Think you can be a software tester?

Do you breathe? I bet you do.

Can you eat? I'm sure you can.

Are you using things like clothes, chairs and computers fairly regularly? I know you are.

Then you are a user. And if you're a user, you are a tester.

We're all users. We're all consumers. Across the world, we are customers of each other. The man who makes the bar of soap you use every day may, in turn, be using the very software you made to calculate the size and composition of the soap cake. Every second of our lives we're using something that makes our work faster, more efficient, cleaner, pleasanter; our leisure more comfortable, more interesting,...

Read the full article in the June 2015 post of Simple Talk

1900 words
Nonfiction/Software testing
UK publication

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Words from the Wise

"This is excellent... (It) made me smile... (I) agree with what you say"

Andrew Clarke

Editor

Simple Talk

Debora's Pen

Enjoy the full cartoon in the June 2015 issue of Thema

or

Request to see the original cartoon via email for just 99p! (T&C apply)

6 panels, 1 cartoon
Humour/Writing
US publication

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Words from the Wise

"I've started trying to put some logos/photos in the feature piece, and your little girl seemed perfect... I think Debora is very cute. Clean and to the point. You ought to start a newsletter about Debora - brief with a lesson of sort. I think writers would love it. Excited about reading them!"

C. Hope Clark

Editor

Funds For Writers

"I enjoyed your cartoon series"

Brian Scott

Editor

Freelance Writing

"These are cute, I like them."

Lee H. Wilson

Art Editor

Feathertale Review

"Charming! I obviously like the cartoon, tailored-made to fit the theme, even including the date of the emails to coincide with the publication of the journal."

Virginia Howard

Editor

Thema

"This is cool"

Linda Formichelli

Editor

The Renegade Writer

"That was a good comic you sent me. I liked the line drawings, and I thought it was clever."

Bill Kenower

Editor-in-Chief

Author Magazine

"These are definitely cute"

Moira Allen

Publisher

Writing World

"These are very well constructed and interesting"

Leon Ogroske

Editor

Writers' Journal

"These are adorable!"

Nicole Cliffe

Editor

The Toast

15 Ways to cut your word count

"Maximum length: 3000. Firm limit. No exceptions. And we don't mean 3001. Word count will be the first thing checked, so please pay particular attention to it."

Magazines threaten to reject submissions outright if writers have not adhered to the specified word limit. However, for writers, stringent constraints in wordage are a constant worry. Without being allowed any latitude in the inches, how will you be able to express yourself freely and exactly as you want? Will you be able to do justice to your story? Won't all the chopping and changing morph the very essence of the prose?
 
Word count...

Read the full article in the June 2015 issue of Writing

or

Request to read the original article (and get a fun Debora cartoon) via email for just 99p! (T&C apply)

1955 words
Nonfiction
UK publication

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Words from the Wise

"This is an interesting article and I do like it. Works for me! I also didn't know that trick about using Word to insert the word count automatically!"

Moira Allen

Publisher

Writing World

Top 12 sure-fire ways to make yourself an unpopular freelance writer!

Virginia Howard, editor of Thema, has done it. Linda Formichelli of TheRenegadeWriter.com recently did it. Angela Hoy, editor of Writers Weekly does it all the time. What is it?

“It” is riff about how a writer messed up big time.

Most editors are calm, sensible, well-balanced people. They need to be, if they’re going to have to deal with the complexities of publishing – from reading submissions to getting that highly coveted periodical out, time and time again. Every once in a while, though, editors get a query that forces them to tear out their hair and abandon the air of restraint to vent their...

Read the full article in the June 2015 post of Walrus Publishing

or

Request to read the original article via email for just 99p! (T&C apply)

2030 words
Nonfiction
US publication

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Words from the Wise

"This was very good. Thank you for your submission."

Lisa Miller

Editor

Walrus Publishing

"I enjoyed your article... I enjoyed reading your articles at your website which focused specifically on the freelance writer."

Brian Scott

Editor

Freelance Writing

"I wouldn't mind sending a copy to a writer who just queried me with perhaps the most insulting query I've received to date ("I am the most wonderful, experienced, fabulous writer in the world and you don't pay enough, BUT, I'm so desperate, I'm willing to grace your pages with a column..." I'm summarizing, but that was the gist)"

Moira Allen

Publisher

Writing World

"Your article certainly has an interesting topic. Also the headline made me curious."

Elleke Bal

Editor

Ode magazine

The golden opportunity of advertising yourself--for free!--that you're missing

Did you know each time you pitch, you have a golden opportunity to advertise yourself for free? It's your bio—your "verbal selfie"—a few sentences about yourself that accompany your article and give editors and readers a glimpse of the person behind the product.

Bios are powerful marketing tools, but many writers fail to take advantage of them by either not providing them or providing weak unimpressive ones. Here's how to avoid common pitfalls and leverage your bio for maximum mileage:

1. Shy? Clueless? Reluctant? Get over it.

So you suffer from what I call Ego Phobia, acute fear of knowing...

Read the full article in the June 2015 post of Freelance Writing

or

Request to read the original article via email for just 99p! (T&C apply)

615 words
Nonfiction/Writing
US publication

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Words from the Wise

"I loved the article"

Brian Scott

Editor

Freelance Writing