Fitting Your Ideas to the Market

For every article idea there are literally dozens or maybe even hundreds of potential markets.  The problem is that most of us, as writers, are market illiterates and simply won't or don't take the time to search for all the possibilities.

I know one writer who took a trip to EuropeEurope with the hope of selling a number of articles.  There, she shot hundreds of pictures interviewed two dozen people, and got as much information as possible.  Along the way she came up with some outstanding material: the Dingell PeninsulaPeninsula PeninsulaPeninsula, the Irish pubs of Dingell, walking in Churchill's footsteps. The street markets of LondonLondon, the Fitzpatrick Castle/retail.  A one-day trip to the western highlands of ScotlandScotland, and Walking the Royal mile in EnglandEngland.  These are great ideas, but so far, none of them have sold. Why?  Two reasons: the first is the she doesn't have a very good idea which magazines are interested in this type of material.  So, she submitted to such publications is Travel and Leisure and Travel -- Holiday Magazine both are good magazines but they receive so much material and require that it be handled in such a distinct way, that they are hard to hit.  Second, she hasn't studied these or other travel markets well.  She doesn't have a good understanding of what angles these or other publications take or know how they want their material put together to appeal to their readers.

This writer picked the magazines she did because it was obvious they take travel pieces.  That's okay, but such magazines are only the tip of the iceberg.  There are hundreds of publications that are not travel publications, but will still occasionally buy travel articles.  Some purchase a tremendous amount of material and most are easier to sell to than Travel and Leisure. 

These more general magazines are the ones you need to approach.  They represent what I called the "hidden travel market."  The Christian Science Monitor, for instance, has run many travel or travel -- related pieces such as "Gallery of Imported Food Boutiques," this is a specialized department in Bloomingdale's, "Summer Festival Honors Guadeloupe Women Cooks," a "The August Food Festival in Poiente--a--Pitre, French Caribbean island "Planning a Tour of English Gardens."  "The Wonderful VermontVermont Country Store."  A country store in western VermontVermont, and “Country Guesthouses in and around Grafton.”  All of these are travel pieces with rather special angles

The A. A., A. P., magazine recently ran Freeloader’s Guide to Exotic Vacations, Trip Tutor: Group Mentality, and Travel by the Book

The best volumes for armchair globetrotters, The World at Your Doorstep
Sip wine in FranceFrance, safari in Africa, visit the Holy Land—all without ever leaving the U.S.A.U.S.A.

All of these are articles that almost any writer could have picked up well on vacation in any of these places.  It is a matter of one being aware of what's going on around you and to trying to find all possible market for this type material.