Review
Selling to the Confessions Market
by Julie Williams
I took up writing as a hobby when I came to America from England ten years
ago. With my children grown and living in the UK, I finally had the time to
pursue something I'd always enjoyed. At that time I wrote mostly children's
stories and a few short romances. I never thought of writing for the confessions
market until I heard Pat Byrdsong, (at that time) the Editor of True Confessions
speak at the Oklahoma Writers' Federation Conference in 2004.
Pat opened my eyes to a world of possibilities if I wanted to try it.
During her presentation, she made several references to Peggy Fielding as a
successful author who has written (and continues to write) stories for this
group of magazines. I found out that Peggy had written a book on how to go about
this subject, titled Confessing for Money (Writing and Selling to the Secret
Short Story Market).
I bought a copy and read it thoroughly.
Peggy has some wonderful tips in this book. I followed them. I entered one story
in a ByLine Magazine contest which had a Confession genre category. The result,
third place, showed me that I do have what it takes to write a confession.
Buoyed by that success, I sent a different story to one of the magazines Pat
Byrdsong mentioned at the Conference and �Second Chance� was accepted
by True Experience for their fall 2005 edition.
It's a great thrill to know that many people (and not just one judge) will get
to read my story and, hopefully, learn from it.
Peggy says this is an important aspect of writing for this market -- the fact
that even if the person reading your story cannot identify completely with the
character, they can at least learn from the character's experience and his/her
choices. Should they ever be faced with a similar scenario in the future, they
will know which decision to make.
Although ideas come easily to me, along with characters' names, at some point
I do have to plot the storyline. Peggy has plenty of tips on how to do this
and more, and I particularly like her formula for writing confessions. Wait
until you see her illustration -- is it a shell, is it a wave? No, it's Peggy's
drawing of a confession! And this works for most love stories, which also need
their share of drama and conflict or else they are boring.
My first sale gave me a high, but I didn't just congratulate myself. I took
Peggy's advice to start another right away rather than wait to hear back. Sometimes
it takes several months before the story editor gets in touch. I was lucky -
my response only took two weeks*.
In her book, Peggy also gives advice on manuscript preparation, office equipment,
and how to keep records, etc. It is all useful information, and her tips for
writing this genre, when used frequently, will become second nature.
I guess I broke a few rules the first time around, but I'm sure Peggy would
say, "What are rules for if not to be broken?"
For instance, �Second Chance� is written from the man's point of
view whereas the majority of Confessions type stories are from a woman's POV.
Secondly, it is set overseas, in Paris, and I've found from reading the stories
that most take place in the US.
However, following Peggy's formula, my main character is pretty settled in his
marriage but has made some bad decisions. He is about to make another critical
one when an event takes place that causes him to think about his actions before
it's too late.
But, staying true to the principles of these magazines, my story is based on
an actual experience that I had in France. If I can turn a real-life event into
a story, so can you.
Get Peggy's book and get writing.
Julie Williams
* Note: Julie�s second story sold in just 3 weeks!
Read the synopsis of this book.
Read an excerpt from this book.
Purchase Confessing for Money 2nd Edition by Peggy Fielding:
| 
-- $9.99
){kind=link}