How to Get Published in Consumer Magazines and Trade Magazines
Last week Michael Martine wrote a great post titled 4 Places Where Your Customers Are that really got me thinking.
Back in the old days (1997) before publishing was instant and blogging wasn’t a word, I did a little writing for consumer magazines.
Have you ever thought about writing for consumer magazines and trade magazines? Exposure in a consumer magazine can expose your business to a whole new audience and instantly give you credibility as an expert.
The process really isn’t so difficult, but does require a bit more time and planning than bloggers may be accustomed to.
Identify Niche Publications
One of a writer’s most valuable resources is Writer’s Market, a huge book that lists thousands of book publishers and consumer magazines along with:
- The editor’s name
- The type of articles they publish
- The pay per article
- The number of magazines in circulation
- The percentage of the magazine that is freelance written
- The number of times the magazine is published per year
In 1997, your only option was to buy the 1016 page book. Today, you can subscribe to the online version of Writer’s Market for just $3.99 per month and get the same information.
Develop Story Angles
When writing for magazines, you sell the idea before ever writing the article. After creating a list of target publications and finding out exactly they are looking for, you will likely begin to get ideas for story angles.
Information in and of itself is not interesting. It’s the way in which the writer can package and deliver the information that makes it so! Publishers are looking for solid information packaged in a way that is interesting and relevant to their readers. Once you’ve got some story angles developed, it’s time to pitch the idea.
Pitch the idea
Now it’s time to convince the editor that your story needs to be in their publication. This is done with a query letter. A query letter is not just a way to pitch your story idea. The query letter is a sales pitch where you get to prove that your writing has style, can capture attention, and can hold a reader’s interest.
Allison of the blog “Ask Allison” shares two query letters that worked for her.
I would suggest not pitching the same idea to multiple publishers. There are any number of angles to be taken on a particular topic. If you’re going to be approaching multiple publishers, pitch different angles to different publishers.
Once your idea is accepted by the editor, it’s time to write the article, submit it, and wait. It may be one to six months before your article appears in print. But when it does – wow! There are few experiences more exciting than seeing your name and article printed in a magazine.
November 19 2007 08:05 am | Business Building and General Business Issues
Noah on 19 Nov 2007 at 8:57 am #
I have gotten great results in advertising to some Niche industry magazines!