Basically, I have to make money as a writer. It's my job and my family depends on it. When the economy gets funky, I have to adjust because I'm simply not open to NOT being a writer. So, how can we keep on this writing path and bring in a bit of financial help for our families?

KEEP THE DOOR OPEN SO OPPORTUNITY DOESN'T EVEN NEED TO KNOCK

It really helps to be open to writing opportunities. They abound. Each week I dig up a new market for the Institute of Children’s Literature’s enews. Since I’m a subscriber to the Children's Writer Newsletter, I find still more inside information every month. I position myself to receive information about market possibilities. I haunt the children’s writing boards and lists. I keep an eye on the magazine media blogs and websites. And to stay on top of book publishing news, I subscribe to the PW Children’s Bookshelf free electronic newsletter from Publisher’s Weekly. I collect the information because information is the first step to success. Even in today’s tight economy, what I don’t know can hurt me. I find new opportunities constantly and only I know if they’re opportunities that work for me.

The key is to put all the great information available to use. Instead of only being open to markets that already interest you, think about how you might connect with these new markets you encounter. Does this actually work? Well, in one Institute chat, author Nancy Sanders said this about using the Children's Writer to hunt for new opportunities: "It's the best writing newsletter I've ever seen for current market leads with actual editor's names and where they say exactly what they're looking for. In fact, about a year and a half ago, I made it my goal to e-mail one editor from each issue. I started landing so many book contracts, I had to stop doing that!"

Now that doesn't mean that you absolutely have to be open to writing things you would never want to consider, but it may mean broadening your interests beyond what you've tried so far. In the course of my career, I've written how-to articles, Sunday School curriculum, parenting essays, fiction for magazines, several novels, a series of adaptations of classic literature, a series of picture books for a toy company, poetry, and more. When I saw a new market idea that sounded at all interesting -- even if hard -- I tried it. Because you can't win, if you don't play.

ADAPT, DON’T COMPLAIN

Some market changes are not good news. Right now, for instance, most teen magazines are beginning to recognize that teens turn to novels for fiction and magazines for nonfiction. Now, a lot of them stumbled on this realization more or less by accident (they cut fiction because they were cutting page count, and discovered that their readers didn’t actually complain). Teens like the complexity and length of a novel. When they buy a magazine, they’re looking for articles that match their specific interests.

For writers of short fiction for teens, this isn’t cheerful news. It means two things. If you’re going to stick with short fiction for teens, you’re going to have to hone your craft until you’re the cream of the short fiction crop. And you’re going to have to write what teens want to read instead of what you think they ought to read. In other words, your short fiction will have to entertain a whole lot more than it educates. And that’s news that makes a lot of writers whiny.

Now you can slam the brakes on your career and decide there’s no place for you in today’s market. You can sulk and cast angry eyes at the teen magazines in the magazine racks. Or you can adapt. You can either turn your attention to young readers where plenty of fiction markets still exist (and younger doesn’t mean babies – older elementary kids and young middle schoolers are well able to handle complex ideas) or you can begin to study YA novels (lots of them) and write for teen markets that teens actually read. Your choice.

Whatever you do, make your choice from a place of ACTUALLY being informed. Don’t glance at two teen books and decide the market is too edgy for you. And don’t count on online articles about teen books as your source of information about them. Read them. Placing yourself in the market successfully is always going to take research so you know the market.

KEEP A STRONG FORWARD MOMENTUM

If you're like a lot of writers early in your career, you write a piece, then you mail it, then you obsess about it and lurk suspiciously around the mailbox, then you get a response, then you take some time to either celebrate or sulk, then you start something new. This means you're stopping the forward momentum on both your growth as a writer and your inroads into this career at the end of each project.

You do not want to do that. Write something. Set it aside to cool. Revise it like crazy. Choose a market carefully. Send it out and forget it. Move on to the next project. Let the response to the first one come as a surprise when it arrives because by then you've gotten three more in the works. If you want to succeed as a writer, you have to live like a shark and keep moving forward. Once you’ve sent it out, let the submission take care of itself, you need to be writing.

KNOW WHEN TO LET IT GO

Not every piece is going to sell. Sometimes it's just bad timing for a story. When you finish something, create a list of markets for it and send it out (either one at a time or as a simultaneous submission, whatever works for you). But if you should happen to exhaust the markets on one piece, move your attention and alliance on to the next piece. Tell yourself the time just isn’t right for this one and you’ll revisit it again later. Obsessing about an individual piece can draw you away from the work of a writer, namely writing.

And don't listen too much to the gloom sayers who whisper that you might as well give up in today's tight market. Magazines are still being published and they still need material. Books are still published in vast numbers. New markets continue to open with opportunities to reach readers with your work. And if you can’t find money in one market, there are many others you probably haven’t considered yet. But the key is perseverance to the overall writing journey. Keep writing. Keep submitting. Keep writing again. Do that and you’ll get through this by staying the course and moving forward.

How can you be sure this works? Well, in 2010 I wrote thirteen books and every one of them is coming out in publication. Look for oportunities. Adapt to what's available. Don't shy away from hard work. Keep moving forward. Don't waste time on dead ends. And always find joy in the actual act of writing. Do that, and you'll be building your way to a career in writing.