Thursday, April 26, 2012

W is for Woman's World Magazine

I have just completed Part II of a class called Selling to Woman’s World taught by Kate Willoughby and offered by the Colorado Romance Writers. These two classes were fantastic. I learned a lot and I also won a free critique from the instructor on my own WW Short Story. Kate will be teaching these classes again in the future so if you have any interest in writing short romance, check out the descriptions of the the classes and make a note to watch the Colorado Romance Writers website for dates.

Here’s Kate's description of each class:
Part I: Woman’s World, one of the last remaining periodicals to publish short fiction, pays $800 for an 800 word romance story, and if you sell to them there’s a good chance over a million people will read your story. Nice work if you can get it, right? Well, you can. My class, “Selling to Woman’s World Magazine—Beyond the Basics, Part I,” will give you the tools you need to break into this tough market. Each week we’ll examine one or more key story elements that occur over and over in Woman’s World romantic fiction. These story elements enhance submissions and give them that certain something unique to the publication. Students will complete simple assignments designed to help pinpoint strengths and weaknesses in the stories they’ve been submitting and stories they have yet to write. We’ll also deconstruct three of the most popular plots. Then, I’ll guide you through the plotting process so that by the end of the month, you’ll be set with numerous plots and ideas, all ready to go. Industrious students may even have finished stories.

Part II: In this continuation of Selling to Woman’s World Magazine—Beyond the Basics I, we’ll examine eight more story elements and five plots in our quest to understand just what it takes to sell to Johnene Granger, the discerning fiction editor at Woman’s World.
Instructor Bio:
Kate Willoughby’s Woman’s World (WW) expertise comes from six years of analysis, writing, and submission to the magazine. In that time, she’s sold eight stories to them at a success rate of about 28%. Her blog, “Writing for Woman’s World,” is a resource for those who want to break into the WW market, and through the original “Secrets of Selling to Woman’s World Magazine” class she’s helped at least six writers sell to the magazine. (Click on testimonials below). She has also published eleven novellas, print and electronic, with Ellora’s Cave and Liquid Silver Books.

You can also learn a lot from Kate's blog where she dissects and analyzes stories. It's the one blog I've found that is truly PRICELESS!
Kate's website is HERE (this site promotes her novels - content warning!) and check out some of the testimonials HERE.

Keep abreast of what's happening with the Colorado Romance Writers Online Workshop Series!  They have a wonderful lineup of topics (craft, industry, inspirational, etc.) and speakers HERE.

BTW, men write for Woman's World too under their own name. WW also publishes a short mystery piece in each issue. Don’t mistakenly believe these stories are easy to write. Short doesn’t mean easy.
 I'm sure I don't have to tell you to READ THE MAGAZINE! That goes without saying, doesn't it?

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Thank you for this! I've sent 2 stories to WW (one rejection and one I haven't heard from, but I just sent it 4/2). I can't wait to get back from work tonight so I can read this more closely :)

Jessica Ferguson said...

Kelly, you will definitely want to follow Kate's blog. It's great the way she analyzes each short story published in WW. A real learning experience!

Charles Gramlich said...

I sure wish more of today's periodicals would run fiction. I might read them.

Jessica Ferguson said...

So do I, Charles. When I first started writing there were SS markets in many magazines. That's how I spent my time trying to get published. :)

Pat Carroll Marcantel said...

Such a helpful article. Thanks.