The Writing Rule of 12
By Jo Ann
@akalinus (40601)
United States
May 14, 2019 11:33am CST
Many years ago, someone wrote about 'the rule of 12' in a writer's magazine. I followed it and started selling small pieces to national magazines before I got to 12. Ten bucks for 9 words is not a bad return for my time.
Today, it is even easier to submit online. You don't need envelopes and stamps. Nothing has coffee rings or peanut butter stains on it. You can keep and revise your work easily and resubmit to another publication.
The last few years, I broke the rule of 12. I don't have even one article in transit anywhere. I think I need to follow the rules.
What do you think? Would you consider following the rule of 12 for your writing?
8 people like this
7 responses
@Shivram59 (31976)
• India
14 May 19
@akalinus Would you please explain what "rule of 12" is ?
2 people like this
@akalinus (40601)
• United States
16 May 19
@Shivram59 When you send out 12 submissions, you usually get someone to buy at least one of them.
1 person likes this
@Shivram59 (31976)
• India
15 May 19
@akalinus Thanks You mean,if I follow rule of 12,then I would have to write 12 posts,don't you?
@andriaperry (116860)
• Anniston, Alabama
14 May 19
If I knew what those rules were I probably would.
2 people like this
@akalinus (40601)
• United States
14 May 19
Maybe I did not explain well enough. You send 12 articles you wrote to places that might buy one or more. By the time you send the 12th article, you have already sold an article to one of the magazines or other publications or something online. It always worked for me. I should do it again.
2 people like this
@hereandthere (45651)
• Philippines
15 May 19
@akalinus so that means 12 different articles to 12 different publications? not 1 article sent to 12 different places?
@Nakitakona (56302)
• Philippines
16 May 19
This is new to me. This marketing style of submitting articles to magazine or publication with a pay in return. In my early high school days, I submitted a local dialect short story and got published and I received a payment via a postal money order.
1 person likes this
@akalinus (40601)
• United States
16 May 19
You should go for it again. There are a lot of markets online that you can submit to. Read the guidelines carefully and tell them what they want to hear. I sold a story to a garden magazine because they did not want a sugary ending. So I made it humorous.
It was an online competition and it paid well. Too bad that Helium got most of it.
