THIS MONTH'S SHOWCASE FEATURES:

"THE WRITING LIFE"
THE ROAD TO SUCCESS by Janet Elaine Smith

FERTILE MATERIAL
Boyd's Eye View by Fred Mitchem

FEATURED CRAFT ARTICLE
"What Do I Write?" by P. June Diehl

MONTHLY WRITING CHALLENGE
February 2002 Winner: Tangled Up in Pink by Jayni Therkildsen

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THE ROAD TO SUCCESS
Janet Elaine Smith Copyright © 2002

Note to subscribers: If you've already read the
first part of this article in the eZine itself, look
for the red cue below to find your place.

There has been a lot of discussion lately on several writing boards and egroups that I belong to. The subject? Should you write for free or only for cash? I suppose that like everything in life there are two sides to the coin. But for what it's worth, I would like to take you on a trip. Got your bags packed? Okay, let's go.

I started writing over twenty years ago. I didn't plan it. It wasn't a lifelong passion. It was a means of preserving the past. We were missionaries in Venezuela for nine years. When we returned to the U.S., I didn't want to forget all the things that had happened there, so I began to write them down. Pretty soon they began to take form as a children's book of missionary stories. No, that wasn't planned either, but life is funny like that.

We get a lot of religious magazines at our house. I picked one of them and decided to send one of the stories to them. They did have a children's page, so I figured it might actually get published. I had never sent an article to anyone before. I didn't know all the proper ins and outs of query letters and cover letters. But, I did write a letter along with the story, telling about our experience in Venezuela.

I didn't hear anything from them. I didn't get a rejection letter. I didn't even know what a rejection letter was. In about three months the magazine arrived in the mail, as usual, and when my husband opened it up, he said, "Wasn't your story 'Wanted: A Non-Singing Christian?'"

I hurried to turn to the page and sure enough, there it was. Would I get a check for it? I didn't know I should have expected one. Not only was there no check, it was credited to 'Anonymous'! Now I've been called a lot of things in my life, but never before Anonymous.

I hurried to call the editor and ask him why my name did not appear on the article. His reply? "Well, you know, most Christians are really humble." Hey! I might be a Christian, but this was my story and I wanted the whole world to know it! Fortunately, the story had been too long to go in one issue, so it was continued the next month, and it says (I still have a copy of it in my filing cabinet):

"Wanted: A Non-Singing Christian (Part 2)" by Janet Elaine Smith.

By this time, after seeing my name in lights--well, okay, in print--I'd been bitten by the bug. I knew I had to write. The stories began to grow in my head.

I had always been an avid reader. The more I read, the more I wrote. The more I wrote, the more I sent out. The more I sent out, the more rejections I got. But more and more the articles began to be accepted. And for some of them, a paycheck came.

I'm not stupid! I have never returned a check for an article I wrote. But, I have never turned down an opportunity to write without pay, either. Pay: it's all relative. You can be paid in dollars and cents, or you can be paid in-kind. Sometimes payment comes in the form of a person recognizing you on the street or in the mall. Sometimes it comes as a letter or e-mail from someone whose life was touched by something you wrote. Sometimes it even comes in self-therapy; nothing can help you work out your frustration more than putting it down in black and white.

Subscribers continue here:

Let's go to the next major step in my writing career. I had read several regency romances. I said I was a Christian; I didn't say I was a saint! I love a good romance as much as the next gal. I decided to try my hand at fiction. I had been quite successful by this time in the nonfiction magazine market, so it was time to dive into something new.

As I began to formulate my plan, I said nonchalantly to my husband, "I need some kind of a hidden treasure or jewels of some sort in Great Britain." His response was totally unexpected.

"Why don't you use our family jewels?" he said.

"If you've got family jewels," I teased him (I told you, I'm not dead!), "how come I've never seen them?"

He then told me the story of the Keith clan in Scotland who had lived in Dunnottar Castle and how they had protected the Scottish regalia to keep it away from Oliver Cromwell.

I love a challenge! I decided to do some research--to prove him wrong. As it turned out, he was right and I had to eat my words. They can be so bitter sometimes!

As a result of this research, I got hooked on doing genealogy. After a few years, I began to get requests from groups in our hometown to speak about genealogy. Then one day it happened. My big break. It was, as many things in my life, almost by accident.

We had a toll-free phone directory and as I went through it from time to time, the publisher, Heritage Quest, jumped out at me. Finally, unable to restrain my curiosity, I dialed the number. It was free, remember? I asked them what they published. The woman chuckled and said, "Heritage Quest." I boldly asked her what Heritage Quest was and she replied that it was a genealogy magazine.

Wow! The blood ran through my veins in double time. I told her that I was a genealogist, and was also a writer. I said I would like to do an article about how to get kids involved in history by using their family history. The next thing I knew I was talking to the editor and he said he would like to have me send it to him. The next day I had it in the mail to him. As soon as he finished reading it he was on the phone asking me, "Can you do this for every issue of the magazine?"

I had my first regular gig as a columnist! I didn't even stop to ask him if--or how much--they paid. It was, as far as I was concerned, a writer's dream come true. They did pay: a whopping $30 per page. Heritage Quest has been sold three times; I stayed with them through all three changes. I have gone from writing one little kids' story to doing a regular grown-up column called "In the Craziest Places," a Family Fun section and a feature article in almost every issue. And yes, I do get paid--quite well, in fact.

When a regional magazine, Memories and Mysteries, started up, I asked them if they would be interested in a column on area genealogy. He said he was, but that since they were just starting up he couldn't pay anything. I bit anyway. After a few issues, he asked me if I would be willing to do some feature articles as well, and he would pay me--not much, but he would pay. I quickly agreed. Before too long I was appointed the associate editor and yes, my pay check jumped. Well, maybe it crawled. But, when my books came out, I was assured of a nice big ad for each of them. And when I walk down the street in almost any town around here people recognize me and come up to me and tell me how much they enjoy my articles.

I write a monthly column in our local newspaper on genealogy. Because of hard times, they had to lay off a number of their writers. At least I knew that they could still afford me! My payment? I get a free subscription to the daily newspaper. Plus it creates a lot of interest in my books, my genealogy classes, my other magazines. Yes, there are percs that are different than--but just as valuable as--money.

I am going to start writing a marketing column for Writers Journal. The first one will appear in the May/June issue. I won't get rich on what they pay, but again they will give me advertising space for my books. Remember the Indians and the pilgrims and the bartering system? It still works!

Through all of these steps of my writing career, my true love was my books and fiction. In June, 2000 my first book, Dunnottar, was published. One of the most joyous things to me was that this was the first novel I ever wrote, and it was the first one published--almost 20 years after I finished writing it! Within three weeks it was the No. 1 bestseller on amazon.com of all books on Scotland (over 8000 titles). Yes, I have made some money from it. No, I am not wealthy. But there was a great payment that I received when I had a letter from the present owner of Dunnottar Castle in Scotland, saying that my research was " … so good, I had to go look and see if I could find some of the places you described in the book. They were there. I greatly enjoyed the read. I would love to have you come to the castle so we can stimulate your imagination even further." You can't put a price tag on a letter like that.

When my second book, In St. Patrick's Custody, came out in Sept. 2000, it was again well received. Yes, it earned me some money. But again, the best paycheck was in the form of the letters and e-mails I began to get. People all over the country were going to homeless shelters to volunteer their time. This was a mystery novel! It just happened to be set at a homeless shelter in New York City. If I had planned it, it would have fallen flat on its … well, you know what. Payment you can't evaluate.

When my third book, A Christmas Dream, showed up in Oct. 2000, it was praised as a warm, family-oriented book. It was dedicated to the Desert Storm victims. A young woman from California managed to track down my phone number--and that isn't easy when it's a Smith you are trying to locate. She said, between sobs of release and joy, "It was like you had known me. You wrote my story. I have a little boy who never saw his father. He was killed in Desert Storm, exactly like you described it. I was finally able to cry. It felt so good!" I then asked her if she had found someone new in her life, like the main character in the book had done. "There is a guy at work who keeps asking me out, and I keep telling him I'm not ready yet." There was silence for a few moments, then she began to giggle as she said, "I called him and told him if he still wanted to go out with me I'd meet him at McDonald's." (You have to read the book to understand the significance of that.) This year, just before Christmas, she called me again, saying that they were going to be married on Valentine's Day. I'm sorry, but no pay check in the world will equal that.

I guess you could say that I've come a long way, baby! I have seven books out on the market; they are all selling quite well. No. 8 will be out in March. I write regularly for seven magazines and newspapers. I get paid for all of that. I also write an average of ten articles a month for non-paying markets. It's hard to tell which compensates me the most.

Remember, every time your name goes out there to the public, it is with the goal of recruiting more readers. I am recognized on the street. My name is recognized (even if it is a Smith!) in a lot of pretty influential circles. My e-mail mailbox boasts messages from Kathryn Falk (the founder and publisher of Romantic Times magazine), Bertrice Small, John Grisham, Mary Higgins Clark, Deb Stover, Debbie Macomber, Millie Criswell, Sheila Rabe. These are names almost everyone recognizes--right there with mine. And how do they know me? A lot of them because somewhere, somehow they read something I wrote. Like I said, payment comes in many forms. I'll take mine any way I can get it.

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JANET ELAINE SMITH lives in Grand Forks, ND, with her husband, Ivan. They have three adult children. Ivan and Janet were missionaries in Venezuela for several years before establishing a HELPs mission in Grand Forks. Janet is a widely known writer whose magazine articles have appeared internationally in magazines such as Heritage Quest, Red River Valley Memories, and MinnDakota Mysteries, where she is a contributing associate editor.