by Roy A. Barnes

www.inkthinkerblog.com — Marketing ourselves as writers can be a very daunting and time-consuming task. Think of the books, articles, and seminars which are in existence today that cater to just the marketing and promotion of books and for getting started in the field of promotional writing. For writers who have yet to aspire to the creating of a full length book manuscript or to writing advertisement copy for small businesses and corporations, the concept of marketing oneself may seem a moot issue. This way of thinking can be very costly; that is, a number of potential published clips and subsequent visits to the pay windows of editors may not come to pass.

One of the best decisions I ever made concerning my fledgling writing career occurred in late 2004. I made the decision to create a new e-mail address from which I would submit the brunt of my queries and finished works to editors from, wherever online queries and submissions were allowed. When I began getting more serious about my freelance writing during the summer of 2004, I submitted and queried from an e-mail address that could be best described as cute, and not really business-like. I realized that I needed to create an e-mail address which would reflect what I was striving to do in my career. So I picked “travelwriteroy,” because it alluded to the primary activities I was now engaging in to help pay the rent, utilities, and food bills; that is, traveling, and then writing about those travels when I wasn’t crafting poetry, personal experience essays, or articles on a variety of other subjects.

In December 2004, I submitted an article on constructive ways for writers to deal with rejection by editors to an online writing publication called The Fabulist Flash. Gregory Kompes, the editor, didn’t wish to use my article in the near future, but he noticed my “travelwriteroy” e-mail address. He wanted to know if I was a travel writer, as he needed some articles on getting started in travel writing. Well, I had just received my first pay check ever as a freelancer for a travel article by Transitions Abroad on a piece I did about a unique volunteer holiday in Spain, which appeared in their March/April 2005 print edition, as well as online. In addition, I had previous work experience in the travel agent and airline industries, which afforded me further opportunities to be able to travel on four continents in my lifetime. I let Gregory know about my credentials. He e-mailed me back asking me to send him an article. It was accepted and published in the March 24, 2005, online issue of The Fabulist Flash.

Had it not been for my new e-mail address, I strongly suspect that Mr. Kompes wouldn’t have even brought up the subject about travel writing when he passed on using my article about dealing with rejection. My e-mail address lets editors know that travel is a part of my writing forte, even if I am submitting a query or work that isn’t travel-related.

In addition to having a business-like e-mail to submit queries and finished works from, listing some of our publication credits in different categories other than the category we are submitting to or querying about may lead to some unexpected surprises. It’s because an editor is going to know more about the scope of the work we do as writers. E-mail addresses and published clips can provide some free, indirect advertising which showcases a writer’s abilities to craft articles about a variety of subjects. Don’t forgo those opportunities to, as my father used to say, “brag about yourself.” If you have truly done something, it isn’t boasting!

Roy A. Barnes writes from southeastern Wyoming. His travel-themed works have been featured in such publications as Northwest Prime Time, Transitions Abroad, GoNOMAD.com, The Traveler, and Associated Content. His works about writing, poetry, and prose have appeared at Kristen King’s Inkthinker, The Fabulist Flash, The Inkspotter News, Writing for DOLLARS, C/Oasis, Swimming Kangaroo, The Goblin Reader, and Literary Liftoff.

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