Since my last post about how I started to write again, I have been reading several books about writing for magazines and how to get published. This book, “How to write and sell magazine articles” by Shirley Biagi caught my attention. It is only 131 pages, but the content is highly informative. The author is an accomplished writer and an award winning journalism Professor.
As I am back with my writing again, I have started by taking small steps. I have found this book to be a good guide for me to make the first steps to reach my goal which is to get published in magazines. Here are the chapters and a brief summary:
Chapter 1: Understanding Magazines
In this chapter, Shirley divides magazines into three categories:
- company publications which are produced by a specific company or industry for their employees, stockholders and customers;
- trade publications which are produced by businesses for professional retailers, manufacturers and technical experts for a particular industry;
- Finally are customer publications which you and I are used of seeing in newsstands, supermarkets or bookstore.
If you want to send your articles to magazines, the best ones are magazines published for customers and the trade publications. If for example, I write about my handmade bags, I will write to the craft’s magazines and if I am a retailer I will write about my products in trade publications like gifts and accessories magazines.
Chapter 2: Learning which ideas sell
In this chapter, the author emphasizes that you need to find out what the market needs are before you start writing. So, the author has listed several sources to get the information about topics that magazines are interested to purchase from freelance writers. One of the sources is the Writer’s Market 2008.
For instance, you need to find out what is the preferred article length for the magazine you are interested, how much they pay, etc. The author also provides a sample query letter – which is very helpful for the beginner.
Chapter 3: Focusing your ideas
I learned something new in this chapter. The author states that magazine articles tend to fall into 10 categories. From general ideas you can minimize it into topics and see if you can fit it in into some or one of the 10 categories. You can also get information about analyzing your topic with the list of sources provided in this chapter.
Chapter 4: A new approach to marketing
The customer magazine market can include, for instance, categorizes like women’s topics, sports and science magazines. This is important if I would like to submit my article to the target magazines. According to the author I need to write articles that can be submitted to more than one category. In summary, I need to be able to market my articles to primary, secondary and third markets. For example if I write about my inspirations of starting and growing my handmade bags and accessories business, the business side of my handmade bags and accessories business and the psychological health aspect in operating a business, I can send this one article to women’s magazines, craft or business magazines and health magazines!
Chapter 5: How to write an effective query
This chapter is very important for me since the editor will get the first impression through my query letter. Based on the author’s experiences dealing with editors, she gives many tips and cites examples on how to write the query letter that will get noticed. Additionally, the author has also listed the common query letter mistakes.
Chapter 6: Organizing to start your articles
This chapter describe how to organize your articles so when you need it, it is easy to retrieve. On another topic in this chapter, you can develop your article in three ways: using exposition, narration and persuasion. Three of these styles can be used together or over each other. The author describes in detail the differences between each. Other topics include how to begin your research, setting a schedule and the response letter. All these topics help you to get organized so you can complete your article on time.
Chapter 7: Researching your article
This chapter explains in detail how to conduct research for your article. I wrote several academic research papers before and I know how important research is to add to the credibility to your article.
Chapter 8: How to interview
The author also explains in great detail of how to do an interview as a way to gather information for your article.
Chapter 9: The writer-photographer
The photograph is an important element in your article (if it needed). The important content in this chapter for me is the sample model release. You need this if you take the photographs yourself and you are using a person as a model. The signed document is needed by the magazine if you decide to send your article to them.
Chapter 10: Writing your first draft
This chapter is about how to structure your article and also how to handle different type of articles from informational points of view.
Chapter 11: The legalities
The author’s advice is not to take the copyright issue for granted especially if you are using somebody else’s materials in your article. She also gave a sample permission request letter in this chapter. Other topics are libel, slander and right to privacy.
Chapter 12: The final draft
In this chapter, the author provides a checklist: the organization, verification, theme and audience. She also mentions the big problem of gobbledygook, clichés and quotations. Each of them is described in great detail with illustrative examples. Finally, the sample of the front page of your article and all the technical advice to produce your final draft and submitting it to the magazine is also discussed.
So, there you go. All 12 chapters are very informative and truly an excellent source of advice from someone who is already widely published. If you plan on writing an article for a magazine and are looking for a how to type of book this one is highly recommended. The advice is very straightforward and it is easy to understand. You can find this book at your local library. It is published in 1989 (Second Edition).
Share this article with friends on: