I am curious how many of you dopers have written into a magazine and gotten published. I only ask because it would seem that many magazines get an absurd volume of mail, and generally only pick the bright ones. You all tend to be bright people…
My story is quite accidental. I didn’t really think of it getting published when I sent a letter to Inquest magazine. This was in Eighth grade and during the height of Magic the Gathering (1996). Basically I wrote how I was disaffected with the new rules coming about and the boon of new players with these new rules. It was the first letter in their write-in column slot that month. The editor (Rick Swan) wrote something about how “wouldn’t I like to chase butt weasels around instead of complaining”. Hmpf.
I was in a chat room when I read it and told the assorted cardfloppers. They didn’t believe me, and come to think of it, I wouldn’t of believed me either.
Needless to say, I didn’t think I was witty at the time, and looking back proves that I am quite correct.
I got a small thing published in “American motorcyclist” (the AMA magazine) a few months ago, they ask a silly question every month and publish a few responses the next month.
Q. how many motorcycles is enough?
A. I understand the words enough and motorcycles but together they just confuse me, what was the question again?
unclviny (who is down to 3 bikes, 1966 BSA, 1952 Triumph and a 1936 BMW)
Have sent a few letters in to various mags, but apparently none of them were either factual enough, witty enough or eccentric enough to be worth publishing.
OTOH, I had several photos published in Trains and the now-defunct Passenger Train Journal, back in the late '70s. In the mid-nineties, I wrote an article on an item of oilfield equipment that was published In Hart’s Petroleum Engineer International, now published under another name.
I got a credit as a clipper in Fortean Times a couple of years ago.
I wrote to MAD Magazine once, to correct their inaccurate use of the term “gluteus maximus.” Months later, my missive appeared on their letters page, along with this response:
“Here’s an anatomical expression we know we’re using correctly - kiss my ass!”
I’ve written a few articles for small magazines, and got a letter published in Newsweek last year.
I didn’t know about it until I read my issue of the magazine. I’d sent it in an email about two weeks before and then forgotten about it. Suddenly as I was reading the letters section, one of the letters started sounding familiar…
I got a drawing published in 2000AD once, of a New Zealand version of a Judge (you know, like Judge Dredd). That was pretty cool. I also was very proud of my picture.
I have had articles published in three craft magazines and was special editor for an issue of one of them.
As for letters, I’m routinely published in the local paper - I am somewhat of a loudmouth on local issues, and every time I get my dander up, someone hears about it.
I’ve written several video-game reviews and columns for assorted magazines, glossy and otherwise, and got a letter published in (of all places) Marvel Age once.
I had a feature story published in our daily broadsheet a few years back, and I got a ‘Letter to the Ed’ in print just a few weeks ago.
An academic essay I wrote last year was recommended for journal publication by my professor but I haven’t quite got around to it getting it organised yet…funnily enough, it was about internet messageboards, and particularly the SDMB and G’Dope (the Australian board for Dopers). If I could just find the damn time to get OFF the boards, I might find the time to submit the essay.
And I’ve been in Teemings…that should count for something shouldn’t it?
Alternative Press used to publish a column called Demorandum. You could volunteer to review bands’ demos that the columnist received. I reviewed four tapes and two of the reviews published. Amusingly, the following month the publisher made an elliptical reference to something I wrote in one of the reviews that didn’t publish. I think I was getting dissed.
I don’t know if this counts or not but when I was eight I had a drawing of a monster published in the “Creature Feature” section of the Counta Duckula comic. The description that I gave for my monster said he thought his tail shook to show where treasure was burried but itactually shook to show where the treasure was not burried, this explains why he is so poor.
I spent most of the 1990s writing for magazines: fun, and a little money, but no benefits for freelancing. Which is why I am now a nine-to-five copy editor. Let’s see, I’ve been in Cosmo, Men’s Health, AMC, A&E Monthly, Art Direction, Playboy (as a writer!), AdWeek, Ad Age, TheaterWeek, Across the Board (business pub.), and I wrote regularly for Movieline for about ten years. I also still publish regularly in Classic Images and Films of the Golden Age, two film-history publications.
It’s very enjoyable, depending on the editor . . . Cosmo used to rewrite my stuff to sound like a Playboy Bunny on crack; and Men’s Health would assign me idiotic story ideas, then say, “this is idiotic!” when I turned it in and give me a tiny kill-fee.
I’ve had some 50+ plus illustrations published in various mags, none of them popular enough for me to assume anyone has heard of them. The only words of mine that ever made it to print were in the form of the “artist profile”. Good thing.
I’ve been published as a concert photographer and a concert/album reviewer nationally (through a couple of big and not-so-big independent music web sites); in print it’s mostly my concert photography has been featured nationally.
Recently I’ve been getting a lot of print time in the radio trade pubs because I shoot a feature here in Madison called “Live from Studio M” where national artists come through and do an acoustic concert and live q&a in the studio - I recently shot Guster, Robert Randolph, The Thorns and Los Lonely Boys (not at the same time ). So those shots get published quite a bit.
Locally I publish an indie music paper (circ. 8000/mo) that’s covered with my photography and design work (naturally), and I write at least one interview or q&a feature a month.
