Studying the Magazine Market

(Several people have asked questions about how to study the markets, so I asked Sally Stuart to write a blog post. We'll follow up later with another guest blogger.)

How do you study the markets before submitting to magazines?

When you reach the point of asking this question, I assume you have identified the topics you can or want to write about.

You can then use the Christian Writers’ Market Guide and look up your selected topic(s) in the “Topical Listings for Periodicals” section. After reading the provided listing for each of those periodicals, plus checking out their Website, you may delete some immediately because of a difference in slant or theology.

For those that remain, download their guidelines from their Website (or send an SASE to request them if not available online). You’ll also want to send for sample copies if they don't provide enough samples of their articles online.

Read the guidelines carefully, highlighting any statements that fit your article’s topic or slant in one color, and those that are in opposition to it in another color. After that, rereading both the positive and the negative statements should help you decide if this might be a good fit for what you have to offer. Read the articles they provide on line, or the sample copies, to get a better feel for the magazine.

It’s also important to clearly identify the target audience for each publication.

That should be defined in the guidelines and obvious in the sample articles, but you can also get additional insight into who the readers are by reading letters to the editor. Are the readers conservative or more liberal? What topics get a reaction from them?

Study any advertisements in the sample copies. Whom do those ads target? Your articles need to target their reading audience. Targeting that audience means your topic, as well as your anecdotes and illustrations, must be of interest to those readers.

Complete the above steps for each topic you want to address, and start making a list of potential markets for each topic.

The real secret to success as a magazine writer is in building a reputation as someone who writes well on a particular topic (marriage, family, women’s issues, or prayer)—or who does a particular type of writing (feature articles, how-to, or Bible studies).

Get published regularly, and when you become an “expert” in your topic/type, editors will seek you out with assignments.

Sally E Stuart has been putting out the Christan Writers' Market Guide for the last 26 years, and has been writing for more than 40 years. She is a marketing columnist in several writers' publications and teaches regularly at writers' conferences. Visit www.stuartmarket.com or www.stuartmarket.blogspot.com for more information.

How Editing Groups Work (Part 3 of 4)

(Continued from the previous blog.)

6. The evaluation serves as part of the process of learning the craft. Members strive for honest opinions, tempered with kindness.

7. Members don't tell others what to write. They try to help each other write better and to make manuscripts marketable.

8. No one has to accept or implement anyone’s comments. (Take the ones that help; forget the rest.)

9. Members make no negative value judgments ("This is bad"), but offer suggestions for improving the writing.

10. Members won’t repeat comments made by others. If they have nothing new to add, they will say so.

11. Meetings center on assisting members to improve their craft. Members agree to stay on topic and not divert the group from its task.

12. When members make comments, they will offer at least one positive comment. Writers need to know what they are doing well and what isn’t working.

13. When the group discusses a person’s writing, that person may not talk or comment. This guideline forces them to listen to the comments. It also prevents their defending their writing. No one has to accept or implement anyone’s comments.

14. After everyone in the group has given comments, the person edited may ask questions. They will confine their questions to issues that didn’t arise during the group discussion or about any comments they want clarified. It is not a time to refute another’s comments.