FAQ

Where do you get ideas from?

Ideas literally surround us and as writers our job is to be able to recognize potential ideas in everything we read, see or hear. Start by reading the daily and local newspapers. Oftentimes you may find a story at a national level that you can write on a local angle for your local paper. And you can often find a local story that you can turn into a national angle for a daily or even a magazine! Think about what you do, who you know and where you go each day. If you’re a parent, parenting alone is a great niche and your experiences can be turned into dozens of articles. Have you gone through the terrible twos with your child? Chicken pox? Have you found a way of making homework less of a chore? Chances are if it helped you, another parent is in need of your ‘information’ and a parenting magazine just might be interested in your story. Think about your hobbies. What do you collect? Do you travel? What are your interests? Chances are if there’s something you want to learn about you can write about it and there’s bound to be a reader out there who would like to learn about it too. A great way to get started is to simply take a sheet of paper and ‘brainstorm’ for ideas. Just start listing ideas off the top of your head and don’t worry about whether it’s ‘any good’ right now. Just list as many ideas as you can. From there you can go through your list and decide what ideas interest you most and then develop that idea. Ideas are everywhere ; it’s just a matter of learning how to tune in to the world around you!

If I have a magazine I would like to write for, how do I contact them?

If you have a magazine, or targeted market, you would like to write for, the first task you need to attack is getting to know that market. Obtaining the writer’s guuidelines for be one way but it’s very important to actually read copies of that magazine. The most inexpensive and easiest way to do that would be to visit your public library and see if you can find the most recent six issues of the magazine. The first thing you will need to do is find out if the magazine works with freelancers. Of course the guidelines will give you a percentage of the work used by freelancers but you can also fingure this out by studying the masthead. Look to see if the bylines, or names on the articles, match the names on the masthead. If the artilces don’t have bylines, chances are they are written by staff. If the magazine uses freelancers you will often see a section in the masthead called “contributing writers”. As a beginner, you’ll want to look for markets that use a high percentage of freelance writers as it’s easier to break in. You should also read through the magazine. What kinds of articles do they use?  Who are their readers? You wouldn’t want to submit an article on parenting toddlers to a magazine like More, whose readers tend to be 40-60 and in a different stage of life.  Once you have learned about who the magazine’s readers are, you can start coming up with ideas to approach the mgazine with.  Most writer’s guidelines will let you know how the editor prefrs to be contacted, whether by email or snail mail. The proper way to contact an editor is to send a query letter. A query letter is a one page letter introducing your idea to the editor as well as how you plan to handle writing the story. You should also include information as to who your sources will be and who you intend to interview for your story. The final paragraph should conclude with a brief biography of your writing abilities and any published credits you may have. A query letter should be written just as any other business letter is written.

Today, the internet offers writers a chance to get their ideas to the editor in a matter of seconds. But keep in mind that the same format for a business letter should be used even if you are sending your query letter by email. Sometimes you may get an answer just as fast, whether a yes or no, and sometimes you will still have to wait the amount of time they say it takes for them to respond. Response times vary from a month to three months but whatever they are, as stated in the writer’s guidelines, it’s important you respect that. If the guidelines state ‘responds in three months’ don’t think of emailing them a ‘reminder’ to see if they are interested in your idea. At the end of the waiting time, it’s appropriate to follow up with a quick, short note to see if they are interested in your idea.

I would like to approach my local paper for a writing job. How do I go about it the right way?

Your local paper is an excellent place to start your writing career. Even if you’re new to writing, you have a good chance at being hired as a stringer. Stringers are writers who write the material for the paper that staff often doesn’t have time for. Stringers freelance and what that really means is that they are not paid a salary but a flate rate per story and, since they are not staff, do not receive company benefits. However, the experience itself can be a benefit itself. Start by finding out the editor’s name and calling the editor. Yes, you can email the editor but I believe calling the editor is the first chance the editor has to get an impression of you. Tell the editor that you are looking to write for his or her newspaper and let him or her know what experience you have that would be of value to their newspaper. Don’t discuss whether you were paid for your writing if you are just starting out. If you’ve written anything, PTA newsletters, church letters, discuss those writing projects. Oftentimes the editor will set up an appointment to meet with you. Once you have your appointment set up, put together a portfolio that you can take with you. My portfolio included a resume of the few writing credits I had as well as some clips. Clips are the articles you have had published taken from the magazine or newpaper they were published in. If you haven’t been published, your clips might be a copy of the PTA newsletter, a copy of a letter you wrote for your church. Don’t disregard any writing you have done, even if it was just an editorial to your paper. Dress for business because that’s exactly what this is and no less. Respect the editor’s time by making sure you arrive on time. Present your portfolio and be enthusiastic. Afterall, he or she didn’t call you, you called them. Tell the editor that you are interested in learning about the newspaper industry and willing to write any articles that he or she needs. Unless they absolutely can not use stringers at this time, you should find yourself with a ‘test’ assignment. Take that test as seriously as you would any other test in life and write the best article you can. And make sure to find out exactly how the editor wants the test article sent in - shall you email it, drop off a hard copy (paper copy) or fax it? Then make sure you follow instructions. This will tell the editor that you can follow directions. Oh, and if the editor asks for the ‘test’ to be ready on Friday at 4pm, they mean 4pm Friday, not 5pm. Like any other job, follow directions and be prompt. Writing for your local newspaper is a great way to get clips, money and experience as you build your writing career.

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