Just wondering if the SDopers may have some personal experience on this topic. Does one simply craft an article, and submit it (unsolicited) to all kinds of publications and just hope to get paid? Or, do freelance writers make an initial contact to some editors at a handful of publications to see what their needs and interests may be??? - Jinx
You mean a freelance magazine writer? For nonfiction, you send queries to editors (queries – even by established freelancers – are usually unsolicited). The query would describe the article you plan to write, what it would cover, what features you plan to include, and how it is a new take on the subject. If the editor likes what you suggest, he will tell you to go ahead and write the article (nonfiction is not usually done on spec*). You will then send it to him and he’ll pay you (assuming you’re sending it to a paying market – a market guide like “Writer’s Market” will tell you what markets pay).
You could also send queries to nonpaying markets to get some credentials. Editors like to see these, but you can still sell an article idea even if you’ve never done it before. Just show in your query that you know how to write and give it a dynamite concept.
Needs and interests can be found in Writer’s Market, and by reading the magazines you plan to submit to. Make sure your query is relevant to the magazine; a film magazine isn’t likely to consider your proposal about hang gliding (unless it’s related to film in some way).
Writer’s Market and Writer’s Digest Magazine** can both give you tips on how to structure your query. The Writer also has good information for a beginner.
*However, as a beginner, you may want to write the article anyway, just for practice. Remember, though, the material that magazine A might buy could be totally inappropriate for Magazine B (even if they cover the same subjects) unless you rewrite it from a different angle.
**Just don’t answer any of their ads – WD does not do a good job of culling out scammers.
Jinx,
Certainly there are folks who’ve found different methods than mine, but what I did was simply start analyzing publications, then writing and submitting articles to local newspapers, magazines, and other publications that suited my fancy.
I had many small successes by studying the pieces used by publications, figuring out the types of pieces they preferred, and paying attention to the style of each publication – most pubs have rules, such as referring to a subject as “Jones” or “Mr. Jones”, or spelling out numbers smaller than ten and using numerals for numbers over ten, things like that.
I also took note of timely events. One example of that would be when I phoned all my friends cross-country, grilled 'em on how they’d met their spouses/partners, wrote up a piece about romance, threw in a statistic-sidebar, and submitted it to a major city daily newspaper weekend editor six weeks before Valentine’s Day.
A few publications printed my pieces, sent me cheques, and after a while, editors began to contact me and asking me to take on assignments.
Eventually, I had corporations contacting me to write “in-house” brochures, articles and such; tourism agencies requesting me to take on projects, and other organizations asking me to do work for them.
I enjoyed a regional reputation as a reliable freelancer for several years – and had a great time – before dropping out to revel in my midlife crisis. 
YMMV.
Is there a way to get out of this by something something other than, it depends?
Nope. It depends.
First of all, it mostly depends on the article. Is it an interview, a feature story, an expert piece, a travel account, health information? Geared to kids, adults, women, orthodontists?
It also makes a difference if you are an expert in a particular subject rather than just someone who wants to write about something interesting to them.
Never contact editors and ask for their needs. Their need is to not have to waste their time answering calls like this from amateurs. Generally speaking, if you have no previous experience it would be best to craft a very specific short proposal for the article. This should say what the article is going to be about, why it is something special and different and why you think you’re the best person to do it.
It’s almost never worth the time and trouble to write out an article in advance, because the editor may decide the magazine needs a different slant of some kind. There are also special requirements for many magazines. For example, you need at least seven quotes from various specialists to do a health article for some major women’s magazines (unless you yourself are the expert). You won’t know these kind of particulars until an editor says so.
Then check around for the magazines you think it would be the best fit for. Local and regional publications are always looking for material and are most likely to welcome new writers. It would be somewhere on the impossible side of difficult to get published in the New Yorker or Vanity Fair.
Once you narrow down your list, find the best way to contact the editor. For local and regional publications, you can probably find a phone number and contact them directly. Anything larger requires mailing in the proposal.
Writers Market is an annual book that lists thousands of magazines, their submissions requirements and their addresses. (Double-check these with the latest issue of the magazine because names of editors and addresses can change without notice.) You’ll find it at any library. You can buy it, but it’s expensive and gets obsolete very quickly. One good thing today: most magazines will post their guidelines online and you can check them there. Here’s an online site that compiles some guidelines.
There are a zillion how to books on writing for magazines as well. It’s a real good idea to study these ahead of time to learn how to write a query letter, what proper submission format is, and other various do’s and dont’s.
It’s more work than you might think it is, but I always loved writing magazine articles. And yes, I started with local publications.
It’s the old story: “You can’t get an assignment till you have the clips to show, and you can’t have any clips till you get an assignment.”
You have some good advice, Exapno Mapcase, but I am confused by your words which seem contradictory. First, you say never contact the editors because I’d be wasting their time. But, then you say it is not worth the trouble to write an article in advance. In fact, you continue by encourgaing me to contact editors (especially of local and regional publications).
Please clarify for me… Perhaps you DO mean both, but each one may apply under specific conditions, I WAG? Is there ever a time you would write the article first? Or, contact editors to learn of their needs first? Or, is it a chicken-and-egg cycle, too, and sometimes you just gotta play it out by ear? - Jinx
One way to pique a magazine’s interest is to be an expert in a field—if, say, you underwent heart surgery, write an article on heart surgery/disease. Write something about a city or country you have lived in. I see you’re an engineer and are interested in astronomy and science—if you have any credentials, write about those.
That’s just for the first article or two, as it will make you more marketable to editors, as a first-timer. After you have some clips together, you can branch out.
Sorry if I wasn’t clear. I meant that often with local publications you can make an appointment to come in and directly pitch an idea to an editor. This would allow the two of you to discuss variations and alternate possibilities, and also let the editor make some future suggestions that may fit your expertise. It’s just an alternative to sending in a proposal.
What you don’t want to do is walk in (or call or write) and say nothing more than “I want to write for you, give me an assignment.” Do your homework first; have the proposal in your head.
As Portwest indicated, you may get away with writing a full article first and submitting it if it is as carefully targeted and timely as the ones mentioned. (Never pitch a Christmas article to a magazine in December. Pitch it back in April. )
Jinx - can you explain why you want to do this? I am a big believeer in using the why to figure out how.
Since this is about writing, I’ll move this thread to Cafe Society, hamsters permitting.
bibliophage
moderator GQ
I don’t think I’ve ever queried, but then, I write fiction 99% of the time and it generally does not have to be queried unless the editor has some trepidation about stories with a very high word count.
I have been freelancing for about twenty years.
Lately, I’ve had better luck with story contests than with magazines. Many contests do accept non-fiction pieces.
There’s one thing I’d caution about pitching ideas you’ve already written - don’t tell them it’s finished! It’s possible the editor will think that this was an idea someone else didn’t want, so you’re trying to get someone else to take it. You can say “I’m working on this” or “I have this idea”, but don’t do anything to let them think this might be leftovers from another editor.
Also, let them know why you, specifically, are the one who should write this article. If you have access to a specific source that’s otherwise hard to reach, or you have personal experience that qualifies you more than the average person, say that. Otherwise, they could just take your idea and give the project to someone they know better.
eh, I wouldn’t hold this one firm. Simply living in the coverage area is often a pretty big qualification in and of itself. I’ve done freelance work for several papers whose main staff didn’t actually live in its coverage area. I had better success with the one where I was more familiar with the community and could pitch ideas, but I’ve usually gotten at least three clips from papers where I only said, “let me write for you.” It wasn’t much, but it helped diversify my portfolio.
So if you need to get started and don’t have any clips already, approach a paper. In my experience, they might give you an assignment just to see what you’re made of. Even if that’s all they give you, it’s still one more project you can say you’ve done when you go to the next person.
Maskell and Perry in Write to Publish (1999) say
They recommend sending a query letter:
They also have an example of a successful query letter:
The article was published in The Australian on 5 January, 1998.
Hope I was helpful; hope I haven’t quoted too much of the book this was taken from.