When the school doors open this morning at 8 a.m., I don’t know who’ll be more excited, my fifth grader or me.

I work from home, so summer break means the tranquil work space that’s all mine nine months of the year turns into activity central, with my fifth grader, two college-aged kids and their friends up and around all hours of the day and most of the night. No wonder I’ve turned into a morning person, it’s the only time it’s quiet.

Back to school isn’t just a date on a calendar for students. It also signals the end of summer, when people return from vacation ready to plunge into new projects and start planning for next year.

As we head back to work after Labor Day, here are a few things freelancers can do to get ready for the rest of the year:

1. Research  new markets. If you took it easy over the summer, finished working on some months-long projects or lost a client over budget cuts, it’s time to find out what else is out there. Good places to investigate: professional organizations such as the Specialized Interest Publishers Association, which represents subscription newsletters, and the American Society of Business Publication Editors.

2. Send letters of introduction.  Some editors would rather receive a letter of introduction than a pitch. In a LOI, explain who you are, what you specialize in, the type of writing or other work you’re seeking, why you’re qualified, and a summary of your relevant experience. Make it concise so the editor doesn’t have to scroll too far to get to the end.

3. Send queries. If your New Years resolution was to pitch some new-to-you publications but you haven’t yet, now’s the time. Just make sure what you’re sending is appropriate for the publication you’re querying. Read more on what to do to make sure editors get back to you.

4. Follow up on queries. Don’t let your queries fall into a black hole. If it’s been a couple weeks and you haven’t heard anything – less time if your pitch is time sensitive – follow up by email, or if you know the editor, by phone. Let them know that you’re wondering whether they received your query and if there’s any additional information you can send them about the idea or yourself.

5. Attend a conference. Nothing gets the creative juices flowing like going to a conference or seminar. There are a handful of great  writing and media industry conferences taking place this fall; here’s a complete list.

6. Clear out your inbox. I love an empty email inbox as much as the next person, but it’s an easy thing to let slide if you’ve been preoccupied with deadlines. Be ruthless; ask yourself, do I really need this? Can I get this information somewhere else if I need it? If you can’t part with old emails, at least consider saving them in an archive folder or to a back-up hard drive so they aren’t cluttering your inbox, and taking up space on your computer.

7. Toss old notes. Check to see what policies the publications you write for have about holding onto old notes: some require three years, others longer. Once you’ve past the expiration date, shred them.

8. Update your LinkedIn profile. I interview recruiters all the time and one thing I hear a lot these days: you have to be on LinkedIn. If you aren’t, create an account and fill out your profile and work experience. If you have an existing LinkedIn profile, make sure it includes your most recent freelance gigs. It’s also important to include your skills and specialties, since publishers will search for those terms when they’re using the service to find writers.  Here’s more on how writers can use LinkedIn.

9. Give your blog a makeover. Is your blog stuck in 2009? Maybe it’s time for a makeover. Maybe all you need is a few new WordPress plugins to make it easier for readers to leave comments or subscribe to your blog feed. Maybe you want a whole new look and feel. Here’s a great list of WordPress themes, plugins and more.

10. Change your email signature. Got a new column, book or blog? Link to it from the sign off you use on your outgoing email messages. Don’t use an email signature? You should. Here’s some tips for what to include in an email signature.

11. Update your headshot. Spring for professional photos if you can. If you can’t, at the least change the photo you use on Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Followers like it when people change up their online appearance.

12. Try a new social network. If you normally hang out on Facebook, sign up for Twitter, Google+, Tumblr, Storify or another social network. Not sure whether a new network is worth it? Read more about how writers can use Twitter, why you should check out Google+ and how easy it is to get started on Tumblr.

The 2011 WordCount Blogathon starts in 2 days and the 2011 American Society of Journalists and Authors Writer’s annual conference starts today and I’ve been working hard getting ready for both.

I’m using this week’s recommended reading to showcase a couple guest posts I wrote this week on two other writing blogs in honor of both occasions.

I’m  sharing the opening paragraphs of each – click through on the titles to reach the entire posts. And if you’re coming to ASJA please find me and say hi. Enjoy!

10 Reasons for Writers to Blog Daily, at Susan Johnston’s blog, The Urban Muse:

If you work full-time as a freelance writer, it can be brutal to juggle paid assignments along with maintaining a personal blog. If your blog isn’t a money maker, it’s easy to let a couple days – or weeks or months – slip by without adding new material. After all, why put the effort into something that’s not paying the bills when you could spend time working on something that does? But there are plenty of reasons to post regularly, especially if you have any desire to turn what started as a hobby into paid work.

An Editor Reveals 7 Secrets Every Writer Needs to Know, at Carol Tice’s blog, Make a Living Writing:

There’s something about editors that writers don’t get: They’re not the know-it-all, don’t-have-time-for-you, I’ll rewrite-this-because-I-can people you think they are. When it comes to editors, it’s easy to default to that kind of attitude if you’ve been on the receiving end of too many rejection letters or rewrites.

But if you can see past the “Thanks but no thanks” emails and the sometimes off-putting behavior, you’ll realize it’s not always about you. You’ll discover editors – most of them anyway – are just trying to get their jobs done and looking for people who can help them do that. You could be one of them.

Many editors work as writers before trading places, and a lot still do both. I fall into that category. Since late 2009, I’ve worked as the freelance editor of a finance website, where I set the editorial calendar and manage about 10 freelance writers, and also as a writer and blogger for a handful of business and consumer publications. Based on my experience on the other side of the desk, here are some secrets about editors you need to know:

When you’re having trouble finding the linchpin source for a story, who do you turn to for advice?

When you’re thick into writing and need help deciding whether to trim or enhance a certain part of the narrative, who do you ask?

When a critical source agrees to an interview, but only if it’s off the record, who do you consult to see if it’s OK?

Chances are the answer to all these is the same: your editor.

But here’s something that most editors won’t tell you: they don’t know everything.

They may have dealt with a particular situation before. In other cases, it might be something they’ve never encountered. If that’s the case, whatever advice they’re giving you they’re probably making up as they go along.

That’s probably not what you wanted to hear. As writers, we want to know that our editors have all the answers. We want them to make the right decision 100 percent of the time, and as a result, make our reporting and writing better too.

But that’s just not the case. Editors, though they hold more power than writers in the general editorial scheme of things, are not infallible – though some I’ve known liked to think they were.

More likely than not, if you bring a problem to an editor they’ll come up with a solution based on:

• The publication’s editorial policies
• Personal experience
• The experiences of other writers at that publication or at others they’ve worked for
• Consensus opinion from publication’s other editors
• What their editor friends and acquaintances have done
• Advice from a professional association
• Advice of publication’s legal counsel
• All of the above

Even then they could get it wrong. They may tell you to zig when, after all is said and done, you realize you should have zagged.

So the next time you have a question about a story, don’t ask yourself, “What would my editor say?” Instead ask, “What would I do about this if I were in my editor’s shoes?” If you’ve worked for a particular publication for any length of time or have a good working relationship with a given editor, chances are good you know the answer without having to ask the question.

I’m not advocating that writers not check in with editors when they run into trouble. On the contrary, I’m a huge fan of communicating with editors early and often.

But instead of framing a query as “I need help!” frame it as “Here’s what’s happening and here’s what I think I should do.” Editors will appreciate the fact that you’ve thought about the situation and come up with some solutions.

Not only will it endear you to your editor, working in that kind of problem-solving mode will serve you well if you ever end up working as an editor.

Don't let your stories do this to editors!

I used it the other day.

I promised myself I wouldn’t be one of those editors.

But there I was, talking to a writer and using the “f” word.

“F” as in “fresh.”

For freelancers, “fresh” is our “f” word, that dreaded term that editors rely on when they want writers to come up with a new and different angle on a subject that could be a yawner.

That’s easier said than done, especially if you’re working on a piece on a topic that gets written about a lot, or that you cover a lot.

Here are 5 simple steps to defuse the “f” bomb the next time an editor tosses one your way:

1. Use colorful words. Dress up a story with precisely chosen verbs and descriptors that give it a you-are-there feel. This doesn’t give you permission to use overly flowery prose or unnecessary adverbs and adjectives. Keep your writing tight, and make every word count.

2. Find real-life examples. You might be writing about teething, tennis or tending a backyard garden for the 10th time this year, but finding examples of real people, companies or organizations that have gone through what you’re writing about is one way to put a new spin on an old subject. Since everyone’s experience is unique, telling someone’s story is a good way to put a new face on a familiar story. To do this, however, take careful notes so you have lots of details to draw upon when it comes time to tell the tale.

3. Talk to the experts. Whether it’s cars, fashion or video games, most fields have experts who track what’s new, what’s different and what people are buzzing about.

4. Find the contrarians. Nothing says cutting edge like someone who’s zigging when everyone else is zagging. Most fields have contrarians who can be counted on to express an opinion that deviates from the norm. Finding them could be tricky. But once you do, it could be exactly the opening you need to put a new spin on things.

5. Challenge your assumptions. If you cover a topic on a regular basis, you run the risk of thinking about things in a specific way. So pretend you’ve never written about it before. What questions would you ask yourself about what’s happening? Who would you talk to find out more? Where would you go? What should you read to learn more? Examine how you normally approach a subject and then determine if there could be another way in. Taking a different perspective on things could be exactly what you need to come up with the new – and yes, I’ll say it – fresh approach that your editor will love.

How do you keep things fresh?

That’s what I found when I started a freelance editing gig, and what I heard from other editors after I wrote that post on the subject not long ago.

So, one freelancer wrote in after reading the post, is there anything that would get an editor to respond to me right away?

Good question. I asked some editor friends for their opinions on what it takes to get them to reply immediately to a writer’s letter of introduction, pitch or completed manuscript.

One says the best way to get a fast response from her is to have a killer story pitch, one “that’s so perfectly honed to the editor’s needs it’s irresistible.” Unfortunately, she doesn’t encounter those very often. “Pitches like that are like snow leopards: hard to spot and in danger of extinction,” she says. “But I get them from time to time, usually from people….who completely understand what the publication needs, and with whom I’ve already had discussions that narrow the topic range.”

Fast Cash Freelance addressed the same topic in this recent post, saying it takes more than a good idea for an editor to bite. According to the post, writers are most likely to hear back from editors if they have access to hard-to-reach sources (think celebrities or CEOs), expertise or first-hand knowledge of a particular topic, or can demonstrate their ability to do tough research to back up a pitch. Dependability, clever word crafting, speed and a contrarian streak aren’t bad either.

In the recent past, I’ve had editors say “yes” to pitches in less than 24 hours on several occasions. Once I started following a high-profile management expert and business columnist on Twitter right before the pub date of her latest business book. After she followed me back, I introduced myself and inquired whether she’d make herself available for an interview about the book and herself. When she said yes, I immediately pitched a Q&A to an editor at a business publication I’d started to write for, and got a yes within a day.

Another time I started following a publisher on Twitter, she followed me back, and based on something I’d seen her tweet, I asked if she’d be interested in a pitch on a related subject. She said yes and DM’d me the name and email of an editor to pitch. I sent a query the same day, and wound up with an assignment less than 24 hours later.

There’s something to be said with being in the right place at the right time, or responding quickly when you get even the smallest opening. But that only works if you understand the publication you’re pitching to, or the subject matter, or preferably both. In other words, do your homework. Then follow through by filing your story on time and error free – so the next time that editor sees an email with your name on it in their inbox, they’ll make the time to look at it and reply right away.

I’m talking about flat in the sense that with so many newspaper and magazine staff jobs going by the wayside, publications don’t have as many middle managers or mid-level editors as there used to be. As a result, many publications are farming work out to independent contractors, editors and writers.

With so much in flux, at any given time the hierarchy of who’s working for whom could change, and the editor you wrote for yesterday maybe the writer you edit tomorrow.

It’s happened to me in the past couple months, as I’ve taken on a new editing project. I’ve found myself assigning stories to not one, not two but three freelance writer/editors who at one time or another I’ve written for while they were either staff or freelance editors. Another writer I’m working with is also a freelance editor who may eventually throw some assignments my way.

If it’s happening to me, it’s got to be happening to other writers too.

So how do you act when your boss today may be the person reporting to you tomorrow?

1. Quit thinking of writer-editor relationships as ‘us v. them.’ Constantly pitting yourself against editors because of perceived bad treatment – lousy contract language, unreasonable deadlines, crummy editing or late payments -  makes you a victim. If you’re not happy about aspects of a writing opportunity you have the power to make a choice: negotiate new terms, walk away, or accept the fact that the terms are lousy but you’re taking the assignment anyway. Yes, sometimes the editor you’re dealing with is disorganized, mean or incompetent. But in many situations, problems you encounter may be beyond their control. If you run into trouble the best thing to do is talk, via email or better yet, by phone.

2. Approach the editor-writer relationship as one of equals. One’s not better than the other, just responsible for different things. Editors translate ideas into stories suitable for their audience, sit through a lot of meetings, buffer writers from demands – reasonable or otherwise – of editors and other publication staff higher up the food chain and prep articles for prime time. Writers are editors’ eyes and ears on the front lines, keeping tabs on what’s happening out in the world to come up with interesting, relevant stories. If you think of what editors and writers do as being different parts of the same enterprise, you’ll have more appreciation for what the other does, and it’ll show in your working relationships.

3. If you’re a writer, think like an editor. Editors keep track of multiple details for multiple projects for multiple issues simultaneously. Some go so far as to use Excel spreadsheets or project management apps to keep things straight. If you’re a writer, you can help them and yourself by thinking like an editor. Don’t turn in stories until you’ve gone over them with the eyes of a copyeditor. If you’re responsible for turning in elements that run with the story such as headlines, decks, inks, file art, sidebars, subheads, etc., send everything with your original draft – along with your invoice – instead of waiting for an editor to remind you. If you have aspirations to work as an editor, being organized about those types of details is good practice, gets you noticed, and it could pay off if you ever want to ask for a recommendation.

4. If you’re an editor, think like a writer. As an editor, if you say yes to a query, talk through what your expectations are of the writer and for the story at the very beginning so everyone’s expectations are the same. Because of their status, editors often have access to people and information writers might not. Sharing that information with a writer could help them with a story they’re working on, which helps you in the long run.

5. Be considerate in all your business relationships. I write a lot about workplace issues and in the last couple months have done a few pieces of employee rewards and recognition programs. My take away – you don’t have to give people money or stuff to make them feel good about doing their job, or about working with you. A small amount of courtesy goes a long way – an email to say thanks for an assignment, or a Twitter status update on how awesome someone is to work with. When the holidays roll around, you don’t necessarily need to send gifts to editors you work for – though last Christmas I did send something small to editors I’d worked with over the year.

Do you work as an editor and writer? What advice do you have for getting along in a flatter media world?

Rewrites aren’t one of my list of favorite work-related activities. In fact, I hate them, especially when an editor sits on something for a couple weeks then ships it back with questions. I want to scream, “That was so five stories ago!”

But rewrites are a fact of the writing life. So it’s a good idea to come to grips with the fact that if you freelance, you’ll have to do rewrites occasionally, if not on a regular basis.

The best way to ward off rewrites it to turn in your best effort the first go around. That means understanding exactly what the editor is looking for – even if it means asking what seems like an insane number of questions ahead of time. Then do all the research the story requires, hit all the marks in your writing, check your story for spelling, grammar, typos, cliches, transitions and flow. I always tack on a headline and deck, and if the format calls for it, subheads, charts and graphs. The more you can do on the front end to avoid working on a story after the fact the better.

But sometimes rewrites happen despite your best efforts. Here are some other techniques I use to handle them:

Plunge in. Don’t think about it, don’t get mad, don’t delay, just get it over with as fast as possible. It’s like ripping off a bandage – it’s got to be done, so might as well do it fast.

Focus on one question at a time. if an editor sends something back with five questions that need to be answered or facts to be added, mentally break them down into discrete tasks and attack them one by one. I’m a huge to-do list person, anyway, so by breaking the job into bite-size elements I feel good about knocking them off one after the other.

Pick up the phone. As much as I don’t want to, sometimes I have to pick up the phone and re-interview a source to confirm something or answer a question from an editor that I just didn’t have an answer for from my original interview. This situation happened to me recently, and if I hadn’t called to follow up on an editor’s question I would never have talked to the company executive who told me about some pending contracts, which may turn into a news story I could pitch to a magazine I’ve just started writing for. That’d definitely make me look good to my new editor.

Turn it into a opportunity. If you’ve got to do a rewrite anyway, take the chance to re-read your story and tweak an awkward phrase here or a bad transition there that you might not have noticed before.

Sleep on it. Sometimes the repair work isn’t as bad as you thought. If you’re not on a deadline, leave a rewrite until the next day, then attack it with fresh eyes.

Some editors we love. Some editors we love to hate.

The latest example is Entrepreneur Magazine Editor in Chief Amy Cosper, whom recently fired staff writer Dennis Romero excoriated in a 4,000-plus word diatribe published on his blog earlier this week. Among other things, Romero accuses Cosper of practicing such a hands-off editorial style she barely made assignments, read copy or kept tabs on what her staff was doing. “She didn’t give us deadlines! Ever!” Romero writes – frankly, I know some freelancers who wouldn’t mind the no deadlines part.

Romero’s plight reminds me of other editors we love to hate.

Devil Wears Prada – Lauren Weisberger’s roman a clef was a chick-lit bon bon before taking off on the silver screen, with Ann Hathaway playing editorial assistant Andrea working in indentured servitude to Meryl Streep’s witchy Miranda Priestly, a chic stand in for Vogue EIC Anna Wintour.

“And-re-ah,” she called from her starkly furnished, deliberately cold office. “Where are the car and the puppy?”

I leaped out of my seat and ran as fast as was possible on plush carpeting while wearing five-inch heels and stood before her desk. “I left the car with the garage attendant and Madelaine with your doorman, Miranda,” I said, proud to have completed both tasks without killing the car, the dog, or myself.

“And why would you do something like that?” she snarled, looking up from her copy of Women’s Wear Daily for the first time since I’d walked in. “I specifically requested that you bring both of them to the office, since the girls will be here momentarily and we need to leave.”

“Oh, well, actually, I thought you said that you wanted them to–”

“Enough. The details of your incompetence interest me very little. Go get the car and the puppy and bring them here. I’m expecting we’ll be all ready to leave in fifteen minutes. Understood?”

WriteSideOut blogger Bonnie Boot celebrates’ writers’ love-hate relationships with editors in her Editors are Evil Writing Contest. An excerpt from Charlotte Bennardo’s winning entry:

Dear Editor,
I have your cat.
What, no contract?
To Chow Yung Fat,
I take your cat.
Oh, change your mind?
Your cat you’ll find
Once contract signed,
and deal we bind.
Refuse to deal?
A tasty meal
Cat’s fate you’ll seal
I swear, for real.

Mother Jones’ Kevin Drum recently reminded readers in post called From the Annals of Bad Editors that Flowers for Algernon writer Daniel Keyes went through editors at six publishers before finding one that didn’t want to change the ending of his novel so Charlie stays smart and lives happily ever after.

Earlier this year, Colorado writer Dan Baum used Twitter to write about his love-hate relationship with The New Yorker and Editor David Remnick, though in all honesty, that seemed to be more of a personality mismatch and confluence of unfortunately circumstances than an out and out evil editor situation.

Of course, some editors we love because they’re so good – and you know who you are. They’re the ones we go out of our way to pitch to, turn assignments in early for and pray will turn into steady clients.

Got your own evil editor stories? Do share.

Actually, an exclusive relationship would be sweet – think of all those letters of introduction you’d avoid having to do and the time you’d save.

But unless you’re under contract at The New Yorker – and even that doesn’t work out so well for everybody - a single publication doesn’t have enough work to keep someone busy 100 percent of the time, leaving writers to cobble together a livelihood by taking assignments from any number of sources.

That can be a problem when publications have policies over what writing on similar topics freelancers they work with can or can’t do for competing publications.

Writers, of course, want the opportunity to pursue as many markets as possible: the bigger the pool, the more likely someone will bite.

Publications on the other hand, don’t want a freelancer they work with to do a killer story on a topic said writer usually covers for them for their arch rival.

Publications address this in different ways. Some put “category exclusivity” clauses in contracts barring a freelancer from writing anything else on the same topic for any of their major competitors for a specified period, often 60 or 90 days. Many category exclusivity contracts list the competitors, so everyone’s clear on who’s off limits. Here’s the exclusivity clause included in the contract Inc. uses:

Notwithstanding anything contained in this Agreement to the contrary, Author shall not permit the Work to be published in any other business, financial, or new economy magazine, including, without limitation, Fortune, Forbes, Business Week, Wired, Portfolio, or Harvard Business Review, or on any business, financial, or new economy Web site not owned in whole or in substantial part, or operated by or on behalf of, Publisher.

If a magazine or Website likes a writer enough, they may sign them to a contributing writer contract and pay them a retainer for filing a set number of words or stories per month. I’ve had such arrangements before, and if anybody wants to work out the same kind of deal with me again, please call. All joking aside, such arrangements commonly include a list of competing magazines the contributor agrees not to pitch while under contract.

Some magazines take a less formal approach, relying on a writer’s word that while they’re writing for the publication they aren’t going to simultaneously work on a story on the same topic for the publication’s biggest rival. I’m a contributing editor at one trade magazine and have discussed with the editor which magazines they view as direct competitors so I could avoid pitching anything to them. While I’m not bound by a contract, I value my relationship with this publication too much to do anything to mess with it, especially since they’re by far the best written, best edited, and best run, title in their industry.

Some magazine’s exclusivity clauses are pretty onerous, especially if you specialize on a certain topic. But just because it’s there doesn’t mean it’s set in stone. I’ve successfully negotiated very broad contract language regarding category exclusivity, changing it to specify a certain take on the story I’m doing for the publication, not on the topic in general.

I’ve also successfully negotiated changes to contract language that would have restricted my ability to blog about topics I also write about. One of the reasons I got into blogging in the first place was to get up to speed on topics I want to write about, so I’m not going to agree to limit what I can blog about for anybody.

You’d think that with things as bad as they are for magazines and newspapers, publishers would be less heavy-handed when it comes to category exclusivity clauses in contracts. Even they have to see freelancers can’t make it writing for one publication alone. Until they do, don’t be intimated by what’s on the printed page. You can negotiate better deals for yourself.

Writers deal with rejection all the time. But when a magazine editor says no to a query or kills a story, how many of us brush it off as easily as my saleswoman friend?

Rejection has been the topic du jour since Dan Baum wrote about his 2007 firing from The New Yorker in 140 character installments on Twitter a few days ago and then reassembled it as a whole piece on his website.

Not only was Baum fired by New Yorker editor David Remnick, he had five stories killed in the three-plus years he was a staff writer. Given the standing of The New Yorker in the American publishing industry, that’s rejection on an epic scale.

After reading Baum’s explanations of why he was fired and why the stories were killed, the whole episode seems less an edict on Baum’s abilities and more a confluence of unfortunate events and personality mismatch with a little bad decision making thrown in for good measure.

For example, in 2004, Baum wrote a story about how Florida was preparing for the presidential election that was killed over concerns about reporter bias after he mentioned to an editor he’d spent an afternoon distributing Kerry literature. A 2004 story about geneticists was killed after editors decided it was too similar to one by Malcolm Gladwell that had appeared in the magazine eight years earlier. A story on U.S. Special Forces troops training the Philippine army to fight terrorists never ran, according to Baum, because editors let it sit for months then killed it after a competitor ran a piece on a similar topic.

Baum wants it to be known that his explanations, which are posted on his website along with the complete manuscripts of all the killed stories, are only his own, how the killing of these stories looked to him at the time. He allows that he could be all wrong, that the stories were killed because they simply were no good.

What Baum’s explanations show me is that sometimes, it’s not you, it’s them. As a writer you can hit all the marks – write the perfect query or turn in exactly what you were assigned, – and still be rejected because circumstances have changed, the editors changed their minds, or when all is said and done, they’re just not that into you. Another great example of this is William Georgiades’ 2004 Mediabistro piece on his dealing with a Conde Nast editor over an ill-fated travel piece.

The moral of the story: Even though writing is a creative process, it’s still a business. The sooner freelancers come to terms with that, the easier it is to put rejection in its place, and like my saleswoman friend, move onto the next prospect.

According to Baum, he decided to come clean about his New Yorker experience after being asked about it at readings for Nine Lives, his book about post-Katrina New Orleans that debuted in February. You can read more about Baum, the book and his New Yorker days in a recent interview with the Colorado Springs Independent.

You can read more of what people are saying about how Baum used Twitter to tell his New Yorker saga in Gawker’s take on the story.

Not all rejections are bad. In fact, some are worth celebrating, according to Tim Beyers, a Denver freelance writer for Motley Fool and host of the weekly #editorchat session on Twitter, in a post called A word about rejection: dude. Beyers writes: “One I received last month from a national publication included this note from the editor: ‘You’re a good writer, and I wish you all the best.’ I think she means it. Or at least that’s what I’m telling myself these days.”

To deconstruct other reasons magazines turn down writers’ queries, read Susan Johnston’s blog post on The Urban Muse, called 15 reasons your idea got rejected.