Magazine writing tips part 2

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Originally uploaded by H is for Home
This is fun sharing some tips with y'all on freelance writing for magazines, and I love reading your comments.

Contacting magazine editors.

I recommend that you do not call editors unless they ask you to call them. In their magazine's guidelines, editors will say "email queries only" or "no email queries, snail mail only." Often they say "no phone calls" and they do mean that!

When to follow up.

The writer's guidelines for the magazine usually give a time frame of how long it takes for them to reply. Some reply with a form rejection in one day, yes, that has happened to me. Sob, cry me a river.

Others say "6 weeks to reply." If you hear nothing within the 6 weeks I suggest that you send the same query again, with a note that "Here is a query I sent you on [date], and I wonder if you have had the opportunity to look at it." Sometimes the editor answers "thank you for sending this again, I somehow didn't see it."

Sim subs.

This is the abbreviation for "simultaneous submissions." Often in the guidelines it says "sim subs ok" or "no sim subs." If you believe there are several magazines that might like your brilliant article on "how to brush your teeth" and they say "sim subs ok" go ahead and send it to them all.

If you send a sim sub to more than one magazine and more than one wants the article, you can sell it to one of them, and tell the other interested editors that you offer to write an original article with a different slant on that topic specifically for them.