Is it possible to sell everything you write? Of course it is. Article writing has two basic parts, Writing and Selling. (1) You must master the art and science of article writing techniques to turn out a good article. (2) But the art and science of selling are just as important and take as much study to master as writing techniques do. 

But master these two and you will certainly sell everything that you write. That doesn't mean you will sell every article to one particular magazine.  I can't promise that you can sell every article to Lady's Home Journal, for instance, but if you master these two you will sell every article somewhere, and often several times to non competing magazines.

This method is what my students called "The Newcomb Method".  Does it work, You bet it does. Not only have I sold several thousand articles and a number of books using it, but my students have done much better than I expected. A number of beginners in my classes sold their first articles and went on to place the next 30 or 40 without rejection. Many have become contributors to major magazines. And a few have received book advances of $100,000 or more. Altogether they have now sold over 7 million dollars worth of articles and books. What they can do you can do. We will take up the mechanics of selling first, then the mechanics of writing.    

            Now, let me offer a few Newcomb rules that worked will with my students.

Newcomb Rule #1

Anyone who can write a clear sentence and has 10 percent talent and 90 percent desire can learn to write salable articles.

Why?  Because article writing today is communication of ideas.  If you can communicate in a straightforward manner and organize logically in a sentence, then that is all you need to sell to 90 percent of all article markets.  This requires just straightforward sentences, nothing fancy.

Newcomb Rule #2

Editors buy ideas, not writing. This is one of the basic principles I discovered while writing for Trailer. They bought articles they felt readers could use no matter what state they were in. It wasn't the writing that made it salable it was the ideas.

Magazines, especially the smaller magazines look for ideas they can use rather than finished writing.  That is why they are such a good training ground.  The editor will help

Newcomb Rule # 3

Every article must be targeted to the Magazine you want to hit.  This ranges all the way from beginnings to what devices you use to the style. This will be covered in detail.