The aim is to write at least 50,000 words in this period – my Dashboard calculator has smugly told me that this means I need to write 1,666.66667 words a day. It also means I need a new chair. I did have an office chair – granted it was a little cheapo basic one, but it served me well for many years. Until my husband recently pulled the back off it. Now it masquerades as a stool, gives me a flat arse and provides no lumbar support.

Anyhoo, I’m very eager to get started on My First Novel, but er, I should probably spend the rest of October coming up with a plot. It might help.

Get Some Writing Clips

To begin with, you may want to write articles for student magazines, local newsletters/papers or websites where you stand a good chance of getting your work published. These may not pay well or at all, but the idea is to build up a portfolio of articles to showcase your skills and outline your experience.

Researching Your Market

Don’t write the article before researching the magazine you want to send it to! The first step is always analysing the magazine(s) on your chosen topic, to see if your article idea would be appropriate for them.

Make a list of the magazines in your niche that will accept freelance contributions, then get your hands on a few copies and note answers to the following questions:

• How long are the articles?
• What age/gender/background are articles aimed at?
• What adverts are there? (The type of products advertised can tell you a lot about the readership and their lifestyles.)
• What type of language is used – informal/formal/technical?
• Are sentences short and snappy with short paragraphs, or longer with more information?

Writing a Query Letter

These are essential in catching an editor’s eye and gaining their interest. They will also save you the extra work of preparing and submitting an entire manuscript without knowing if it will be accepted.

Query letters are usually no longer than one page, and comprise of four paragraphs:

Introduction – start with an attention-grabbing opening, mentioning anything unusual or newsworthy about your article.

Why the article is of benefit to the readership – stress its appeal to that particular magazine’s readership.

Outline of the article – include a word count, short description of the piece, and mention any experts featured.

Qualifications and achievements as a writer – convince the editor you are experienced and professional.

If sending by post, make sure you include a stamped addressed envelope with your letter, as well as a few samples of your work. If querying by email, provide a few links to work online.

As a freelance writer, there’s nothing more satisfying than seeing your name in print. The internet has made getting published a whole lot easier, but to break into writing for magazines you need to show a real flair for writing, combined with fresh and relevant ideas for various types of readership.

Try writing a piece with an unusual slant on an everyday topic – for example, a magazine about cats will receive many articles on caring for cats, but if you can provide a piece that stands out from the rest, you’re more likely to succeed.

As well as a computer, pen and paper, you’re also going to need a thick skin and a lot of patience. Magazine editors are very busy people, and may take months to reply to a query letter. Add on the time between them accepting a piece and it appearing in the magazine, plus up to 30 days or so for the cheque to arrive, and you’ve got quite a wait on your hands.

If you are planning on making most of your income from writing for magazines, then you may want to write reader’s letters and fillers in the gaps between articles, as these tend to pay well for the small word count involved, and you will get any payments due to you a lot quicker.

Readers’ Letters

Readers’ letters are a great place to start on your writing journey. Many magazines offer cash or a prize for the ‘star letter’, and many of the woman’s weeklies will pay for a humorous picture accompanied by 50-150 words.

Anecdotes and letters in praise of the magazine are popular for acceptance – but don’t be afraid to put an alternative view across. Many letters are published where the writer may not agree with the views of an article in the previous issue, as this not only stimulates debate (perhaps on the magazine’s online forums, which are now becoming increasingly popular), but also shows that the letters are from real readers, affirming the magazine’s credibility.

Fillers

Fillers are those pieces of writing somewhere in-between a letter and a full-length article. They are designed to be short and snappy, and often occupy excess space on a page.

Not all magazines use them; so do check previous issues of a publication before submitting a filler to it. They usually take the form of a list, or some relevant and useful information (up to approx. 500 words) that would not translate into a full-length article.

For example, a filler for a cookery magazine could be ‘Five Great Websites for Slow Cooker Recipes’, with a short amount of text describing each website.

In Part 2…

Next time we’ll cover the importance of writing clips/samples, researching your target market and writing a professional query letter.