Writing for magazines is like any other kind of writing (no matter how many times you’ve seen The Devil Wears Prada); you just have to know enough to get you where you want to be. With a few strategic tweaks, you can make your stories stand out in the sea of cluttered inboxes.

So, here are 25 tips for pitching, writing, and being published in magazines:

1. Read the magazines you want to pitch to before you send a pitch.

2. Not sure if your story is the right fit? Look at the magazine’s press or media kit. It’s for advertisers, but will have editorial calendars you can use for pitches and story ideas.

3. Find your niche, but be open to adapting. What you like to write about may be different than the work you like to read. Start with what you’re drawn to and see how it evolves over time.

4. Want your story in print? Pitch your story 8-12 months in advance. Most print publications work 6+ months in advance, and with editors’ schedules, it could take you a lot longer to get in touch with them and for them to develop your story. 

5. ALWAYS look for submission guidelines. Most magazines have a preference for how they want you to send them story ideas and the kinds of stories they’re looking for. They also may include tips on how to best pitch them.

6. Don’t submit just one story idea. Have 2-3, so if your first pitch doesn’t get chosen, editors already have a couple of other options. 

7. Add the word PITCH to your email subject line with the general topics or ideas you’re pitching or if there’s a specific vertical/column/section you’re pitching your story for.

8. Make the first paragraph of your pitch email a connection one. Whether it’s a recent story you read in the magazine (online or in print) or a personal connection you have to the editor. Show you’re paying attention to them and their publication.

9. In your second paragraph move into why that inspired you to reach out to this specific editor at this specific time with these stories.

10. Give each of your story ideas a headline. You can use tools like CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer to test out headlines and see how effective they are on an audience. 

11. Make your story pitches no more than 3 sentences. Give the who, what, when, where, and why it matters now.

12. In your closing, mention other places where your work has been seen. These clips can be your own website or other magazines and publications where you’ve been published. Also mention that if they have any questions or would like additional ideas, you’d be happy to provide them. 

13. Be professional, but sound like yourself. There are basic structures to pitches, but the important thing is the content. Get to the point, be a real human and show why this idea matters. 

14. Editors are people too. Be kind to them and their time. Haven’t heard back from them in a week or two? Send a quick email just checking in and seeing if they have any questions. Don’t be rude or demanding. After your second follow-up, if there’s no response, you can move on. But if it’s a publication you really have your eye on, you can send a third follow-up but leave it after that. 

15. Find an assistant or junior editor to pitch to—they need stories and will be more likely to open and respond to your emails than a more senior editor. You find full lists of people in the masthead (at the beginning of the magazine).

16. If a magazine doesn’t have submission guidelines or you want to pitch to a specific editor, you can look for a contact page or even Google the specific person with the email at the end of their name ex. “Quinn Jones foodie fan magazine email.” If you can’t find the email of your targeted editor, find the email address of other people who work at the magazine and just add your editor’s name there. Ex. You find lu.parker@foodiefanmag.com, instead of Quinn’s. So, you’d email jones.quinn@foodiefanmag.com.

17. The editorial world is small and people move around a lot. The editorial assistant you pitch to one year could be a senior editor in the next year or two. So, be gracious in all of your pitches and follow-ups. You never know what pitches weren’t right at the time, but are perfect for a future spot in the magazine.

18. If you have an outlet you really want to write for, send an editor an interesting subject or story idea or compliment them on something they’ve recently written or published. Don’t forget that your insights and connections are also valuable, and these quick check-ins will remind your dream outlets of that.

19. So, your pitch has been accepted? Huzzah! Your editor will give you a deadline, and it’s yours to keep. If you get stuck or need an extension, tell them as soon as possible. They can’t help you if they don’t know what’s going on.

20. Revisions are part of the process, and your first draft is….a first draft. Yes, you want to submit a solid piece of writing, but very rarely, will an article be published untouched. Be curious about your editor’s suggestions and presume they have the best intentions with their edits.

21. Pitching to magazines is the best way to find a book idea and grow your audience. A lot of writers begin with a personal essay or article for a publication that turns into a full-length book. They also are able to expand their platform and reach, which comes in handy regardless of what genre you’re writing in.

22. Hone your craft. Some helpful books to get you started are The Essential Feature by Vicki Hay, Telling True Stories: A Non-fiction Writers’ Guide from the Neiman Foundation at Harvard University edited by Mark Kramer, and Story Craft by Jack Hart.

23. Join professional groups for magazines and also organizations in your niche. Not sure where to start? Find writers and editors you admire and look at the groups they belong to. You’ll often find this on their LinkedIn, website, or even their social media.

24. Support other writers when their stories get published. It’ll make it easier for people to support you when your work is out in the world too.

25. Have a friend who’s written for a specific publication? Ask them who their editor was, and if they have any suggestions on what kinds of stories to pitch. Your network is bigger than you realize, and most people are happy to share advice and connections. Just make sure you pay it forward when the time comes.

Tell us in the comments: Have you ever thought about pitching articles to magazines?

Amanda Polick is a writer and book coach, who guides food folks through the writing process. Her work has been featured by Cooking Light, Food & Wine and Time. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee now, but a piece of her will be in California forever. To connect with Amanda, you can find her on her website.

The post 25 Tips for Pitching, Writing, and Being Published in Magazines appeared first on DIY MFA.

Writing for a magazine might not be the first thing on your mind when you think of your next food book. However, Nigella Lawson, Anthony Bourdain, and Toni Tipton-Martin were journalists or magazine writers before they released celebrated and award-winning culinary books. Then there’s Food 52’s Amanda Hesser and the iconic Ruth Reichl who both snagged jobs at publications after their debut books came out.

Pitching to a culinary magazine requires an intense knowledge of a subject, a reason you’re the one who is meant to write that piece and a seed of a larger story aka your book. Here’s how to get to your book idea with your next magazine pitch.

Explain Your Idea in A Sentence or Two

Be it screenplays or full-length novels, the elevator pitch stumps writers more than the work itself, and the food world is no different. Culinary pitching may be more difficult because everyone is an expert in the kitchen now. Also, when you pitch to agents and publishers, you’ll need a quick sell in your back pocket as you talk up your book.

In the beginning, there may be this inkling of what the story is and how you’ll write it. People probably ask how the book is going, and you give a lengthy response that’s met with enthusiasm. You may have journals and notebooks with ideas and have even spent some time in the kitchen developing some recipes. The idea isn’t quite there, but you feel like you’ll be able to describe your book when it’s complete. So, you’re on a good path, right?

Not quite. If you can’t sum up your idea into a sentence or two, you don’t have a book — yet.

Pitching to a magazine though forces you to think about the essentials needed to describe your story. It eliminates the fluff and vagueness, so people know what your story is and why they should care immediately. 

Have a Bold or Unique Culinary Angle

With the rise of the celebrity chefs and influencer home cooks, you don’t have to go far to see how saturated the culinary market is. Not that you shouldn’t pursue your book idea, but you need to be intentional about why it should exist.

In improv, a performer shouldn’t enter a scene unless they have something to add to it. It’s the same with writers. There should be a reason you’re writing the book you are. Food writing is tricky because the majority of readers have access to full kitchens where they can experiment with millions of recipes on the internet. 

So, ask yourself: What’s my solution or point of view for a common problem or topic?

It was Bourdain’s article “Don’t Eat Before Reading This” in The New Yorker that shot him to notoriety and contained much of what you’ll find in Kitchen Confidential, which was published a year later. He was spilling secrets most restaurants or kitchen staff didn’t want you to know. This was probably a conversation he had hundreds of times with colleagues and decided one day to bite the bullet and put the not so tasty truth out there.

Know Where the Story Will End

There are two kinds of writers: Those who write by the seat of their pants and those who plot their work before they begin.

In journalism, you have an idea of a story, and it may turn into something unexpected, but for the most part, you know what the conclusion will be. With book writing, it’s easy to brush off the need to know where the story will end. Most writers believe they’ll figure it out along the way. More often than not, the pages are more freewriting than structured, with many scenes happening for no reason. 

Food writing trips people up because they believe universal experiences, like eating and cooking together, don’t require a full narrative. Readers will just “get it”. However, Amanda Hesser’s Cooking for Mr. Latte chronicles her year long courtship with her now husband. There’s an expiration date on the story starting in the introduction. It’s also not just a book about food, but about how her relationship transformed her time in the kitchen.

Giving yourself a light structure for a pitch allows you to keep some guardrails on. Your book can’t contain every story you’ve ever imagined. There has to be some discernment. 

Focus On the Benefit It’ll Bring Readers (and Publication)

You can’t have a successful pitch without thinking of the person on the other side. Writers make the mistake of focusing on how writing for a publication will help them, but fail to address how it will add value for the editors and readers. 

How will someone’s life be easier or better by reading your work? Is there a common myth you want to dispel? What will a reader lose by not taking your advice? Is this the right story for this publication? 

Even if you’re a well-known food writer, editors want there to be a meaningful takeaway for their readers. People share impactful ideas. So if your story creates a clear benefit, chances are readers will want to share your work, which will increase the publication’s website traffic.

Working through each of these elements will not only help you figure out the story you want to write, but it will give you an edge for every story moving forward. Knowing how to pitch your work is essential for every writer, and if you can nail a solid pitch for your next food piece with a magazine, you’re well on your way to the next mountain — your book.

Amanda Polick is a book coach for food and entertainment professionals based in Nashville, Tennessee. When she’s not eating her way through her newest stack of cookbooks, this former actor and improviser can be found looking for her next favorite performer. Her work has been featured in Cooking Light, Food & Wine, and Time and is now a regular columnist for DIYMFA. To reach out or learn more, visit her website for free inspiration and book writing guides.

The post Why Your Next Culinary Book is in a Magazine Pitch appeared first on DIY MFA.

Today I’m absolutely thrilled to introduce you to Jessica Strawser, the editorial director of Writer’s Digest magazine, and author of the stunning debut novel Almost Missed You.

As editor of Writer’s Digest magazine, she has interviewed luminaries like David Sedaris and Alice Walker. She is now a debut author herself—her novel was released yesterday from St. Martin’s Press—and her book has already garnered early accolades from an amazing list of bestselling authors.

Her second novel is slated for release in Spring 2018 and let me just say… I can’t wait. Today, Jessica and I dive into some of the decisions she made in crafting Almost Missed You. Listen in to the episode below.

In this episode Jessica and I discuss:

• Strategies for setting up your first chapter. Jessica and I unpack ways to craft your first chapter for maximum effect.
• Shifting POV between multiple main characters. Picking which elements of the characters’ stories you want to show, and which you want to keep hidden.
• Tapping your personal perspective, emotions, and experiences to help illustrate character experiences in your novel.
• Balancing work, writing, and family in such a way that sets you up to be successful, and helps you channel the strongest emotions possible to your characters. Knowing and being clear about your priorities to meet your goals.

Plus, her #1 tip for writers.

About the Author

Jessica Strawser is the editorial director of Writer’s Digest magazine, North America’s leading publication for aspiring and working writers since 1920, where she counts her cover interviews with such luminaries as David Sedaris and Alice Walker among her career highlights. Her debut novel, Almost Missed You, is forthcoming in March 2017 from St. Martin’s Press and has garnered early accolades from a humbling list of bestsellers, including Chris Bohjalian, Garth Stein, Adriana Trigiani, Lisa Scottoline and Jacquelyn Mitchard, and a second novel is slated for a Spring 2018 release.

Her diverse career in the publishing industry spans more than 15 years and includes stints in book editing, marketing and public relations, and freelance writing and editing (with work published in The New York Times and other fine publications). She blogs at WritersDigest.com and elsewhere, tweets @jessicastrawser and enjoys connecting at Facebook.com/jessicastrawserauthor. Learn more at jessicastrawser.com.

Almost Missed You

Violet and Finn were “meant to be,” said everyone, always. They ended up together by the hands of fate aligning things just so. Three years into their marriage, they have a wonderful little boy, and as the three of them embark on their first vacation as a family, Violet can’t help thinking that she can’t believe her luck. Life is good.

So no one is more surprised than she when Finn leaves her at the beach—just packs up the hotel room and disappears. And takes their son with him. Violet is suddenly in her own worst nightmare, and faced with the knowledge that the man she’s shared her life with, she never really knew at all.

Caitlin and Finn have been best friends since way back when, but when Finn shows up on Caitlin’s doorstep with the son he’s wanted for kidnapping, demands that she hide them from the authorities, and threatens to reveal a secret that could destroy her own family if she doesn’t, Caitlin faces an impossible choice.

Told through alternating viewpoints of Violet, Finn and Caitlin, ALMOST MISSED YOU is a powerful story of a mother’s love, a husband’s betrayal, connections that maybe should have been missed, secrets that perhaps shouldn’t have been kept, and spaces between what’s meant to be and what might have been.

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link, where if you choose to purchase DIY MFA makes a small commission at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 140

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, leave a review, and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available. Also, if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please share!

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 140: Writing Multiple POV Suspense — Interview with Jessica Strawser appeared first on DIY MFA.

Today I’m interviewing the awesome Zachary Petit. Zac is the editor of the National Magazine Award-winning publication PRINT. He is also a freelance journalist, a lifelong literary and design nerd, and a friend. Formerly, he was the senior managing editor of HOW magazine and PRINT, the longtime managing editor of Writer’s Digest magazine, and executive editor of the newsstand magazines Writer’s Workbook, Writer’s Yearbook and Writing Basics.

Zac is the author of The Essential Guide to Freelance Writing: How to Write, Work and Thrive On Your Own Terms (which is out now) and co-author of A Year of Writing Prompts: 366 Story Ideas for Honing Your Craft and Eliminating Writer’s Block.

In addition, Zac has written thousands of articles, both as a staff writer and editor, as well as a freelance writer. This means he can speak about freelance writing from both the editor and author perspectives. If you’ve ever wanted to learn about freelance writing, this is the podcast episode for you. Listen up!

In this episode Zac and I discuss:

• Why a writer would want to freelance.
• How and why to adapt your voice when freelancing.
• How to break into freelancing.
• Debunking major myths about freelance writing.
• How to expand your professional network.
• The pros and cons of pitching an idea versus pitching an article on spec.

Plus, Zac’s #1 tip for writers.

About Zachary Petit:

Zachary Petit is the editor of PRINT magazine, which is the major magazine in the design realm. (When I worked in design, PRINT was synonymous with “bible.”) Formerly Zac was the managing editor of Writer’s Digest magazine, and later PRINT, and HOW magazines as well. In addition, Zac has an active freelance writing career.

Alongside the thousands of articles he has penned as a staff writer and editor, covering everything from the secret lives of mall Santas to creative legends, his words also regularly appear in National Geographic Kids, and have also popped up in the pages of National Geographic, Melissa Rossi’s What Every American Should Know book series, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency and many other outlets.

Zac’s wonderful book, The Essential Guide to Freelance Writing: How to Write, Work and Thrive On Your Own Terms is out now. I’ve started reading it and boy do I wish I had gotten my hands on this book sooner because already I have learned so much. He is also the co-author of A Year of Writing Prompts: 366 Story Ideas for Honing Your Craft and Eliminating Writer’s Block.

Zac is obsessed with all things writerly (even down to his nerdy tattoos), and is a firm believer that anyone can break into any facet of the writing world—they just need to know the appropriate way in. Once that has been demystified, anything is possible.

To learn more about Zachary Petit, follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter or visit his website.

Link to Episode 77

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, leave a review, and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available. Also, if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please share!

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome.

The post Episode 77: Build Your Freelance Writing Career – Interview with Zachary Petit appeared first on DIY MFA.

Guys, science fiction and fantasy is bigger and better than ever. Check it out: Almost everybody knows at least something about Game of Thrones, The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Avatar, Ender’s Game… The list of TV and movies for us genre fans just keeps growing, and I couldn’t be happier.

But some of us (read: me, a couple of years ago) have only heard of the mainstream stuff. While everyone may have seen a “Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine” on the shelf at their local Barnes and Noble—and, as a genre writer, it’s hard not to know about magazines like these that mostly pay pro rates—I’ve decided to illuminate five of the smaller, free-er, better (whoops, is that my bias showing?) literary magazines for fantasy and science fiction writers.

 I’m a big proponent of submitting work, especially when you’re just starting out, to the smaller magazines. Support your little startups and get yourself some exposure in the meantime.

Without further ado: Readers, mine this gold in the interwebs infosphere! Almost all these mags are read-for-free! Writers of genre literature: Submit here! Everything has a flat or semi-pro rate on this list!

Five Literary Magazines for the Scifi and Fantasy Writer

Fiction Vortex

Whoops, there goes my bias, showing all over the place again. Fiction Vortex is the first place that bought one of my science fiction stories, and remains to be one of my favorite magazines to read.

Need some proof? Check out this story, about a strange little girl in a strange, lush fantasy world. Not stringent enough for you science fiction fans? How about this one, in which the main character must continued her abhorred father’s work to find sentience in a bunch of wriggly worms.

Yeah. They’re basically awesome.

Bonus: They give out extra moneys for Editor’s Choice picks and a Reader’s Choice poll every month.

Kasma SF

I found Kasma through this incredible story, detailing the struggle of a man determined to find out, once and for all, what’s real and what isn’t. After perusing their online catalog for a while, one thought came to mind:

Woah. These guys are serious about serious science fiction, ranging from technology to social issues.

For example, don’t you wish that all creatures great and small could live together in harmony? Yeah. I did too before I read this one.

Bonus: You can flip through stories randomly, making it feel like a fun game to find your favorite!

Apex Magazine

This is kinda one of the Big Ones—they pay pro payment (6 cents per word, according to SFWA), so I wondered about including Apex because lots of sci-fi writers already know about them. But ultimately I couldn’t exclude one of my favorite magazines.

Apex has been host to greats like Theodora Goss, Saladin Ahmed, Elizabeth Bear, former editor Catherynne M. Valente (I can’t get over how fantastic she is), and a personal favorite of mine, Kelly Link, who wrote “The Constable of Abal.” She looks at  ghosts and witches in a way nobody ever has before, twisting tropes and making everything all beautiful.

Apex is brilliant at curating both the light and beautiful and the dark and hair-raising. A more recent story, “Coins for Their Eyes” by Kris Millering, is a wonderful example of a read for darker seasons.

Betwixt Magazine

Betwixt is not too old or well-known yet, but it’s well on its way, boasting up-and-coming names in speculative fiction. Their choice in fiction is really beautiful—they go for tight character stories that taste like poetry. Take Sean R. Robinson’s “Madder Root and Rampion.” It’s a lush thicket of savory images—even sporting a great example of how to do second-person POV right!

Or how about Sara Saab’s “Blood Pepper and Brave Meat”? It’s just as rich and even more accessible. Its seven-year-old narrator is worried about all normal things a seven-year-old should worry about—plus watching gladiators fight and selling illegal drugs. She learns a hard lesson about the world and learns to stand up for herself.

Mmm. Speculative-fiction-poetry. My favorite kind of yum.

Fantasy Scroll Mag

If fast-paced sci-fi and fantasy genre literature is more your game, check out Fantasy Scroll. Its issues are packed to the gills with interviews (with famous people!) as well as up-and-coming writers on the more traditional side of the genre.

I picked out two firey examples from the latest issue to inflame your fantasy-taste-buds. First, check out “The First First Fire” by Alexander Monteagudo.  The bite-sized story chronicles a gentle man and how he comes to protect his village.

Another story with more of a horror lean is “Burn in Me” by Carrie Martin. All I’m sayin’ is, if you’re a firefighter, watch out for fire-demons. What I love about both stories is that they focus tightly around one character’s journey and arc, something that all of us genre writers could do to learn how to write.

 And that’s it! What do you think? Did I hit your favorite genre literature magazine?

The post #5OnFri: The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazines You’ve Never Heard Of appeared first on DIY MFA.