Comments on: Free Advice Friday: Attracting Magazine Editors

By: EP

EP — Sat, 17 Jan 2015 16:42:08 +0000

I think your first point about advertisements says it all. Who is reading the magazine? Where does the money come from? That's a lot of work doing all that research like that but there's probably no other way around it. Good luck!

By: Lori Widmer

Lori Widmer — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 20:53:21 +0000

Emily, I'm glad to hear you're having some success. Good for you! And yes, your fabulous feline knowledge is working quite well -- great idea! Go for it, and let us know how it goes.

Anne, I knew you did. :)

Paula, there are those queries that never hit the mark, I agree. Had a few myself fall flat because the timing was bad (no more budget, just covered in an upcoming issue, or a topic they're tired of). Amen that it's rare!

By: Paula

Paula — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 16:34:33 +0000

I love your tips about magazine tones and titles. There are a couple of entertainment magazines I have never queried simply because I can't stand their breathy, gossipy tones.

Even when you know a magazine inside and out, some great ideas miss still the mark. I've written for one magazine for 18 years, and even ideas I think are perfect are passed over. The editor is usually quick to say they ideas are good, but the timing is bad. Either they just assigned something too similar, or they've covered that topic too much, or it's a scheduling issue.

Occasionally articles are killed over internal issues or industry politics. It happened to me about 10 years ago when a story was killed after it was written - they even sent me to New York for the feature - because the top dog overseeing the magazine (who was usually hands off) had a beef with the parent company of the place featured in the story.

That's sort of my way of saying sometimes even perfectly matched ideas never see print. Thankfully it's a very rare thing.

By: Anne Wayman

Anne Wayman — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 14:48:46 +0000

I study pretty much the way you outlined it Lori.

By: Emily Fowler

Emily Fowler — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 14:40:33 +0000

Thanks for this post Lori, it's really useful! Part of my plan for 2015 is to really break into magazines, it's going well so far. Since my first published article in a national magazine (December), I've got two more published, two about to be published and four that I'm writing at the moment. I've been given carte blanche with the editorial calendars of two of the magazines I've written for, and while that will keep me relatively busy I still want to branch out and get more print work. Currently it's consumer cat magazines and pet trade magazines, but I'm going to use your advice when I start looking to use my fabulous feline knowledge to start pitching other types of mag (how to teach your child to look after a kitten for a parenting mag maybe? That's just off the top of my head, ha ha!)