Demystifying the Media: How to Write Features for Magazines

Writing features for magazines sounds like a nice easy way to make money, and for writers who already have established contacts in the industry, it is. Those of us who are just starting out however need to put in that little bit more effort. Your first step is to recognise that if you're a freelancer you are unlikely to earn a full time wage from magazine writing in the beginning. It is something you should be doing as an extra to other projects rather than relying on it as your sole source of income as when you first start out, it will definitely not cover the bills.

Your first step is to research the market. What publications are currently on sale and how many of them are you aware of? There are many books such as the Artists and Writers Year Book that offer lists of newspapers, magazines and digests that may consider printing your work, but the world of media moves very fast, and the best thing to do is actively go down to the newsagent and make a list of the ones that stand out. You are unlikely to have time to list every single one so start with your key interests or areas of expertise and then turn to the internet to research the titles you have listed in more detail.

For each publication write up a note card with the name of the title, a summary of their content, a summary of their tone and the editorial contacts you will need to submit an article pitch, which in the case of an unknown is usually the editorial assistant. Going through this process may seem quite arduous in the first instance but once you have completed it you will have a solid base of information on the magazine market which you can access whenever you want to approach a new magazine with an article. For those who are more PC savvy you could just as easily load this information into an Excel document, which makes it easier to find what you are looking for.

Before you start writing your article, you need to know which publication you want to pitch it to. Never write anything without first pitching it to a publication. It wastes your time and leads to unnecessary work. You might finish a 2000 word article and then on approaching a magazine find that they only accept articles of 1200 words. You must then spend precious time and effort re-editing the piece before the editor of the magazine even sees it. Once you have a feel for a magazines tone and approach you can start pitching articles to them, if they commission it then you write it. Doing it this way means if your ideas are rejected you haven't wasted time writing something they won't accept, and you can now take that idea away rework it and pitch it to somebody else.

When pitching an article you need to be as articulate as possible. You need to demonstrate an understanding of the publication in question and explain why the article you are pitching would be of interest to their readership. Before making your pitch it is important to read at least one issue of the publication in order to get a sense for their tone. Every title has a “voice” with which it speaks to readers. In order to write effective articles for a magazine you need to mimic this voice in order to make your work fit with their publication. The National Geographic for example will have a very different voice to Grazia. Both use a specific tone that fits with their readership and this is something you need to be aware of.

A further point to be aware of if you are pitching an article to a magazine is that you must have an “angle.” An angle is a perspective that gives a point to a piece of writing. For example, imagine how many articles a travel magazine receives on an annual basis about New York simply because it is a popular destination. Waffling on about the wonders of the Empire State Building are unlikely to get you published. It's been done. If you're going to write something about New York you need to find something new and inventive to say. You need to demonstrate that you're not just somebody trying to rehash their holiday experience for a bit of quick cash and that you take your writing serious. Be inventive and surprise an editor that's probably the best way to get them to say yes to an idea.

If you pitch your idea and are successful then you need to go back and study their publication once more before writing your piece. Do they write formally or is it okay to draw on personal experience and use the first person? Small details such as this must be noted otherwise you will completely undo all your hard pitching work. Once you have studied their publication all you need to do is write your piece making sure you stick within the guidelines given to you by the magazine and including all of the details they ask for in your brief - leaving elements they have asked for makes it look like you aren't meticulous about your work, which is not the impression you want to give.

Make sure that you back up any perspectives with facts and figures - just like at school sweeping statements without any evidence don't go down well either with editors or readers so make sure you do some research around your topic and credit any reports or research that you use. It's probably best to start out by writing about what you know. Maybe you studied psychology and did some important research into conformity that you want to document. Maybe you have become a parent and have picked up some skills that you want to pass on or perhaps you worked in a bank and are able to write articles on personal finance. Whatever your field of expertise, remember that you don't know everything about the subject and researching some basic facts will give your work a lot more credibility.

A final piece of advice when writing for magazines is to remember that you need to draw the reader in as quickly as possible. Start with a strong statement and then tease out the finer details by arranging them into paragraphs with a common thread. Developing a strong flow as a writer and being able to draw conclusions is a difficult skill to master, but can be improved by making a commitment to write something every day, even if you do look back on it and cringe. The very act of writing is practice for someone wanting to break into the industry, and like any skill, the more you do it the better you will get.