Yesterday I wrote about writing for major magazines and\/or the magazines of your choice. I hope you found the suggestions helpful. <\/p>\n
When I started out writing articles (in 1973)\u2014and throughout most of my career\u2014I relied mainly on small and medium-size magazines. While, in the beginning, I accepted as little as $50 per article, I eventually got to a point where I would not write for less than $200. Obviously, I broke into this field through some rather obscure, low-paying markets. And I can tell you there\u2019s not much prestige for a freelance article writer when no one has heard of the magazines you\u2019re writing for. <\/p>\n
(But then you\u2019re not writing to impress your friends, are you? Your goal is to earn some money and\/or reach your audience with your message.)<\/p>\n
Unless you own a copy of Writer\u2019s Market and study it often, even you have probably never heard of Minority Engineering, Bodywise, Children\u2019s Voice, Seattle\u2019s Child, Teacher\u2019s Vision, Family Motor Coaching, The Edge and National Barbecue News. These are some of the low-paying markets I submitted to in the early days. <\/p>\n
I learned during those years about the importance of quantity versus quality. Several low-paying magazine editors loved my work and the work was fairly easy to produce. So I could earn a decent part-time salary (and, by the way, credits) by being a loyal contributor. <\/p>\n
As time went on, I also earned some fairly good money from magazines such as Columbia, The Walking Magazine, Pages, Business Start-Ups, Sam\u2019s Club Source, Technology and Learning, Vim and Vigor, HOW and The Toastmaster Magazine. While some of these magazines paid well per article, others used many of my articles, thus were reliable sources of money. How many of these magazines have you heard of? <\/p>\n
I find that most authors who want to promote their books and most writers starting out are focused on some of the big name magazines\u2014Family Circle, Glamour, Saturday Evening Post, National Geographic, Harpers or The Atlantic Monthly, for example. They aren\u2019t even aware of some of the other magazines in these categories\u2014magazines that pay less, but are more apt to accept your submission. And some of them have fairly good circulation. Columbia has 1,700,000; St. Anthony Messenger, 300,000; Vim and Vigor, 200,000. <\/p>\n
When I was earning my living through article-writing, I discovered early-on that I could make $3,000 more quickly and surely by selling articles to 6 small to medium-size magazines than by trying to sell one article to Parade or Reader\u2019s Digest.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve been unsuccessful at breaking into the article-writing business, you might consider changing your strategy. Rather than setting your sights on the big time with your amazing article idea, lower your standards and seek out some of the more realistic opportunities. You may want to set aside your amazing article and start earning money and credits through smaller markets. <\/p>\n
I have used several tactics for finding markets. Here\u2019s one. Sit with the Writer\u2019s Market (or your favorite directory of publications) and go through all of the magazine listings in the categories you could potentially write for\u2014general, regional, religious, parenting, inflight, etc. Read each listing. If you are sitting with an open mind, article ideas will begin to occur to you. As they do, write them down. <\/p>\n
If you\u2019re like many freelance writers, you have a favored topic and some article ideas. By reading through the listings, you\u2019ll also discover potential magazines that you may want to approach with your article. A serious article-writer is willing to tweak his\/her article to fit the requirements of the magazine. I\u2019ve seen numerous writers enter into the world of article-writing without the flexibility necessary to succeed. Don\u2019t make this mistake.<\/p>\n
Tomorrow, I will write about how to creatively tweak your articles to fit markets outside of the norm. <\/p>\n
Be sure to visit my websites: Yesterday I wrote about writing for major magazines and\/or the magazines of your choice. I hope you found the suggestions helpful. When I started out writing articles (in 1973)\u2014and throughout most of my career\u2014I relied mainly on small and medium-size magazines. While, in the beginning, I accepted as little as $50 per article, I eventually […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t
\n http:\/\/www.matilijapress.com<\/a>
\n http:\/\/www.patriciafry.com<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"