The world of popular magazines and websites can be incredibly intimidating. Writing for them can seem like that\u2019s something for other, more qualified people, not you. That you need some sort of invitation or special permission to get your name on those pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, the secret is that there is no secret to getting in on the game. Most of the sites and magazines you read every day are written by writers just like you. And every one of those writers was just breaking in, once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whether you\u2019re a novice writer starting out or a content mill refugee searching for better paying work, clips from digital and print publications are within your reach. And, there are a lot of reasons to go for them. These outlets typically offer far more money than the reliable but low-paying mills. Even the ones that don\u2019t offer a huge amount per word can be a path to better pay overall. The more bylines you collect, the easier it is to get more paying gigs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, if you haven\u2019t written for a magazine or website before, it can be hard to figure out where to start. Where do they find their writers? Do you have to know someone? Do these publications assign articles, or should you be coming to them with ideas of your own?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of my income comes from ghostwriting. While the money is good, it has one marked downside: I have very few bylines I can share when I\u2019m searching for new work. A sudden hole in my schedule motivated me to start seeking out more clips with my name on them. I\u2019m having to dust off some dormant skills and get back out there hunting for opportunities. I thought it\u2019d be useful for others who are either new to writing or rusty like me to see how to go about scoring work with the publications they love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whenever I visit a new digital publication, there are three places I hit first: About, Contact and the bottom menu of the page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why? Because these are where you\u2019ll find the submission guidelines. They\u2019re not always labeled that way. Often, you\u2019ll see \u201cWrite for Us\u201d or something similar instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once in a very long while, writing opportunities will show up on the \u201cCareers\u201d page. It\u2019s not the first place to look, as freelancers are not publication employees; but, every now and then a site or publication looking for a regular contributor will post their need there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These guides will tell you what sorts of stories the publication is looking for and what they aren\u2019t. They will also give you vital details like desired length and voice. There may even be an editorial calendar you can check so you can tune your pitch to fit upcoming needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you are ready to send a query, make sure that you format your submission exactly as noted in the guidelines. This includes linking to existing work, if requested, and sticking to the specified query length. Editors are constantly slammed with queries. They don\u2019t have time to wade through a request that doesn\u2019t fit their format. Give them every reason to keep reading by conforming to their requests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before you start pitching a market, you\u2019ll probably want to know what your efforts will pay. This is something that is rarely listed in submission guidelines. So, how do you figure out how much your work will be worth?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WhoPaysWriters is a resource I hit every single time I find a new publication I want to pitch. This anonymous database has information about hundreds of publications that includes the rate paid, how long it took to pay and what relationship, if any, the writer had before sending their pitch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One way to really increase your chances of having a pitch turn into a job is to send editors what they are hungry for right that moment. And no place is better for that than Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many editors have their emails in their Twitter bios and will post calls for submissions when they have need of specific types of stories. Often, they\u2019ll let you know what they don\u2019t<\/em> want, which is just as valuable as what they do. For instance, a Self Magazine editor recently tweeted that she was inundated with personal experience essays when what she really<\/em> needed was informational articles with a personal slant. It\u2019s not hard to alter your focus from your personal experience with hot yoga to an article on why hot yoga might not be the best pick for everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s a lot of noise, but Twitter\u2019s search tool can yield some gems. Good search terms to try include pitches, pitch me, send me and submit. While researching for this article alone, I found active calls for submissions for The Baffler, several writing contests and a number of literary journals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plus, when you are looking for people to follow, don\u2019t limit yourself to publications and their editors. Submittable, the utility many publishers use for submissions, has its own Twitter where they feature different calls for submissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now that you know where to send pitches, are you stuck at the edge of the ledge? This is me telling you to jump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not sure your previous clips are up to muster? Pitch them anyway. Not sure how many freelance submissions they accept in general? Pitch them anyway. Not sure if the publication you are looking at would be interested in the story you have to tell? Pitch it anyway?<\/p>\n\n\n\n If an editor isn\u2019t interested in your submission, the worst you\u2019ll hear is no. And, no leaves you no worse off than you were before. In fact, you probably won\u2019t even get a no. You\u2019ll just hear nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And, you know what? That\u2019s fine. Not getting the assignment is not an indictment of your idea, your writing or you as a person (as much as writers tend to think it is). Rejections aren\u2019t personal. All they mean is that your particular story didn\u2019t fit that particular editor\u2019s needs at that particular time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, if at first you don\u2019t succeed. Pitch again. Keep send those queries out. Sooner or later, one of them is going to land in the right inbox and you\u2019ll get an offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Keep at it, and before too long, you\u2019ll have plenty of opportunities to see your name in the publications you enjoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bio: Lara Manetta is a professional writer whose work has appeared in Eating Well Magazine, AOL\u2019s Green Daily, The Dollar Stretcher <\/em>and other publications. She is a contract writer with Bryant Street Books and ghostwrites fiction and nonfiction for the Michael Levin Writing Company. Find her at GhostonDemand.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The world of popular magazines and websites can be incredibly intimidating. Writing for them can seem like that\u2019s something for other, more qualified people, not you. That you need some sort of invitation or special permission to get your name on those pages. But, the secret is that there is no secret to getting in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":8009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8002"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8003,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8002\/revisions\/8003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Worst You\u2019ll Hear is \u201cNo\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n