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Free Advice Friday: Working with Magazines

What’s on the iPod: Take Off Your Sunglasses by Ezra Furman & the Harpoons

It was a heavy workweek. I have deadlines everywhere and plenty of assignments. I’d say TGIF, but there’s a lot to do before 5 pm. I did finish one article, but have one more to complete and two more to start. Then there’s the other client work that’s about to hit the desk. Good thing I take vitamins.

Also, things on the personal side are about to pick up. My daughter’s wedding is approaching, as is my stepson’s wedding. A week apart – I know. It would have been nice if they’d shared each other’s plans. April will be nutso-busy. I have one bridal shower, one visit from my mom and a related shopping trip, plus two article deadlines — one coming the week my mom is here. My plan is to work like crazy ahead of deadline so I can take a few hours off here and there.

It requires a plan, which I have. I’m sharing it with you today on this Free Advice Friday. Thanks to a reader for asking the question and prompting this post. Many of you who are just starting out may have the same questions I’ve been getting from other beginning freelancers, so here you go.

Free Advice Friday: Working with Magazines
To learn how to query magazines, read Query Letter, Part One and Query Letter, Part Two.

The Right Idea/The Right Magazine
Before you get to the letter, however, you have to know if you’re sending the right idea to the right place. You accomplish that by doing your homework.

Research. Each magazine, even ones that seem similar, has a particular voice and audience. There’s one surefire way of knowing those attributes — by doing your homework. Read the magazine. Pay attention to the headlines, the tone of the articles, and just as importantly, the advertisements. Ads tell you a lot about the reader, for advertisers aren’t going to place ads for say a Mercedes in a magazine that’s meant for teenagers. As for the articles, are they first person, second person, or third person? Are they conversational or authoritative? Are the articles how-to, trend pieces, investigative, or essay? What are the headlines on the cover? How do those headlines differ from another magazine targeting a similar readership?

Formulate your questions first. Before I write a single query, I put my curiosity to work. What do I want to know about this topic of mine? The questions are the outline to my query. They’ll also help you nail down your topic most succinctly, and you’ll be able to better focus on maybe one aspect of your topic instead of trying to cover it all.

Locate a few experts. No need to interview them or even talk to them prior to the query (unless your entire article is a profile of one person or relies primarily on one person’s input) — just find potential interview sources and make note of them.

Rough in a headline/lede.  Having a headline allows you to present the idea to your editor. Make sure to match the style and tone most often used by the publication you’re targeting. The lede is the short summary right under your headline – that bit of italicized content that tells you what you’re about to read. For example, an article I wrote on Detroit’s bankruptcy was titled “A City Stalled” and contained the following lede: “After decades of decline, Detroit is trying to reorganize under the largest municipal bankruptcy filing in U.S. history. Is the city finally on the road to recovery?” You don’t have to have your lede written at the query stage, but if you’re struggling to nail down your focus, it can help. If you can’t write your lede to match your idea, your idea is too broad.


Shaping Your Article and Query
Once you get all of the above accomplished, you’re ready to query. Here are a few pointers besides those in the links provided above.

Write your hook. Your hook is by journalistic standards often known as a nut graph/graf — short for the “nutshell paragraph”– that’s going to sum up what you’re about to cover in one introductory paragraph. It’s called a hook because it’s going to “hook” readers into reading further. It’s used mostly in newspaper writing, but it has value in the magazine world, as well, since most magazine articles are feature articles in nature. Good hooks include: anecdotes; facts or statistics (don’t believe the old adage that statistics should never start an article — if they’re compelling enough, they work); a question; a simile, or; a quote. An example of a hook I used recently: “Transporting guns, evading cannibals and masking pimples are exposures that don’t usually enter the typical risk management orbit. Yet for some, such threats are just business as usual.”

Use your editor as your first audience. Don’t save it for the article — you have to impress the editor first or there won’t be an article. Everything you’ve just done to know your audience, narrow your focus, and get an idea on paper should be in your query. Pretend your first paragraph is for your article — it may well be. The second paragraph explains the topic, including your title, and tells how you’ll approach it. You’ll mention potential interview sources and what you hope to ask them. The last paragraph will outline any experience you have and ask for the job.

After Acceptance
Once you get the assignment, you need to know what happens next. Typically, editors will assign a deadline (if not, ask — sometimes they do forget), and they’ll send over a contract.

Find out the process. Do you see galleys (pre-publication proofs)? If not, how do editors handle revisions? Most of my editors will send the article back with some comments in the text for clarification. Others handle them all without the writer’s input. Either way, know that the final product belongs to the magazine. You have a certain amount of say in the article, but they know their audience best.

Be on time. If you expect to earn the trust of your editor and get future assignments, don’t miss a deadline. If there are circumstances at play that may cause you to miss a deadline — the one source of the article isn’t available or cooperative, for example — tell your editor immediately. If an editor knows enough in advance, he or she can find something to fill magazine space.

Handle disagreements professionally. Do editors make mistakes? Absolutely. In my career, I’ve worked with exactly two editors who introduced errors into the article or who over-edited to the point of killing the story’s impact and drowning out my voice. You have to approach these situations with care and tact. In one case, I had the unappealing job of telling an editor one of his edits created a huge red flag for industry people. If the editor has messed up your content to the point you don’t want your name on it, find a way to say “I’m not comfortable with these changes – can we address them together?”

Writers, what do beginning writers need to know about working with magazines and magazine editors?

12 responses to “Free Advice Friday: Working with Magazines”

  1. Devon Ellington Avatar

    Most of the magazine editors I've worked with are great. If you keep lines of communication open and don't spring "emergencies" on them at the last minute, they're happy to be as flexible as possible within their production schedule.

    Remember, the production of a magazine can't stop because your kid is sick or your husband expects you to pack his suitcase for a business trip (I'd throw said suitcase at his head and tell him he's an adult, pack his own damn suitcase, but that's a different situaion). If it means staying up all night after kid is asleep to write the article, that's what you do, especially for a print magazine. Your personal life and drama is not the magazine's problem. If you can't handle both, you don't keep the gig.

    I just landed a magazine gig because the previous writer was consistently late, and the editor was fed up; so she decided to take a chance on me. I'm going to dig in and prove it was the right choice.

  2. Lori Widmer Avatar

    Likewise, Devon. I have great editors. Just two have been challenging, and I no longer work with either.

    You make an excellent point — your personal issues are of no concern to your editor. In only one case did my life issues get in my way, and that was when my power was out last month. Even with that, I worked from different hot spots.

    Hell, my liver surgery didn't even get in the way. I cleared off the desk before I went in. If you try, you can do it.

    Another great point on being reliable, Devon. I've had long-term gigs for that very reason. Show up, do what's expected and deliver on time — the recipe for freelance success. πŸ™‚

  3. Cathy Miller Avatar

    Because I ghostwrite, the editors don't know I exist. However, that doesn't mean I don't feel the effects of a good or bad editor.

    One bimonthly ghostwriting gig I have gad for going on 5 years has seen thee editors. The last (and current) one edits with an eraser that changes not only the impact (as you described, Lori), but also the meaning. That can be deadly in a technical article (as you well know, Lori).

    This is a great how-to, Lori, on writing for magazines. Thanks for sharing!

  4. Jennifer Mattern Avatar

    Great intro to writing for print Lori!

    And Devon, congrats on the new gig. πŸ™‚

  5. Lori Widmer Avatar

    Thanks, Cathy and Jenn. πŸ™‚

    Cathy, deadly is the right word for it. I balked at one instance where the editor was suggesting changing someone's job title.

  6. Cathy Miller Avatar

    And I love my Comment gad – er – had a typo. Seems appropriate for the topic. LOL!! πŸ˜‰

  7. Paula Avatar

    Solid advice as usual, Lori!

    For many magazines an assignment letter serves as the contract. A few will have one general contract that applies to everything you write for them for a year or however long the contract states.

    It's also important to ask what their payment terms are. Here are a few I've encountered:

    β€’ immediately upon invoice
    β€’ within 30 (or 45 or 60) days of invoice
    β€’ on one specific date per month
    β€’ upon publication
    β€’ within 30 days of publication (try to avoid)

    I've had some sleazy clients stretch terms even further. One stated they paid within 30 days of invoice, but left out the part that they considered "upon invoice" to be the date they put the invoice into their "system," not the date you sent it.

    A couple weeks ago I had to contact an editor who cut just a tiny sentence or two from one of my articles – including the name of someone who was quoted. Worse yet, that quote was sandwiched between paragraphs where a different person was named or quoted, so any reader would assume the colorful anecdote was from the wrong person. It was Sunday, but I immediately e-mailed the editor, tactfully explaining how the speaker's name had been left out and asked if she could correct that in the online version. She did.

  8. Jake Poinier Avatar

    Oh, boy, "handle disagreements professionally" gave me a flashback. One of my clients had written an trade mag article, which I edited for her. The magazine introduced a fairly serious error…and my client fired off an angry letter to the editor because she was so upset (and before asking me what she should do).

    It ended up being OK, since the editor took it in stride, apologized, and created a clean pdf for my client to put in her portfolio. But I counseled my client to *not* do that in the future. I'm confident the editor hasn't hired her since.

    People who haven't been published too often can get kind of freaked out. For me, it's part of the game–you just can't worry about it.

    TGIF!

  9. Jake Poinier Avatar

    As if to underscore the point, now laughing at my typo in second sentence. Duh.

  10. Lori Widmer Avatar

    Cathy, isn't that always the way? It's why I shouldn't do grammar posts. πŸ™‚

    Great point on payment terms, Paula. If they're a new magazine to you, it's pretty important to know that!

    LOL! Jake, it happens to the best of us. Cathy caught several errors in my post, which I was able to correct before anyone else saw them. πŸ™‚

    Yep, agreed. Mistakes happen, the world still turns. Amazing, isn't it?

  11. Cathy Miller Avatar

    And promptly went in Comments and created my own typo. πŸ˜‰

  12. Lori Widmer Avatar

    LOL! Cathy, welcome to the club. πŸ™‚

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