Marketing
From a Magazines Point of View
The
easiest way to sell to one particular magazine is to consider that magazine without a preconceived idea in mind of a topic
or approach. You go through the publication carefully trying to decide what experience or experiences you already have that
this editor might buy. This is the basic concept. Now lets go through the individual steps and see how they work.
- Decide which magazines you would like to sell an article to. I ask myself two questions. Do I enjoy reading
the magazine and do I feel I could write similar articles in that magazines style.
- Go through each magazine carefully and let the articles suggest additional
ideas. Many times a magazines
articles suggest others I could do for that magazine.
- Explore your own information data bank to see how many of your suggested
articles you could do from the information you already have. You may have obtained this by taking a class by working a job by making clipping file
or by writing articles on similar subjects.
- Now create a number of ideas you think that magazine might by. Query with the best one and
see what happens. If you fail the first time dont give up but keep trying
Build From Projects Youve Already Completed
Once
youve sold an article dont quit looking for ways to sell the material in other ways. I for instance wrote several general
Houseboating articles in which I surveyed the Houseboating manufacturers and described the various models. Part of the material
concerned small trailable houseboats.
I sold one article to a
camping magazine. I then turned this around and sold a roundup on the same subject to Better Homes and Gardens. When
I finished this I proposed a book on Houseboating that Prentice Hall bought and brought out under the title The Wonderful
World of Houseboating.
I know a retired game warden
who wrote one article on his experiences as a game warden. Then building on this experience he wrote a piece on abalone poaching.
Then he took some of the funnier things that happened when he was a warden and sold "Silly Excuses Game Violators Use" to
Field and Stream. You can do this with almost every article you write. Simply try to get the maximum out of all your article
material.
