This is more of an exercise than anything. I wrote an article that I’m proud of, and I have a few publications in mind that I imagine could be interested in it. Most of the pubs I have in mind are smaller, independent ones. Trust me, I have submission info for the big ones, but their submission guidelines don’t exactly invite one-off articles—it seems they would perhaps have a writer submit samples of their work and a pitch for an article they’d like to write.
My intent is to make several copies of this article and mail them to my list of pubs. And maybe that’s fine if all of them (a girl’s gotta dream big) want to print it- I don’t expect to be paid (this time anyway, haha), but I’m assuming that the bigger pubs have their submission guidelines in place specifically because writers expect to be paid, and once the article is published and paid for, it’s the property of the pub and therefore cannot be printed in another magazine. Is this correct?
Can I have my article printed in 2 different pubs if I’m not paid for it? Is it pointless to send it to a big-dog pub with pitch/pay-oriented guidelines?
I have subscribed to The Writer’s Market, but it seems like stupid questions like mine aren’t obviously answered there—upon looking around it seems like it’s there for writers who’ve been around the block a few times…
What kind of article are you talking about here? Specialized academic journal stuff, hard news, fluffy feature with home-town interest?
I work for a twice-weekly paper in a mid-size city. We occasionally publish articles that were printed elsewhere first, with a special byline indicating their “roots”. The editor really doesn’t love doing this though, and I doubt he’d be willing to with an unfamiliar writer unless it was something he really liked.
So, IME, it can certainly be done and is likely to be up to the editor-in-chief.
Large circulation big bucks paying magazines usually require querying, but that is often because they expect the writer to have to spend significant amounts of money/time on the article. Smaller magazines probably don’t, but you should check out some issues and compare the names on the articles with those on the masthead. Many of these tend to be staff written.
In any case, an email asking can’t hurt, and while I don’t know anything about bird watching except being dragged on trips by my wife, I suppose these magazine would tend to take articles from amateurs more than many.
A dear friend who has always pushed me to write, gave me a good lambasting last night that I would deign to consider giving away my article without asking to be paid, but to be honest, I just want to put it out there without going through any kind of formality right now. It’s my first article, for crying out loud—I know it’s not Whitman!
I’ve done a few freelance pieces in my time, and my missus is an academic, and almost all editors require exclusivity for a ‘cold’ submission - which is a pain if the article is time-critical because you won’t hear back from them for ages. They get pissed off if you’ve sent it to more than one person. I think people with established relationships with publications get more flexibility.