This month’s article is a long one, but it holds information that is important to anyone who wants to have articles published in magazines. Most writers think they must have experience or know someone in the magazine industry to get their first article published, but that’s not necessarily true. All new writers get their start somewhere, and often it’s a paying assignment in a magazine.
My first opportunity at getting published was a thrill, but it wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t worked up the nerve to approach a magazine editor at an interior design lecture in Seattle. My only previous publishing experience consisted of 3 or 4 very short articles on decorating in a small beach town newspaper for no pay. The newspaper had also published my photo and byline with the articles. I used copies of them to show that I had been published, and editors that I was approaching could see at a glance that I had experience, no matter how pathetic it was.
Those few short articles got me an audience with the editor of a leading interior design magazine, and I was given an assignment to produce an article. I wrote the article, for which the magazine was a great showcase. The magazine did not pay (I was so excited I had forgotten to ask about that), but that one assignment led to others, plus it gave me the confidence to pursue even more magazine assignments.
I found that the best avenue to getting published is to learn how to approach an editor, then do it confidently. I have learned that confidence counts as much as experience, and sometimes new writers must “fake” their confidence as they begin to dip their toes into the publishing industry. Write query letters with the self-assurance of a professional. Start the letter with a fabulous quote from your article so you’ll get the editor’s attention from the get-go.
I recommend that you buy a book on writing query letters, read it thoroughly, and build on the examples there. You’ll learn a lot about what editors want to see, so these books should be on your personal bookshelf on writing. Hopefully, you also have a copy of my book, Portable Writing, which details 25 different projects that I have created over the years to earn income, including published articles and books. And you should also learn how to format a manuscript, which I describe at the end of this article.
If you are approaching a magazine editor who does not want to see a query letter, but instead, wants to see the completed article, then decide whether the magazine pays enough and whether your chances are good enough to make it worthwhile. It’s a bigger job to write a complete article, but truly, sometimes it’s more difficult to produce a really great query letter. The editor of Escapees Magazine, Janice Lasko, does not want query letters because she’s found that articles often don’t live up to the promises or quality of the query letter. Escapees Magazine is an excellent market for your articles on all phases of RVing. Read the magazine to see what types of articles get published.
Getting published means you MUST take several steps first:
- Know your audience. Read the magazine you want to write for. Read it thoroughly, including the ads and letters-to-the-editor column. You need to find out what types of articles the magazine wants, whether the articles include personal experiences or not, and you want to determine who its readers are. Are the readers and subscribers young parents or retirees? Are they middle class or upper income? What are their interests and hobbies? Are they male or female, or both? Do they like to travel, or do their lives focus on family and home? Often the best clue to who reads the magazine is determined by simply perusing the ads. Advertisers don’t pay big bucks to scatter their message to readers who aren’t interested in their product.
- Request the “Writers Guidelines” from each magazine for which you wish to write. Sometimes you can go online and download a copy of the guidelines, but if you mail away for them, include a self-addressed, stamped envelope with a note stating “request for writers guidelines.”
- Submit what the editor wants. If a query letter is requested, then learn how to write the best one that you can. If the completed article is wanted, then make sure you write the most thorough article you can within the number of words requested.
- Make sure you adhere to the editor’s word count. If your article turns out to be 2000 words and the guidelines specifies 1500 words, do not send 2000 words hoping the editor will be so excited by your writing that it will be accepted. It won’t! Start cutting. I can promise you that any article can be made better by tightening the writing. There are always extra words, especially connecting words that can be cut. There will be sentences that don’t really add content to the article, so cut them. There may be a way to rearrange paragraphs or sentences to shorten them. Remember that any article, no matter how wonderful, can be made greater by judicious cutting.
- Make sure the information in your article is accurate. If you write something but aren’t really sure if the place name is correct, or spelled correctly, get online and research it. Make a mistake, and that editor won’t ever read your letters or articles again.
- Keep a Thesaurus handy. When I worked for a publisher, the first thing I was handed was a Thesaurus because I had to know a 1000 ways to say the word “precious.” I gagged as I sought out other ways to say it, but that was one of the most popular expressions used in that particular magazine. You do not want to keep repeating a word, any word, throughout your article.
- Write in the active voice. Avoid passive words when possible. Active words draw readers in and hold their interest, plus your articles can often be shortened by changing sentences to the active voice. Example: “John became upset when it was suggested that he should sell his big SUV if he could no longer afford the gas for it.” “John was livid at the suggestion that he sell his big SUV to save money on gas.” Notice that the passive voice uses 24 words to say the same thing as the 17-word active voice sentence. Besides making your writing more interesting, sentences will probably be shorter and more to the point in the active voice.
- Remember that any holiday or seasonal article should be submitted at least 6-9 months before the publication date.
- When finished, put your manuscript away for a couple of days, then read it aloud. And ask someone else to read it.
- Use the spell check and grammar check to find any problem areas. Remember that a spell check cannot discern between a typo that creates the wrong word, such as when the word hare or hard should really be harp. Also it won’t know whether you meant to write are or or. And also realize that the grammar check sometimes makes outrageous suggestions, so if a problem crops up, don’t take their word for it. Read your sentence to see if it might be awkwardly worded, then rewrite it to suit your meaning.
Important: Before you put your article in the envelope, be sure to give it one final, careful reading to make sure it is perfect. And remember to include photos, if they are being sent with the article, and a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Of course, if you are sending you manuscript by email, there’s no need for a SASE and photos would be sent according to the editor’s wishes.
To find magazines to write for that you may not be familiar with, buy a copy of Writer’s Market or go to your public library to find the current copy, plus read back issues of Writer’s Digest and The Writer Magazines. All three provide many useful articles on writing for publication and provide a listing of magazine and book publishers.
Formatting a manuscript
Manuscripts most typically have 1-1/2 inch margins on sides and at top and bottom, and should be double-spaced. In the top left-hand corner, type your name; 2nd and 3rd lines: address; 4th line: telephone number; and 5th line: email address.
In the top right-hand corner, type which rights you are selling. Typically, this would read “First North American Rights” but could be “Second Rights” if the article has previously been published elsewhere. Beneath that on the 2nd line, list how many words are used. On the 3rd line you can put “Copyright (or ©) by your name.” There is some argument about whether you should add this line because some editors take offense, but I always include it so that the editor will know that I’m not selling all rights to the article. If you are including photos, on the 4th line type Photos: 10, or the number that you are including.
Drop down about 1/3 to 1/2 of the page and type in the title, centered and in bold type. Drop down two more spaces and type “By your name.” Skip two lines before starting the article. Indent the first line of each paragraph about 5 spaces.
At the bottom of each page, type continued, if the article is continued on the next page. At the top of each following page, type your last name at the top right and the page number at the top left of the page. This is important in case the editor drops your article and has to reassemble it.
Make sure your manuscript is double-spaced. At the end of the article, center and type - end - or ###.
Make sure that you address your letter to the correct editor, and that you spell the editor’s name correctly. Writer’s Market entries usually include lots of information, including the editor’s name and rate of pay. Again, send for the magazine’s “writers guidelines” before actually sending off an article and it pays to check with the publisher to double-check the editor’s name.
That’s all there is to it. You’ll quickly become familiar with all the steps as you submit more and more manuscripts for publication. And you’ll occasionally find exceptions to some of the steps I’ve listed above. No matter what topics you write about, you’ll find that the more you write, the easier the entire process will become.
