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Increase Your Income By Writing Close to Home
By Patricia L. Fry
Are you so busy searching for great stories in exotic places
that you haven’t noticed what’s going on right under your nose?
You may be surprised at the number of good article and book
ideas to be discovered in your own hometown. All you need is a
keen eye and an inquisitive mind.
Here are some tips for using your friendly neighborhood
resources and experts to produce articles and books you can
sell internationally.
1: View your business community with a journalistic eye.
Notice what’s going on around you, attend events and grand
openings, visit new businesses and shop locally. Tour
historic places. Join a local group for a nature hike next
Sunday. The article ideas should abound.
At a recent Chamber Mixer, I met a woman who had just
developed her own line of skin care products for cancer
patients. Of course, I set an appointment for an interview
with her.
A few weeks ago, I delivered a supply of my local history
books to a quilt shop in town. Before leaving, I looked
around the store and found a most unique item for sale there.
I interviewed the shop owner, took photos of the products,
wrote a query letter and landed an assignment with The
Quilter Magazine within a few days.
2: Become a tourist in your hometown. A visit to a local
raptor rehabilitation center a few years ago culminated in
an article for ASPCA Animal Watch. I met a local artist
downtown once who made batik dolls. I sold a story about
her to a craft magazine. I produced a piece for the same
magazine featuring how to dry flowers in silica sand, per
a local florist.
3: Find experts in your town. Whether I’m writing for a
local publication or a national magazine, I often solicit
the help of local experts. Sometimes this leads to a full-
blown article, like the one I did for Silicon2.0 featuring
the founder of the highly successful business, Lynda.com.
A friend of mine was the regional chapter leader for a
stepfamily organization. Of course, she was an expert for
my piece on getting along in a stepfamily. I also interviewed
a few local couples who run businesses together for a piece
for Business Start-Ups Magazine.
4: Read the newspaper. A couple of years ago, I read
about two boys who had just written a book about living
with child onset diabetes. I’ve sold their story to Becoming
Family and Hope Magazines.
5: Get involved. Join in and reap big writing benefits. My
involvement with the Ojai Valley Youth Foundation has
resulted in two published books and numerous articles on
youth mentoring and journal-keeping. I taught an 8-week
writing workshop for a group of homeschooled children a few
years ago. The publicity for that effort resulted in two new
clients.
6: Network with your ears wide open. Always be on the
lookout for potential stories. Maybe you’ve heard about a
couple in your neighborhood who grow herbs for local gourmet
restaurants. Do you know someone who has recipes for cactus
apples or who races pigeons? These interesting stories could
earn you a publishing credit and a paycheck.
7: Look for stories locally with national appeal. We have a
center here for search and rescue dogs. These dogs participated
in the aftermath of the Oklahoma bombing and at the World Trade
Center tragedy. There are several stories tied to this
organization and these remarkable dogs.
What goes on in your community that is of national interest?
Is there a highly successful drug rehab center in your area?
Do you have the winningest peewee soccer team in the state?
The next time you can’t come up with anything to write about,
think locally. The story possibilities in your own community
are endless.
BIO
Patricia Fry is the president of SPAWN (Small Publishers,
Artists and Writers Network) www.spawn.org. She is also a
fulltime freelance writer and the author of 29 books
including the “The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your
Book.”
www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html
www.matilijapress.com/publishingblog
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