“Unlocking the Secrets: Insider Tips for Freelance Writers to Captivate Editors and Get Published!”
How to Find Relevant Publications
Before I write an article on a familiar or unfamiliar topic, I first explore potential publications that publish such topics. I do this in a few ways:
- I search online for relevant magazines.
- I visit the magazine’s website and browse through its content.
- I review the magazine’s writer’s guidelines.
- I review the magazine’s editorial calendar. An editorial calendar will tell you what the editor plans to publish in the coming months.
- I review how much the magazine pays and what “rights” it buys. This can help you eliminate magazines that don’t match or exceed your pay rate or which purchase “All Rights” to an article (without the rights ever reverting back to you).
- I judge the level of competition. The chance of a new writer selling a first article to a widely-distributed national magazine that pays $1.00 per word is probably 0.01%. A new writer should aim for regional, local or trade magazines that welcome new writers and pay decent rates.
Additional Research Methods
Sometimes I support my research by going out in the field. What this means, literally, is that I visit my local library (it’s right down the street where I live) and my local bookstore to survey the types of magazines in the subject area I’ve written about. At my
local bookstore, I can visit the magazine rack where magazine titles are fanned out across different tiers and pinpoint magazines that might publish my topic.
