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Jan Fields, ICL web editor, has published in many and varied children’s and family magazines including Boys’ Quest, Highlights For Children, Shining Star, Crayola Kids, Ladybug, Single-Parent Family and Charisma-Life. Though she began her career writing for adults exclusively, she was soon lured into the challenging world of children's writing. Jan has taught adult and children’s writing for over twenty years. In addition to this busy schedule, Jan is the editor of Kid Magazine Writer e-magazine. Her articles about writing have been published both in print and online markets. She has eight books coming out in 2010 with ABDO. In her spare time, she sleeps.

" The Dreaded Writer’s Resume"

by Jan Fields

Some magazines and book publishers do not accept submissions but are looking to add writers to their “stable” of freelancers. To connect with these opportunities, you need a writer’s resume. Now, for those of us who have written ordinary resumes for ordinary jobs, this request can be a bit confusing. Do they really care about my past job as a scratch baker or my education? The answer is no, and maybe – still confused? Let me try to help.

DO I NEED CLIPS? WHAT ARE THEY AGAIN?

A writer’s resume focuses on your skills/expertise and your writing credentials. Most other things really don’t overly interest the publisher. First, some rather bad news – if you have no publication credits at all and you run into a publisher that asks for “resume and published clips” – they aren’t going to hire you. They really don’t want unpublished writers. Sorry about that. But if you don’t have any published clips and you run into a publisher that asks for “resume and samples” then you could go ahead and submit. A “sample” is a piece of your writing that has not been professionally edited. In that case, the editor is giving you a chance to show how well you write and that will do a huge amount toward off-setting any lack of clips. In this second case, the editor will judge whether your resume shows areas of expertise rather than whether it shows you have been published a lot.

But, you want to go get clips. Really. If you’re interested in getting writing assignments as opposed to writing and then submitting, some kind of evidence that you’ve been through the writing, editing, revision, publication process is hugely helpful. Plus, the publisher will be less interested in WHERE the clip was published than in the QUALITY of the clip. So if you want to get into a science magazine that accepts resumes and clips – write several science articles and send them to magazines with a reputation for fast response and fast publication (this can include online). Then you’ll be able to send “clips” [Which for an online means print outs of the site page with your article] and expand the number of publishers to whom you can apply for work. One of the published "clips" that specifically landed me an offer of a book assignment was in an ezine. The editor mentioned that clip as an example of the kind of writing he wanted to see -- so in this kind of work, it's what's in the clip, not who published it.

THE RESUME ITSELF

Back to the resume – here’s what they want to know and why:

Writing/editing experience – this can include any kind of writing. You can put in writing you did for a local magazine, writing for your church newsletter, writing for online magazines, a teacher writing your classroom newsletter etc. If you have no writing or editing experience, skip this part but know your resume is going to limp a bit and you’ll have to be that much more brilliant in your writing sample.

Nonwriting work experience and expertise gained there. Publishers don’t so much care where you work as what that work may have imparted to you. If you worked four years as an assistant to a botanist – then you’ll be the publisher’s “go to” person for plant science. If you worked three years as an accountant – then, a publisher might assume you’ll be a good writer about math topics. So list the job title, the years you held it, the company -- then list subjects which that job gave you expertise in.

Education – college degrees (and where you go them), additional courses, additional learning opportunities (such as workshops, retreats, conferences. Basically high school doesn’t count. If you have gone to college but do not hold a degree, you can say something like “Undergraduate Study at University of North Carolina: Chapel Hill” and give the years. This is actually the LEAST important part of the resume, but editors do like to see that you’re putting effort into growing and improving as a writer. And if you have a college degree in Zoology (for example) then that “proves” your expertise in certain animal science topics. So even if you “additional training” is in something non-writing related like becoming a CMT or cosmetology school, it will help an editor know what topics you will start out well versed in. We can all do research but if you already know stuff, they want to hear about it.

Awards and Memberships – Here you can list writing contests you’ve won and your membership in the Society of Book Writers and Illustrators. You can also list totally non-writing related awards and memberships because that will also point toward areas where you have expertise.

As you create the resume, keep in mind its purpose in the eyes of the PUBLISHER. They are looking for signs that you are a skilled writer and signs of specific expertise. Anything you can do to suggest either of those will be to your benefit. And don't pull your hair out over it. The publisher is not judging your font and format beyond whether the needed information is clearly readable. They're looking for info, not great beauty or rigid format.

SHOW ME AN EXAMPLE

Your Name
Mailing Address
Phone numbers/Fax Numbers/email address
If you have a website or blog, put it here

Objectives: Put what you are looking for: "Work for hire assignments relating to Science" or whatever.

Writing and Editorial Background

Writing: X years writing for publication. Work has appeared in children's magazines, educational magazines, and parenting magazines both print and electronic (See attached publications list for details.)

Editing: This is a separate section. If you handled the newsletter at work, for the PTO, Church, etc. It goes here. For example, mine would say: "Editor of two electronic publications relating to writing: Name/URL and Name/URL"

Employment History

Job Title - Dates (month and year)
City, state, contact information and phone/email
Now, here you're going to put your expertise gained. For example, I helped out at a small farm for a year so my expertise includes "hands on experience with farm animals -- milk cows, calves, pigs, chickens." If an editor wants someone to do a series on farm animals, this could make an impression. Never bet against the long shot.

Previous Job Title - Dates (month and year)
Company Name
City, state; contact info.
Again focus on expertise gained and if you got awards or special training, add that in too.

Education

B.A., University of North Carolina: Chapel Hill, 1983 -- Journalism
Dean's List, four years -- and I would add info on the newspaper work I did then.

Under this, I would add any special classes in writing, any additional training in any specific field.

Awards and Memberships

"Article Title" chosen for "Best of Children's Fiction" by Magazine Name, year date
Member, Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators 1995 - present
[I might list conferences I've been to here, under membership if all the conferences were SCBWI, but if you've also done Highlights Workshops or other writing group conferences, then I would put them all under education instead.)

Do you want to see some writer's resume examples online? Check these out to see the wide variety of styles, format and approach. There really is a lot of leeway in how you handle this:

http://www.writing-world.com/rights/resume.shtml
http://www.exampleresumes.org/occupational/writer.html
http://www.janfields.com/resume.html <-- Mine

NOTE, A CV is the alternative some writers use to a more traditional resume, for a template of how that works, check out http://www.businessballs.com/freepdfmaterials/free_cv_sample_template.pdf

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