How to Write for a Magazine

Do you want to write an article for a magazine but don’t know how? Associate Editor Ashley Biggers of New Mexico magazine provides aspiring writers with tips on how to write for magazines. 

1. Read a bunch of magazines and get a feel for what they’re about and what interests you about them. Whatever magazine interests you most would be the best magazine to pitch your ideas to because you’d be writing similar stories compared to the ones you’ve read.
2. Go to the magazine’s Web site and view their contributor guidelines, which will tell you what types of stories and writers the magazine’s interested in working with, as well as what’s required for a submission like photographs or a video.
3. Pick a story idea that interests you and fits the magazine’s contributor guidelines.
4. Write a query letter, which functions in two ways: to explain your story idea and to ask for it to be published.
5. Edit your query letter and re-edit your query letter, because one misspelled word can result in a rejection of your idea.
6. Send your query letter to the magazine and wait for its approval or disapproval.
7. Once your idea has been accepted, research and investigate your story.
8. Write your article.
9. Take video footage and several pictures representing your story, if required by the contributor’s guidelines.
10. Edit video and size pictures according to the contributor’s guidelines.
11. Edit your and re-edit your article.
12. Submit your article, supporting pictures and/or video footage ON TIME. If it’s not on time, it will more than likely not be published.

Following these tips provided by Associate Editor Ashley Biggers will strengthen your story and increase its chances of being published.