Easy Steps to Writing for a Magazine

 

Writing for a magazine has served as a launchpad for many writers. Starting small like that can be just what you need as a writer to give doors that little nudge they need to open - before you go ahead to talk about things like book contracts, literary agents and international recognition.

For some, especially freelance writers, writing for paying magazine markets where they receive returns on their investment of time and effort could help pay the bills until they become more settled as writers and find their way into big literary circles.

If you would like to get published in a magazine, then you need to understand how the process works. It is essential to do so because publishing in a magazine works a little differently to other kinds of writing, and your not understanding the process might lead to a rejection of your work.

It can hurt a little to know that you're a good enough writer as any out there getting published, yet for some reason you keep getting those rejection emails.

If writing for a magazine is something you want to try out, here are important pointers to guide you as you make that move.

Writing for a Magazine? Here are Five Easy Steps

1. Choose a topic you’re passionate about

You need to come up with a great article idea.

A good way to get awesome ideas is to read other ideas and mull them over. If you have a magazine in mind to write for, then you should probably read published works in that magazine.

The urge to just jump in and write without a lick of background work is often irresistible. Resist it nevertheless - if you want to get published that is.

When you get ideas from your reading, compare them with what is currently trending in society. Find out the current events in society and see if you can generate a good topic from those. It always helps your article get noticed if you're writing about trending issues.

You can also check what people are searching for and see if you can generate ideas around those.

While writing for a magazine, you can write about your own interests. However, whatever you're writing about will have to be very attractive - attractive enough to pull people towards it. Otherwise, there's a high chance you'll get rejected.

2. Determine which publications to submit to

This is important and sometimes you might even consider doing this first.

Is the magazine you're writing for paying or free? Paying magazines naturally have more stringent criteria. Also, there are loads of other people who are also trying to get published or are already regular writers there, so you'll face a lot of competition.

Many magazines around today are primarily consumed online, so that makes it easier for you to go through them and make up your mind about a topic like we mentioned earlier. You can go to makealivingwriting.com where you'll research magazines to write for and some necessary stuff you gotta know about those magazines.

Depending on the magazine, you might have to send a pitch before you get accepted. Some magazines accept unsolicited pitches, others more commonly assign specific pieces to freelancers.

Ensure you take your time to craft an excellent pitch because it goes a long way towards getting you a chance. You can check out how to write a great pitch for a magazine on Masterclass.

3. Research and write

A rule of thumb you can follow is to do more research than you think you need. Gather sources, quotes, and statistics that you can use in your story. As I mentioned at the beginning, the urge to start writing immediately can be intense. But you need to resist it. Before you begin, make sure you know enough about the topic you are writing on.

Also, make sure you write based on the magazine you want to publish in. Otherwise your article might be great but just not what they are looking for - in which case you'll get rejected.

4. Edit your article

Edit, edit, edit.

Read through your article a second time and then a third time. Ignore the urge to just hit the send button as soon as you insert your final full stop. As you go over your work again, you'll definitely notice things to change, shake up, or remove. You'll also be able to make your text more cohesive and coherent when you're not absolutely focused on stringing your points together.

5. Submit your article

Your work is done and you can finally push it on. If you've researched thoroughly on the magazine you're submitting to, you should know whether or not they've got time-specific criteria about submissions. The last thing you want to do is submit the right work at the wrong time.

Also, articles for major paying magazines are usually slanted for publication for their next month’s issue weeks in advance, so make sure you don't fall into the deadline trap.

Time to Take Control of Your Narrative

You meet a prospective client for the first time. You are desperate to impress. Introductions and a handshake follow, and next thing the person is saying to you, “I’ve heard so much about you”. You search your mind frantically for a mutual friend or acquaintance hoping the prospective client heard only good things about you. You even say jokingly, “Good things, I hope”.

He may not notice, but your voice falters as you attempt to laugh. At that point, you simply cannot say what he has heard about you.

So, you know who you are and where you are going. You even have goals and plans for your life, career, and business. But, have you given much thought to how people perceive you and your business? Do you often wonder what emotions your name evokes when mentioned? Have you thought about what people say about you to others?

If you are even a little bit concerned about your personal brand, then you need to take control of your narrative. And here’s how you can do that

Articulate your Brand

Who are you? What do you have to offer that no one else can?  Every so often people claim expertise in a broad topic such as writing, or marketing, or even politics. You need to look beyond the peripheral titles and identify the category within that field where your unique experiences make you, undeniably, a major player.

Content is a very powerful tool for articulating your brand, as words wrongly strewn together may have the opposite effect on your audience. Use language as building blocks for your brand.

Have a Strong Online Presence

One of the first things people do when they hear of a new person, company, or trend is run an online search, usually on Google. So, it is important you have some measure of control over what the search results will be. A good way to start is by having a strong online presence. A good website with quality content sets you apart immediately. Remember, it’s all about taking control of your narrative and what better way is there to start than having a website that talks about you just the way you want to be heard?

How Social are you on Social Media?

Social media goes a long way in helping you establish your brand even beyond your website. Having profiles on social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram will get you more visibility. Social media is also fantastic for engaging with people who may not have visited your website before. An activity as simple as following someone on Twitter and retweeting their post can get you noticed.

Become a Thought Leader

Beyond getting online and getting noticed on social media, people want to be sure you actually know what you are saying. Nothing establishes your brand as solidly as when you are seen as a thought leader, especially in the same area you have been known to address. Write blog posts, articles in newspapers, books, deliver seminar papers. In short, get noticed and get published.

If you have ever felt like you had no control over what was being said about you, now is the time to take back control of your brand by controlling your narrative.

Are you ready to begin?

 

Omatseye is a Creative Consultant at Sons of Issachar Concepts, an idea management firm that offers integrated publishing services to authors from writing, publishing, book launch, to marketing and sales.

The Ready Writers Consult

The Ready Writers Consult is Nigeria's oldest Content Writing & Editorial Agency with a mission to avail its clients the convenience and time to do more of what really matters to them.

The Ready Writers Consult's service portfolio includes Content Writing, Content Rewriting/Refinement, Content Editing, Content Proofing, Transcribing, Visual Contents, Audiovisual Contents.

Sons of Issachar Publishing

Sons of Issachar Publishing is a Content Publishing & Production Agency with core expertise in Book Publishing, Digital Publishing, Book Marketing, Digital/Multimedia Production and Idea Incubation Consultancy.

TRW CONSULT

TRW Consult is a marketing communications agency with core expertise in reputation management, event marketing, content marketing, brand promotion, cause marketing, social media campaigns, razzmatazz, web management & optimisation, amongst others.

The project portfolio of TRW Consult spans international and national spectrum having executed impressive jobs and successful campaigns for World Economic Forum on Africa, Nigeria’s National Conference 2014, CBN CashExpo, YouWIN, Guaranty Trust Bank, Lagos Business School and FMCGs such as NNFems makers of Apple and Ozone cosmetic products, FanMilk, Sweet Sensation, amongst others.

The Corona We Know

The Corona in Me

Excuse me, Sorry, I beg your pardon

We use the following words and phrases, Excuse me, Sorry and I beg your pardon almost every day, but most times we interchange them for each other and they still sound nice to the listener.

Well, that might be allowed semantically, but for proper representation and for the sake of good writing we have to align them properly in terms of the syntax structure. So, the onus is on us to properly know how and when to use them, either in the British or American context. Please follow us as we clearly distinguish their usage.

We say excuse me to someone if we want to get the person’s attention or before we do something that might disturb him/her, interrupt him/her, push him/her in a crowd or disagree with him/her.

    1 .   Excuse me; can I get past, please?

We say sorry (formally) or I beg your pardon when we need to apologise for something:

    2.    Sorry, I did tread on your toe.

    3.  I beg your pardon. I think you were next in queue.

But in American English, pardon me and excuse me are used as apologies.

We say pardon? When we did not hear what someone has said and want them to repeat it. In this case, sorry?  is also used in the British English and excuse me? or pardon me? in American English.

We hope we have been able to shed some light on the different contexts of usage of “excuse me”, “sorry” and “I beg your pardon”.

This is the second building block; do keep in touch with us as we intend to lay a solid foundation in the use of English as it relates to problematic words.

PROBLEMATIC WORDS IN EVERYDAY USAGE

When building a house it becomes necessary to put the right blocks in the right place otherwise, the house will not align with the layout or design in the original plan. The foundation is the most important part of a building because it carries the weight of the whole building. That is how it is when it comes to our everyday use of grammar.

There are words that look simple, yet they are problematic. If we don’t have a proper understanding of these words, it might affect our writing and the information we intend to pass across to our readers.

Standard text on the use of English are in two-denominations: the first one is that most books on English language present formal ideas of how the language should be written, that’s not  bad but it is the grammar of the language  which most times we find hard to conform to because of the various ‘shifting lattices’ of the usage. Secondly and more importantly, because of their continuous insistence on the grammar, some books usually fail to capture and describe how people use the language. In this perspective, we have decided for the next few weeks to point the way to linguistically correct and socially acceptable form of the language. So, please stay with us:

 (1) EFFECTIVE, EFFICIENT 

 If somebody works without wasting time or energy, and in a well-organized way, we say that he is efficient. For instance, a good secretary is efficient; an inefficient secretary puts paper in the wrong place, forgets things or takes too long to do small jobs. A machine or a system that works well is also described as efficient. Let us consider these examples:

1. She has sorted out all my letters and filed them alphabetically; I think this new secretary is efficient.

2. The Nigerian Telephone System is becoming efficient.

When we say that something is effective, we mean that it solves a particular problem that we have, or gets the result we want:

3. My aunt only gets weaker by the day; those drugs are not effective at all.

4. I think a black belt would look very effective with that dress.

We hope we have shed some light on the difference between “efficient” and “effective”. This is the first building block that we want you to lay.

Please share this with friends so they also can put it in use.

Rejecting a Manuscript: An Editor’s Perspective

Editing, specifically book editing, is simply the conception, planning and specifying of the contents of a book, in cooperation with the author, for the purpose of transmitting the author’s message to the reader in the best, most satisfying and most profitable way possible (Festus Adesanoye).

The editor’s main role is that of an experienced intermediary who ensures the successful delivery of the author’s ideas for the information, education, instruction or amusement of the reader.

The editor sees to the development of the manuscript; the selection, preparation and styling of the manuscript; and the organisation of the entire editorial process.

When selecting or rejecting a manuscript he/she puts a lot of factors into consideration:

a)   Does the manuscript fit into the list of his publishing house?

b)  Does the manuscript conflict in any way with the books already accepted by his publishing house?

c)   Are the lists of manuscripts in his publishing house already crowded with similar texts?

d)  Is the subject matter of the book one which has proved unsuccessful for the particular publishing house in the past; and

e)   Most importantly, is there a ready market for the book if eventually published?

It is not until all these factors have been carefully considered – the literary sophistication of the author has very little to do with the publishability or not of his manuscript – that the editor decides, regretfully, to decline.

Unlike the popular picture painted in the mind of an author, of a hard-to-please editor, gloating over all the manuscripts he rejected; is the more real imagery of an experienced professional, seeking to make objective book decisions, acceptable for public consumption and for profitability.

The editor, indeed, tries to make the process of rejection as painless as possible to the author, and he achieves this by writing as gracious a note as is possible in the circumstances.

Here is a sample of a letter of rejection fashioned by the editor of a Chinese journal:

We have read your manuscript with boundless delight. If we were to publish your paper, it would be impossible for us to publish any work of a lower standard. And as it is unthinkable that, in the next thousand years, we shall see its equal, we are, to our regret, compelled to return your divine composition, and to beg you a thousand times to overlook our short sight and timidity (Cited in Festus Adesanoye, The Book in Nigeria).

It is true that the standard rejection note is not as ebullient in tone as this one, but the real goal of the exercise is to say ‘thanks, but no’ in the most pleasant way possible.

Modified from: Festus Adesanoye, The Book in Nigeria: Some Current Issues, Ibadan University Press, 1995.