Constant Content

Hello all,

I just signed up today and am looking to poke around for a few days until I get a feel for the style of what is accepted. Hopefully these boards can help me with that.

I'm a 30-something freelance writer with about 10-years experience. I've mostly worked in small to mid-sized newspapers, but I decided to focus on Internet writing about eight months ago after the paper I was at went under. It's been a slow slug (as expected), but I have managed to develop a small following for my sports writing on a couple different well-read (in quality of readers if not pure numbers) blog sites.

I am hoping to branch out into some general topics with greater commercial possibilities (I mostly write about Major League Soccer now, which is more or less a niche topic). My wife is a clinical psychologist and we are exploring the possibility of combining her expertise with my abilities as a writer, but I'm open to any topic.

I'd love to hear from other Canadians. What has your experience on CC been like? Do you keep getting rejected for spelling things with extra Us? Also, I'm interested in hearing from anyone who has had success selling sports articles. What's the market for us ex-Toy Department types here?

Cheers,
Duane Rollins
Toronto

Hi from the East Coast! With your experience I'm sure you'll do fine with Constant-Content, just don't let your experience make you a know-it-all if you get a rejection. I think Lord Byron would get a rejection or two if he were to write here.

I've never been chastised for using British vs. American spelling. The big kicker here is grammar. I get dinged all the time for too much or too little punctuation. Also stay away from first-person perspective.

I don't know much about the sports niche, which is funny because my biggest writing niche is fitness/exercise and you would think they would be closely related. My best advice for finding your market it to look around the web for sites in your niche. Either model what you write based on what they already have for content, or look for areas that are lacking. Also keep the medium in mind. Web-readers like fast, informative articles that scan easily. Make use of sub-headings and try out list-style articles (ex: Five Reasons Canadians Play the Best Hockey). List-style articles seem to be my biggest sellers.

Best of luck,

Amy

Good advice, Amy - like your name, by the way!

And hello, Duane. I'm from the suburbs of Toronto, so I'm pretty envious of your TTC. Here, it takes me two hours and ten transfers to get anywhere. Regarding grammar, I just write in American English, mostly because I hate grammar check telling me I spelled colour wrong. I believe Ed accepts both Canadian and American spellings - just as long as you stay consistent throughout the article.

As for what topics sell here, I've learned that it really is anything goes. A few times, I've written articles that I truly thought no one would ever buy - so I guess the real question is why I wrote them. Anyway, the articles always sold. And other articles that I thought would be quick sellers are still sitting in the system. So I suggest writing on a wide variety of topics at first, to get a feel for what sells and what doesn't. In any case, I think self-help topics would be big sellers, so having a psychologist as a wife could come in handy.

But the best part of writing here - the exchage rate. As long as the Canadian dollar is down, you can expect a nice little bonus every month!

Good luck here,

Amy

Duane,

Welcome aboard. To answer your question - no, there is no bias against UK spelling. However, you may want to colour/color your articles for your intended audiences. Some in the US won't bat an eye if a word is spelled differently.

All in all, write what you're comfortable writing. You in Canada have an advantage over most Americans - at least in my mind. I've been rejected by UK magazines before because I couldn't "colour" my work to match their spellings. It used to bother me years back, but now I just don't care. I have both fiction and non-fiction work published, and I'm told that's something to be proud of.

If you write it, it will eventually sell. Well, I can't say that 100% of my writing will ever sell, but as long as I keep a steady stream of work coming in I'll sell more.