One road that leads to publishing...

Newbies like I was a few years ago sometimes get lucky. Really lucky.

I landed my first writing gig quite by accident. I'd called Susan, the editor of our local art society's monthly newsletter, about something unrelated to writing. She mistakenly thought I'd called, volunteering to write for her. "Can you write fast?" she'd asked. Huh, say what? I thought. (The answer was no, I couldn't, but she moved on to another question before I had to divulge the terrible truth.) She assigned an article, a contact person, and told me when the article had to be in. I hung up the phone, a dazed but excited soon-to-be published writer. My pay? A byline.

Later, I read how-to advice on starting an at-home writing career. Volunteer to write for a non-profit, it said. Good advice, I'd thought, remembering my own experience. Most non-profits, after all, don't have a budget that allows them to pay non-staff writers. But a byline is a byline, and just as credible with magazine editors looking to see writing samples as are paid writing samples.

I wrote on assignment for that publication for six years. It was the unplanned first step (why not call it luck cuz that's what it was) in my journey to be a write-at-home business woman. Thankfully, I had a day job that paid the bills, yet, I did 'earn' something quite valuable from that first writing job: On-the-job knowledge of writing to deadline, interviewing people, focusing on an idea, working with a fabulous, patient editor. Oh, and this. I earned a tall stack of writing samples that I've sent out successfully to other editors who not only gave me a byline; they also paid in cold cash.