eWriteLife Blog

Dear Shai,

I would like to seek your advice on how I should go about starting off to be a freelance contributor of articles to magazines.

My current area of interest is in weddings/marriage/children, as such I’m targeting wedding magazines (print and online). I’m a librarian by training and have a basic Law degree. Though I write a lot of book reviews as a librarian, I do not have formal training in writing/journalism.

I’ve written to a few local wedding magazine editors and am still waiting for a reply. In the meantime, should I just carry on writing my articles and wait to submit them to editors ?

Also, is there a conflict of interest if I send the same article to competing magazine editors ?

I would be most grateful for your expert advice.

Thank you and regards,
Celes

Dear Celes,

The good news is: you do not really need formal training in writing/journalism in order to get published. If you look at my background, I am actually a psychologist by training but I have written - and published - in many areas/topics apart from psychology.

Your case is similar to another writer who has written to me a few months back. If you would like to read her letter and my response, just go to this link.

As I have mentioned in that letter, the good thing is that you know what to do apart from the basic ‘I want to be a published writer’ idea. You have targeted your subject to marriage and weddings. Now, the next step is to make a list of publications (both online and print) that you would like to target. Study those publications and see how much work are done by freelancers (you can do this by checking the masthead/editorial staff box). What kind of work are done by freelancers (check the length, topic, and areas)?

I know you said that you have already written to some local editors. Did you send full articles or queries? Not all publications are the same, you see. Some editors would prefer to receive queries before getting the full manuscript. Some prefer to see the complete article. And yes, many publications prefer not to receive multiple submissions (sending the same article to several competing and non-competing publications). However, there are publications who don’t mind. That is why it is important to do as much research as you can.

When you send queries and/or manuscripts to editors and publishers, I know that the waiting time for responses can be agonising. The question, “Now what?” comes to mind.

Well, to respond to that, in the mean time, you just keep writing. List article ideas and outlines (this will come in handy once you start submitting regularly), prepare more queries, hone your craft by reading books and joining writers groups/classes, and fatten up your portfolio. Since you are a librarian by training, you can even start collecting writing clips for your portfolio by sending off book reviews (maybe, of wedding/marriage books).

In any case, I wish you all the best in this endeavour.

Regards,

Shai