A Series of Letters I Wrote..Article Sub Question

[jfmalewitz]

The basic question I have is this, the rest is filler. I wrote about five articles as "letters." Example: "A letter to a young comic book fan." I write for both CC (just started) and Associated Content (Vet) and just read the blog post on author intrusion on CC. Would a letter to a comic fan or a writer work here? I wrote about five, but stopped recently because I was not sure they would sell. It was more of a creative thing to do, I had seen it done in some of my favorite how-to-write books, "Letters to a young novelist." Anyways, just curious if I would be wasting my time editing them for the long period it takes, or if I should look elsewhere (I doubt AC would publish all of them,perhaps none.) Thanks for listening, guys.

[Celeste Stewart]

Hi,

You never know what will sell here - there's no sure thing. For the most part, third person, informative articles are the bread and butter here.

You can definitely address the reader here as in, "When searching for a mortgage broker, you should ask family and friends for referrals." And from the sounds of it, your format sounds doable.

The author intrusion problem arises when the writer is attempting to be an impartial authority and then suddenly their opinions sneak in. For example, if you've done an impartial, third person analysis of different types of home loans and then suddenly say something like, "I've always distrusted anyone who pushes the ARM loan." --- Readers will be wondering who exactly "I" is.

Your proposed formats sound like they would be fine. Try to think about who might buy the articles and how the articles might serve their needs. Writing an open letter to the first time homebuyer could work for websites and mortgage brokers that cater to first time homebuyers. An open letter to the high school grad looking for student loans could work for companies that offer financial aid to college students.

I suppose (who's "I" and why should I care what she thinks? -- Just an example of author intrusion sneaking in ) there are websites that sell comic books to youngsters, so an open letter telling them what to look for in their next comic book investment would have a home too. (Granted, a more specialized home so it may take more time to sell than a real estate/home loan article).

Your ideas sound fun. Give them a try and see what happens. I recently subbed an opinion/humor piece on a whim, not expecting any results whatsover and it just sold today - so you never know!

[tifferbugz]

*wave* Jacob. We subscribe to each other on AC I believe. Nice to see a familiar "face".

[jfmalewitz]

Thanks, Celeste. That was the encouragement I needed. I will work on the letters for CC.
Hey tiff! It's Tiffany right? I do remember you. Out to make the big bucks on CC? (Waves back).

[tifferbugz]

[quote="jfmalewitz"]Thanks, Celeste. That was the encouragement I needed. I will work on the letters for CC.
Hey tiff! It's Tiffany right? I do remember you. Out to make the big bucks on CC? (Waves back).[/quote]

Yeah I've been here off and on for a while. It's kind of a waiting game here at times but the payoff is certainly more reasonable. You can increase your sales a bit by going after public requests in between writing articles that are centered on your own interests.

Oh and you may have already figured this out (I didn't for a while which is why I'm mentioning it), if you go into the "my account" area you can set the email alerts for new public requests. By default all but rejections are set to "no" for email alerts.

Good luck! I'm sure you'll do well here because I know you're a great writer.

[Ed]

I think that presenting the information in a straightforward manner will attract a broader set of customers and be more useful in general. It's not necessary to write in epistolary form to address the reader.

Ed