CWMG: Fillers Pay Big

When a writer asks me how do you get paid writing gigs. The first thing I tell them is that you need to build a relationship with every magazine you love. The best way to do that is to introduce yourself to the editors who handle snippets or fillers.

What are fillers? letters, jokes, tips, anecdotes, prayers, news briefs, statistics and recipes. If you think about when you blog those are fillers you can sale or give to a nonpaying periodical( like your local Christian newspaper, your church newsletter or the local papers.) I've been paid anywhere from $10-$100 for fillers.

Where can I get filler work?

If you take a deeper look at Sally E. Stuart's 2Christian Writers' Market Guide 2007: The Essential Reference Tool for the Christian Writer (Christian Writers' Market Guide), you will find the filler section around page 267. Here she provides a listing of which magazines take fillers. She even breaks it down into what type of fillers each periodical tape.

Let me give you a tip that isn't in her market guide.

Publicists need writers to provide fillers for their clients. They don't have the time to review every book and CD that their clients produce. So they will pay you to read and provide a review. The trick is to make sure they use your byline and pay you for the review. Because sometimes they may submit your review to a major magazine. You can also find Christian publicists in the Christian Writer's Market Guide.


Anecdotes