by Karon Brandt

Created on: November 14, 2009   Last Updated: November 15, 2009

For those who have written freelance work "on speculation" for print publishers, Helium's Marketplace publishers are the on-line version of those same "bosses."

Some people joke about being able to wallpaper a room with rejection notices. With the virtual reality of on-line publishers who can "reject" submissions with simple clicks of a mouse, savvy writers are now welcomed into a faster, but gentler, world in which they are silently rejected, without anyone's notice but their own. No one ever need know of their efforts, unless they "write and tell."

Welcome to the new age of freelancing, in which publishers now set their, often, very-specific guidelines on-line to attract "hopefuls" who submit electronic copy to fulfill their publishing needs. No postage, no post office lines, no waiting for snail-mail, no guesswork about what, exactly, the publisher wants.

Whatever the publishers want is what you try to give them, if you wish to have your submissions bought and published.

By understanding the Marketplace and what publishers are looking for, you'll have greater insight as to how to "fit the bill" of the publisher's will.

Helium has checked out the credentials of their Marketplace publishers and has created legal contracts with them on our behalf. Instead of a freelancer buying a copy of their publication, studying its slant and style, figuring out its targeted audience, and then writing "on speculation" for a possible sale, the whole packaged deal is much quicker and more readily-available for Helium members/writers.

Publishers want anonymity so their competitors don't know their game plans, so most of them use pseudonyms for privacy. But they carefully post detailed guidelines for freelancers, which includes the kind of article they want, the specific title, the word-length range, the deadline and the purchase date.

Sometimes they also give reference to their website/publication or offer a specific example of what they are looking for. The serious writer, who wishes to satisfy the needs of a publisher, would be wise to follow the guidelines to the letter.

Some want sources cited, either within the article itself or as end notes. They might even suggest a website as a resource (i.e., a medical, legal, or health care site), and a smart writer would be wise to check it out.

Few publishers want first person, "I," articles because they are too specific, too personal, too limiting for a general audience. As an unusual exception to the rule, at the present, Helium has

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