A: While “because” does imply cause, “since” can imply time or cause. What does that mean? It means that most of the time these words are synonymous and you can use either one. Since my dog is so hairy, I have to get its hair cut regularly. Because my dog is so hairy, I have to get its hair cut regularly. Both of these sentences are correct. The only trap you have to watch out for when using “since” is ambiguity. Since we had breakfast, we were filled with energy. This lets you wonder, were we filled with energy because of breakfast or just after breakfast?

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A chapbook is a small collection of poetry, generally no more than 40 pages, that often centers on a specific theme, such as exotic foods or wild animals or Justin Bieber. It’s typically saddle-stitched (like a pamphlet or magazine) and is a format well suited to smaller print-runs.

Poets publish chapbooks instead of full-length books of poetry for a number of reasons, but perhaps the most common is that chapbooks are relatively inexpensive to produce. In fact, many poets take the DIY approach and print their chapbooks themselves. (If you’re so inclined, Poets.org which offers up an excellent step-by-step set of instructions on its website at poets.org/view
media.php/prmMID/21249.)

As difficult as it is to sell fiction to a publisher, it’s even harder to sell poetry. Producing a chapbook is an excellent way to give audiences a sampling of your writing and potentially sell your work for a nice little profit.

Plus, should your chapbook take off and sell at a healthy rate, it could serve as proof to publishers that there’s a market for you poetry. And that’s the best way to get their attention.

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You wouldn’t start reading a novel in the middle, would you? Seems silly to ask an agent to do so.

Your goal with the agent (just as with your future bookstore customer) is to hook him into your story with Page 1, so always send the first few chapters of your novel. If those aren’t some of the strongest in your manuscript, then the tough truth is that you shouldn’t be querying yet. Instead, you should be editing, rewriting and reworking until they are. You want the agent to read them and say, “Oh man, this is dynamite. I wonder what happens next? I’m going to request the entire manuscript and find out!”

Keep in mind that that rule applies specifically to fiction. With nonfiction you have a little more flexibility. Often chapters from nonfiction books can stand alone (which is why magazines and newspapers regularly publish excerpts from them as articles), so it’s not essential, from a story standpoint, to send sequential chapters.

Some people think you should still send the first chapter, but you can handpick after that. In fact, it may be advantageous to send your first chapter and then one from the middle and one from the end. This would help give the agent a clearer picture of what your nonfiction book is about and how you plan to present it to readers.

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Q: Can you explain when to use “into” versus when you should use “in to”? —Char

Using “into” and “in to” interchangeably is a very common grammar faux pas—heck, my sister commits this grandiose error in e-mails at least twice a day and, despite my attempts to sic the grammar police on her, she continues to write recklessly. But if you understand their individual definitions, it’s easy to pick the right word to convey your true meaning and avoid the grammar police altogether.

The word “into” is a preposition that expresses movement of something toward or into something else. I made it into work a few minutes early today. The tooth fairy tucked the tooth into her pocket before placing a $1 bill under my daughter’s pillow.

“In to,” on the other hand, is the adverb “in” followed by the preposition “to.” They aren’t really related and only happen to fall next to each other based on sentence construction. My boss sat in to audit the meeting. The tooth fairy came in to collect my daughter’s tooth.

One trick to help you decipher which word (or word pairing) is correct is to think of it this way: “Into” usually answers the question “where?” while “in to” is generally short for “in order to.” So look at your sentence and replace “into” or “in to” with “where?” If the second half of your sentence answers it, use “into.” If it doesn’t, replace “where” with “in order to.” If that works, use “in to.” Here is this method put into practice:

The tooth fairy put my daughter’s tooth where? Ah—into her pocket.

The tooth fairy came in where? To collect my daughter’s tooth? Hmm … that doesn’t work. The tooth fairy came in order to collect my daughter’s tooth.

Grammar police, rest easy—we’ve got this one under control.

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There are many writers around the world not only making a living by freelancing, but making a good living. Some have even written books about it (see The Wealthy Writer by Michael Meanwell [WD Books]). Not all writers achieve enough success to get by, though, so it’s important to learn what you need to do in order to give yourself the best chance to succeed.

The key to finding freelance success is developing relationships with editors at the publications you’d most like to write for on a regular basis. These relationships are invaluable and pivotal, as you’re unlikely to make a living by relying solely on a constant stream of cold queries. You want editors to contact you with assignments, and the best way to do that is to always deliver exactly what the editor wants by the assigned deadline. In fact, the more quickly you can turn around quality articles, the more you’ll endear yourself to the overworked people doling out the assignments.

In my own editorial role, I very often turn to folks I’ve already worked with—those who have a proven track record of giving me what I want, when I want it. With today’s editorial staffs growing thinner than saltine crackers, finding a core group of dependable writers is key to the success of countless publications today. If you want to freelance full time, you must work hard to be in that group.

It’s also helpful to make contacts with multiple editors at each market you write for. Editors often move around to different editing gigs and, trust me, they bring their stable of freelancers with them. When I started at WD and first needed to assign a piece, the first person I called was a freelancer I’d used at my former employer, Supply House Times magazine (if you love information about plumbing warehouses, you’ll love SHT). The topics of my magazines couldn’t have been more different, but that didn’t matter. A great freelancer can do the research needed to cover any topic.

Finally, remember that being a full-time freelance writer is just what it sounds like: a full-time job. Yes, you can choose the hours you work, but you’ll still have to put in as many hours (if not more) as you would at a typical 9-to-5 job in order to make it. You don’t get paid vacation time (unless you land a travel article assignment that can double as one, that is …) and you don’t get benefits like health insurance, a 401k and playing on the company softball team. But you do have the opportunity to out-earn what you would working for a publisher (by significant margins) and set a flexible schedule so you can take the kids to school or run errands when the stores aren’t crowded. Plus, you can write at home in your underwear.

Just don’t tell the editors that last part when you’re on a conference call.

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There are no hard-and-fast rules on how long or short a chapter needs to be. It could be three pages. It could be 22. It could be 40. You shouldn’t set guidelines for yourself on chapter length. Each chapter in your book tells a mini-story that forwards your overall plot. Chapters should be just long enough to serve a purpose and, once that purpose is served, cut off so a new chapter (or mini-story) can begin.

I’ve often thought of chapters as acts in TV shows. When a TV show finishes Act 1 (which almost always happens just after something significant is revealed or an important question is raised), it goes to commercial break. Ditto for Act 2, 3, 4 and so forth. Look for your chapters to have those similar elements. When you find those “commercial breaks,” end your chapter and start a new one. In other words, let your content dictate your chapter length, not the other way around.

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First North American Serial Rights (FNASR) means that the magazine has the legal right to publish the piece first in North American markets—no matter what. If the magazine buys FNASR, then having this article first appear anywhere else in the U.S.—newsletter, website, the side of a moving bus—would disqualify the piece from consideration. Thus, you have three ways to go about things.

The first is simply to try to sell the piece to the magazine before you do anything else with it. If it gets turned down, it’s no big deal. You can just publish it in the school’s newsletter and on its website.

The second is to rewrite the essay from a different angle, creating a different overall story. If different enough, these two works would be considered separate stories. You could sell one to the magazine and publish the other with the school.

Finally, your last option is to just go ahead and let the school publish it. Afterward you can still submit it to the magazine, but you must be clear in your query letter that the piece has been published before (it’s best to mention when and where, as well). This is kind of a Hail Mary shot, as it’s rare for publishers that only accept unpublished content to bend this rule.

Basically you have to decide what you think is best for you and your essay. Once you make that decision, you can then pick an option and move forward.

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There are plenty of things writers should worry about—writer’s block, plagiarism, memoirs by the cast of “Jersey Shore”—but an agent who isn’t an AAR member shouldn’t be high on the list. Here’s why.

Whether or not an agent is a member of the professional agent organization isn’t as critical as his background (something you should consider researching even if he is part of the AAR). Agents often come from one of two backgrounds: They are either former editors who have left publishing houses to become agents, or are former literary agency apprentices with one or more years of experience. Find out how the rep who interests you got into agenting. Check for past book sales and client names (and references, if available). This information should help you determine if the agent is reputable.

Also, just because an agent isn’t a current AAR member doesn’t mean that he won’t eventually be. The AAR has a list of rigid membership rules and requirements, including a minimum of years as a literary rep and a minimum of sales made in an 18-month period. Newer agents may not meet these criteria—yet. And some agents choose not to join AAR because they have side businesses that conflict with AAR rules, like a charge-for-editing service (and they’re unwilling to break ties with those businesses).

The point is, a good agent is a good agent, whether he’s an AAR member or not. It’s up to you to put in the necessary research time to find the right one for you.

A: The answer is: It varies. Most agents and publishers have submission guidelines, either on their websites or in a listing resource like Writer’s Market, and say exactly what you should include. Some may request one chapter, others may ask for five. Some may ask you to send only chapters that have pictures of Erik Estrada on them (though I’d recommend steering clear of those agents). Point is, to give your manuscript a chance you need to deliver exactly what these publishing gatekeepers want.

If they don’t specify what they want or say something like “submit a few sample chapters,” plan on sending three chapters, or 8-40 pages, depending on the type of book you’re trying to sell. For example, if you’re writing the book, The 100 Best Heavy Metal Albums Ever Written, chances are you’re only dedicating a page or two to each album, so you’d send 3 or 4 chapters (or roughly 8 pages). But if you are writing a fascinating tome called The Life and History of Stonewall Jackson, each chapter could be 8 or more pages by itself. In that case you’d stick to three sample chapter and however many pages that entails (though try not to exceed 40).

Keep in mind that if you plan to have illustrations or diagrams or pictures in your book, you need to include some in your sample chapters as well (e.g. The 100 Best Heavy Metal Albums Ever Written better have some album artwork in your samples).

Remember, your goal is to submit enough sample content to reflect what is really in your book—your voice, your style, your story—without submitting the entire book.

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I have an answer but I’m not so sure it’ll be as satisfying as you’d hoped: Punctuating “e-mail” with or without a hyphen is completely a style choice and varies from publication to publication. For years, The Associated Press Stylebook recommended using “e-mail,” but early in 2011 it changed course and now claims “email” is the way to go. Why? According to its Ask the Editors page, the AP’s acceptance of “e-mail” without the hyphen “reflects the reality of usage.” In other words, more people are writing it without the hyphen, and AP is just adapting to the times.

Now, just because the AP has made the switch doesn’t mean everyone has. The New York Times still spells it “e-mail.” In fact, Writer’s Digest does, too. Maybe one day we’ll switch; maybe we won’t. But unless a higher authority (I’m looking at you, Merriam-Webster) declares one way or the other to be the only correct form, we don’t have to. Neither do you. Like most style choices, the only thing you must do is stay consistent. Having it spelled both ways in an article or story looks sloppy and unprofessional.

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