Loving My Writing Career of Essays, Book Reviews, and Tottenville History
How It Started and How It Works For Me
Disclaimer: This piece is posted as part of the Modern Women Self-Promotion section. It contains external links to my business endeavors, and yes I will make money off of it.
I know. I know. Find a niche for a writing career.
How did I end up with three?
How it started
My first piece of writing was accepted in 1995. It was an essay written and eventually published to keep a promise to a close friend who died in 1993.
I loved to write ever since I was a little girl, but never went after becoming a professional writer before this. I kept diaries to sort out my thoughts growing up. In both high school and college I wrote for the school newspapers and yearbooks.
So it was a natural progression to write out my feelings about how helpless I felt learning a friend had terminal cancer. It was my attempt at maintaining my sanity to be strong for her.
When we talked about it, she wanted to read it. When she read it, she made me promise her I would get it published to help others who found themselves in a similar roller coaster. After she died it took two years of submission after submission, rejection after rejection, but I was going to keep that promise.
Essays were my niche now and the beginning of my career.
From local publications like Staten Island Parent, to national publications like Woman’s Day, to inclusion in books that were a collection of essays, I was publishing my essays.
Reading Books
Reading is so essential for a writer. It strengthens our own writing to explore new ideas and perspectives, as well as teaching us what is good and bad writing by reading others.
While I was pitching essays, I started to see publications looking for book reviewers.
I love to read, making this a perfect avenue for me to explore.
After over a half dozen publications accepted my book reviews I was hooked, but meeting their monthly requirements had me neglecting my essay writing.
In the spirit of writers helping writers, since so many had helped me when I was starting out, when many publications wouldn’t take reviews of self-published books, I decided to begin my own blog Angie Mangino Looks at Books for both traditional and self-published books. Along with a professional review on my blog, I promoted the authors I reviewed on Amazon, GoodReads, Literary Thing, and across social media platforms.
Add the book reviewer niche.
Investigative Reporter
When the opportunity came up to work for the Staten Island Register newspaper, I focused on reporting for them.
With an exceptional News Editor, Bill Franz, I acquired a mentor and friend who gave me a journalism education that enriched me both as a writer and as a person.
I learned the Who, What, Where, When, Why style of objective news journalism from one of the best.
Yes, there really was a time when journalists substantiated facts from at least two different sources before publishing!
Tottenville History
So where did working to be an expert on the history of Tottenville come in?
I’ve already told that story on Medium.
17th Century Tottenville History Comes Alive: Meet the People. Experience the Events. is the first book in a series looking at Tottenville from a more global perspective.
I’m currently writing the next book on the 18th Century scheduled for publication by the end of this year.
Thus the third niche in my triangular writing career!
If you’re drawn to what I’m up to, I’d love your support.