Write for Magazines
May 24, 2009 by Working Writers Coach
Filed under Freelance Writing
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Many people think they’d love to write for major magazines. The trouble is, most of these people never spend the time, energy, and even money learning HOW to break in with these markets.
Here are a few tips to help you write for magazines:
1. Learn how to write a winning query. You may think you know how to write a great query, but if your queries are not landing you at least a few writing assignments, then you’re definitely missing the mark somewhere. A winning query does more than let the editor know your idea for an article. You need to hook the editor with your query the same way you will hook his/her readers with your article.
2. Learn how to study the magazine markets. There is so much more to studying the markets than merely looking up the entry for a particular magazine in a current market guide. Find out how to effectively study the markets.
3. Provide editors with information and contacts they cannot easily find on their own. This is not as difficult as it might seem and it’s one way to prove to an editor that YOU are the perfect writer for this particular piece.
4. Be persistent. Don’t expect to break in with a major magazine on the first try. It could happen. But it probably won’t. Prove to the editor that you are serious about wanting to write for his/her magazine by being persisent. Keep sending out queries to a particular publication until you begin to get some favorable and encouraging comments. Note: This will start to happen once you learn the other tips here, even if you don’t get an acceptance letter for one of your queries yet.
5. Limit your queries to just a few specific publications. It takes too much time and energy to carefully study more than just a few publications. Pick ONLY the ones you really, really wish to write for. Study those publications, and query those editors on a consistent basis (but only submit one query at a time to each editor).
6. Don’t try to sell your article ideas to just ANY publication. Too often, beginning writers simply want to make a sale, so they query anyone and everyone. Editors want to feel that you’re trying to help them fill a need for their magazine, not merely make a sale. Target your queries carefully. Strive to help editors, and they will love you for it!
To find out HOW to follow each of these tips, register for the magazine and general nonfiction track of Working Writer’s Summer Bootcamp that starts June 1, 2009.
You’ll more than recoup your investment in bootcamp when you sell just ONE article to a major magazine!
Register for Working Writer’s Summer Bootcamp here now and start writing for magazines this summer!
Join my mailing list and find out how to SELL MORE and MAKE MORE MONEY than ever in 2010! You'll receive my free twice weekly newsletter, Build Your Business Write, PLUS a free e-book with tips to help you become a "working" freelance writer! 
