product of the month April 2002 By Kim Wilson "Whether you currently write for parenting publications or want to break into this specific market, Brette McWhorter Sember's writing kit, Successful Selling to Regional Parenting Publications is a useful, reasonably priced, time-saving tool.Sember, a successful writer for parenting publications, explains in the kit how-to break into this market and develop on-going relationships with editors. The kit includes a database of over 150 e-mail addresses to regional parenting publications. For added convenience Sember created the database to merge directly into Outlook or Outlook Express. (When ordering you must state which e-mail client you use.)Reasonably priced, this kit can easily pay for itself after one sale."