Yesterday Joe and I had a “first” we thought we would share with you–both of us were in print magazines on the newsstand at the same time. This has never happened before–and it just goes to show you how haphazard this whole crazy business really is.
If you think about it, both Joe and I have been writing since 2002. Granted, I’ve been much heavier into the print world (and Joe into the web writing), but we’ve both done our fair share of each. So we thought it was pretty strange that in all of these years, there was no time where we were both published in a print magazine at the same time. (Unless we had authored the article together, which we have done before. But that’s a whole other story…)
This little event made me think of the first time I was able to go into a bookstore, pick up a magazine, and see my name in print. And it has also made me curious to hear what that felt like for other writers…
So here goes…my own little version of a contest…
If you have a minute to spare and can leave a comment with what it was like to see your first byline (we’ll open it up to print and web, just to be fair–it just has to be a “first” experience), I’ll put all the names in a hat and draw a winner. What will you get? A copy of a book that I enjoyed very much — “Too Lazy To Work, Too Nervous To Steal”, by John Clausen. It’s good reading for any writer.
I’ll draw a name on Wed., January 19th. Just remember to leave a way for me to contact you by e-mail. In case you’re the big winner. 🙂
And have a great weekend!
Well, someone’s got to get this ball rolling….
My friend Fran and I both played on the high school golf team (dorky, I know), and volunteered to write up the articles. It was long ago enough that I don’t remember how I felt getting a byline, but I *do* remember how clever we thought we were. It was back in the days of Spy magazine, so we filled the articles with completely inappropriate GenX snark.
My first byline was for a short fiction piece that appeared in a New Hampshire based magazine. I was so excited to learn I was going to get paid ($5 whole dollars) for my words that I didn’t even mind when the contributor copy of the “magazine” arrive in my mail box and I saw that it was printed on a laser printer and stapled by hand for “binding.”
I still have that copy sitting above my desk.
Kind of bummed (not really though) that my non-fiction freelance work pays more than my fiction ever did.
I wrote a story for a parenting magazine – it was about sharing music with babies – 15 or so years before I had a child of my own. I did all my research at the Borders bookstore around the corner, and wrote about dancing to Frank Sinatra with my baby – the story was true, but the baby in question was my neighbor’s. The publisher (my boss) didn’t seem to mind the stretch. I was nervous about getting caught in my big literary lie, but nobody bothered to catch me. And I’m still not fabulous enough to get called out on Oprah….
Nice one! 🙂 Thanks for sharing it with us. Sounds like a good piece….what do you write about now?
Five bucks for a fiction piece really isn’t bad considering all the non-pay pubs out there for that medium. 🙂 Do you still write fiction?
Hmmm. I like GenX snark. 😉