Most writers don’t realize that getting into full-time writing depends mostly on their marketing skills. Yes, there is a secret to marketing. It is in reading multiples of magazines and choosing the right target… in other words – choosing a target that markets the kinds of articles/stories you have to sell.

If, for example, you like to write mysteries, don’t waste your time submitting to Better Homes and Gardens, or Woman’s World. Submit mysteries to a magazine that buys mysteries. You may think that would go without saying, but you’d be surprised how many writers try to sell to the wrong markets, or to magazines they haven’t even read. (NEVER try to sell to a magazine you haven’t read.)

If you want help in finding the right market, arm yourself with the right information. I highly recommend buying the online version at www.writersmarket.com for $39 a year. This is one purchase you really need to make. Invest in yourself. You can also buy it in the hard copy, but the online version is updated daily, whereas the hard copy is updated annually.

Let’s say you want to sell your mystery story. To find good markets for it, log in to Writer’s Market and go through the process of narrowing the fields on the search page. It is pretty self-explanatory.

Ultimately, you will wind up with a list of magazines you have never heard of and probably have not read (but that sound right for your story or article). Select magazines that are at least 75% freelance written. (Writer’s Market will give you that information.) When you have arrived at the best magazine market for your article, make another investment and buy three consecutive (recent) copies of it.

When you receive the copies (four to six weeks later), go to the page that show the names of the editors and staff (in the front), and match up the names of the editors and staff with the names of the articles in the magazine.

When you have identified which articles belong to paid staff and which ones belong to freelance writers, you are on the right trail. Read the articles that are written by freelancers. When you find an article where you think to yourself, "I could write that," you have found your needle in the haystack. This is the market you want to sell to.

Next, create a folder on the Writer’s Market and label it with the name of the article you have in mind. If, for example, you wrote an article entitled The Mystery of River Run, make a folder (on Writer’s Market) with that name. As you find the names of magazines that you think are good markets for that story, file them in that folder. (Fear not - the Writer’s Market gives easy directions on how to do this.) When you get that far, yer cookin’ with gas!

Now go through the markets one at a time and make notes. After you have read the top two or three magazines that you think would be your best markets, submit your story to the one that pays the highest.

When your story has been accepted and you know when it will be published (or thereabouts), begin the reselling process of the same story by resubmitting it to the next market in line. (Reselling is the key to being a full-time writer, but resales only earn half what you received on your first sale.)

It is absolutely imperative to keep a good set of books that will show when you submitted an article, the name of the article, the magazine you submitted it to, and whether it was accepted or rejected. (Writer’s Market also supplies a place for that.)

And now you know why writing is such hard work. Nevertheless, if it is the real passion in your life, you’ll stick with it. In doing so, you’ll learn more and more tools of the trade.