*NOTE: The following material is for educational use only and may not be used for any other purpose and may not be published in any format due to the nature of releases I've secured from website owners.
Chapter 2 -- Careers and Markets
Careers
Sometimes, beginning writers have a difficult time deciding where their writing interests lie. Writing a variety of things and experimenting with different styles can help you discover what you're comfortable with writing.
Poewar.com, http://www.poewar.com// provides concise description of writing positions. Before you start exploring the this well organized blog, a classic example with an exceptional, precisely indexed, collection of excellent articles and links of interest to writers, click About John Hewitt and read about this remarkable man. At the bottom, hover your mouse over the icons to note his networking techniques, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Click Home to return to PoeWar and the main categories at the top of this terrific resource. Study and learn from articles at Poewar Main, Poewar Jobs, and Jobs Archive.
Markets
Get more magazines and study them.
While studying, make notes in your idea journal, and keep this important fact in mind: The magazine closing date is an important date.
Issue closing dates:
You MUST get magazines to study, and the more most recent back issues you study the better you'll understand your target market. Libraries have back issues. ask friends to save magazines for you, and ask doctors and dentists offices to save back issues for you.
You can also contact magazines' advertising departments and ask them to send you their media kit (and your editor will never have to know.) Study the media kit to learn even more about the behind the scenes operation of magazines. If all other resources fail, buy sample issues from magazines at your supermarket.
http://www.writerswrite.com/paying/
http://www.writersweekly.com/markets/
http://www.writingfordollars.com/Guidelines.cfm.
Model releases
At Maine.gov, you'll get an error message but you can find examples of Model releases by typing model release into the search box: http://www.maine.gov/portal/photo_contest/modelrelease.php.
Sell your writing overseas
Chapter 2 -- Careers and Markets
Careers
Sometimes, beginning writers have a difficult time deciding where their writing interests lie. Writing a variety of things and experimenting with different styles can help you discover what you're comfortable with writing.
Poewar.com, http://www.poewar.com// provides concise description of writing positions. Before you start exploring the this well organized blog, a classic example with an exceptional, precisely indexed, collection of excellent articles and links of interest to writers, click About John Hewitt and read about this remarkable man. At the bottom, hover your mouse over the icons to note his networking techniques, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Click Home to return to PoeWar and the main categories at the top of this terrific resource. Study and learn from articles at Poewar Main, Poewar Jobs, and Jobs Archive.
Markets
Get more magazines and study them.
While studying, make notes in your idea journal, and keep this important fact in mind: The magazine closing date is an important date.
Advertising is locked in, and stories are decided on and assigned in staff meetings by this closing date.
Final manuscripts for assigned stories have to be in by the 'due date.'
Knowing these dates will help you select the best time to send your query. Target a certain issue (month published) and query several weeks BEFORE the closing date for that month's issue -- but not right on the closing date for the previous issue -- things get pretty hectic in the office on closing dates.
- Jan/Feb 2010 issue closes November 10 (copy due by November 30 2009)
- March/April 2010 issue closes January 1 (copy due by January 30, 2010)
- May/June 2010 issue closes March 1 (copy due by March 30, 2010)
- July/August 2010 issue closes May 1 (copy due by May 30, 2010)
- Sept/Oct 2010 issue closes July 1 (copy due by July 30, 2010)
- Nov/Dec 2010 closes September 1 (copy due by September 30, 2010)
You MUST get magazines to study, and the more most recent back issues you study the better you'll understand your target market. Libraries have back issues. ask friends to save magazines for you, and ask doctors and dentists offices to save back issues for you.
You can also read some stories from back issues of magazines online. However, this does not let you study the entire magazine so you can't analyze the market properly.
The main reasons for going online and searching for magazines are:
- You can do it by tapping your computer keypad
- You find and read an amazing number and variety of magazine features online
- There are searchable lists for hundreds of names and address of publications
You will need to sign in to browse around. Fill in name, etc., and check Publisher in list. When you're signed in, type your subject in the search box. You'll get a list of publications. Along with publication details, you'll find addresses for requesting sample copies, too.
When searching, be specific. For example, dolls returned seven magazines, but doll returned twenty two publications! Let your imagination help you find what interests you.
You'll find magazines, newspapers, radio, TV and more at The American Journalism Review site, http://www.newslink.org/.
For news and columns from American Journalism Review magazine and other online features visit: http://ajr.org./ Find guidelines by scrolling in the left hand column.
The link to Magazines lets you also get to the real magazines, where you can study publications: http://newslink.org/mag.html.
Excellent trade magazines site: http://www.freetrademagazines.com/. These magazines are offered to trade professionals that are currently active in their industry. You can use the magazines for education but you must fill the forms out for each subscription. When subscribing, be professional and tell the publisher why you're subscribing.
ipl2 is the result of a merger of the Internet Public Library (IPL) and the Librarians' Internet Index (LII). Begin here: http://www.ipl.org/.
Search "magazines" to get here: http://www.ipl.org/div/news/. Browse the many categories within categories. Follow the same steps for newspapers,
Guidelines for many magazines are at Writer'sDigest: http://www.writersdigest.com/. Hover your mouse over Get Published to locate the drop down line where you can click Hot Markets and get The Writer's Digest Top 100. Each magazine title you click will take you to that magazine's 'writers guidelines.'
Explore, explore, explore. Find and read (online or in libraries, doctor's offices, anywhere) as many magazines as you can, until you get a clear understanding of the definitive differences of each magazine.
Starting Point (TM), http://www.stpt.com/, is a tremendous source with links to magazines to read (Click Directory.) It's one of the best databases to search any topic and the magazines catering to it. It's very good place to start when you're studying magazine content -- both ezines & print magazines are listed. Read the magazine reviews to get inside the magazine's readers minds.
Starting Point (TM), http://www.stpt.com/, is a tremendous source with links to magazines to read (Click Directory.) It's one of the best databases to search any topic and the magazines catering to it. It's very good place to start when you're studying magazine content -- both ezines & print magazines are listed. Read the magazine reviews to get inside the magazine's readers minds.
You can also contact magazines' advertising departments and ask them to send you their media kit (and your editor will never have to know.) Study the media kit to learn even more about the behind the scenes operation of magazines. If all other resources fail, buy sample issues from magazines at your supermarket.
Databases of magazines
Guidelines for many magazines are linked at the following databases:http://www.writerswrite.com/paying/
http://www.writersweekly.com/markets/
http://www.writingfordollars.com/Guidelines.cfm.
Always thoroughly surf websites! You just never know what goodies you'll find.
Where to read magazines online
Many magazines have indexes, where you can read published stories to get an idea of what the editor wants, see how a magazine focus changes over several years, and what topics have been published. Many magazines offer free trials. It's fine to order magazines, but don't feel obligated to subscribe. Unless you are truly interested, and want the subscription, *immediately write cancel on the statement when it arrives and drop it back into the mail the same day, or very soon afterwards.
Megamall.com, http://www.magamall.com/ also has search options. When a magazine's website link failed, I copied the magazine title into http://www.dogpile.com/ and selected from the resulting list of websites. Always include the word magazine in your search. Ie: [magazine title] magazine.
Locating archives
While you're reading magazines online, also click the link to the magazine's archives. You'll be able to read published stories that are often categorized by month or year. Sometimes you'll find an alphabetized listing of archived articles.
Archives are very useful for discovering what type of story the magazine leans towards. Also, be sure to search back to see if the same topic is covered periodically. When you discover that, it's an opportunity for you to target the magazine with an article on previously covered topics ~~ at a later date!
Disney's Family.com, http://www.family.com/, is a terrific location to search for places to go & things to do that you can write about. Use the search engine at the top, typing 'magazine'. Explore, explore, explore! Let your imagination wander. Jot down ideas!
Archives are very useful for discovering what type of story the magazine leans towards. Also, be sure to search back to see if the same topic is covered periodically. When you discover that, it's an opportunity for you to target the magazine with an article on previously covered topics ~~ at a later date!
Disney's Family.com, http://www.family.com/, is a terrific location to search for places to go & things to do that you can write about. Use the search engine at the top, typing 'magazine'. Explore, explore, explore! Let your imagination wander. Jot down ideas!
Megatopia.com us a good site to find lnks to 1000 online magazines to study: http://www.magatopia.com/
Mamma.com is a top Meta Search Engine, found at: http://www.mamma.com/ Visit this excellent site, learn about it, and use it to search for "magazines" and other topics to benefit your writing career. Ie: query letters, writers guidelines, agents, publishers, grammar, etc.
Moria Allen's Website for writers, Writing-World.com is another of the best you'll find free online. It also offers many links to various other markets and writers' sites. Explore it yourself at, http://www.writing-world.com./
Photographs and Writing
Apogee Photo...The Internet's Photography Magazine, http://www.apogeephoto.com/, is a free online magazine designed to inform and entertain photographers of all ages and levels. At Apogee Photo… learn all about marketing photos. Be sure to read Kimberly Baldwin Radford's article, "Write Way to Sell Photos," which includes eighteen links to help with every facet of the writing process: http://www.apogeephoto.com/apr2001/Sell_Photos.shtml.
At Writer'sWeekly.com, locate Joan Airey's article, Your Freelance Income Through Stock Photography, in WW archives. If that search returns a 'cannot be found' error, type Joan Airey into http://www.dogpile.com/ and go the the website returned for, Increase Your Freelance Income Through Stock Photography By Joan Airey.
Model releases
At Maine.gov, you'll get an error message but you can find examples of Model releases by typing model release into the search box: http://www.maine.gov/portal/photo_contest/modelrelease.php.
Sell your writing overseas
To learn the aspects of international marketing for writers, International writer and marketer Mike Sedge reveals the secrets of success in overseas writers' markets in his course. Serious writers often enroll in online courses (most are fee based, but some good ones are free.) Do a thorough research and you can learn a lot on your own: international marketing.
Remember to read carefully at any website. Some have content only available to paid subscribers. Keep searching and you'll find the good freebie listings.
