Tag: magazine writing

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Magazine and Freelance

Start Your Article With A Bang

Imagine yourself in a race and the gun is ready to begin the race. The Starter Gun goes, BANG!

This bang is how your magazine article needs to begin to pull readers into your article.

We live in this busy, hurry up, and get it done world. As an editor, I have authors who email me again after several days if they don’t get a response (just to make sure I got the first email—which I did). I’ve learned the hard way just to send a little email “got it” which reassures them. This same experience that I get in the world of book publishing is also true with magazines.

The attention of readers is pulled in many different directions. As an editor receives your magazine submission or after it gets in print, it is the writer’s obligation to draw the reader into your piece.

How do you begin?

Many writers are stuck with this question. They stare at their blank screen and are unsure how to get started. In this article I give four different methods to begin your article.

  1. Ask an interesting question. Can you summarize the theme of your article in a question? Or can you ask some intriguing question which begins your article? Asking a question can pull the reader into your article and answering the question can take the bulk of your article.
  2. Use a fascinating statistic or fact. A little research related to your topic can give you a statistic or fact to begin your article. Go to “google” or use a reference book on your shelf or any number of ways to get this statistic or fact as a means to begin your article. You can also go to your local library and ask the reference librarian for help with the statistic or fact. These professionals in the library are skilled answering these types of needs.
  3. Tell a short anecdote. We love and remember stories. A “different” story can be a terrific beginning for your magazine article and draw the reader into your story.
  4. Use a provocative quotation. Famous quotations can be another way to begin your magazine article. Pull the quotation from a book but this quotation can lead the reader through your magazine article.

If you are stuck starting your piece, select one of these methods and start typing. When your story is written, you can revise it later. The worst thing action and time waster for any writer is to stare into empty space and not begin writing. When this happens, you will not meet your editor’s expectations and deadline.  As a writer, you can meet the editor’s expectations delivering an excellent article on their deadline. When you meet these expectations, you will become someone the editor will want to work with over and over.

Every writer needs to learn how to begin their article with a bang.

Terry Whalin, a writer and acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing, lives in Colorado. A former magazine editor, Whalin has written for more than 50 publications including Christianity Today and Writer’s Digest. Terry is the author of How to Succeed As An Article Writer which you can get at: Write a magazine article.com. He has written more than 60 nonfiction books including Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams. His latest book is Billy Graham, A Biography of America’s Greatest Evangelist and the book website is at: Billy Graham Bio.com Watch the short book trailer for Billy Graham.

Categories
Magazine and Freelance

How to Give Editors What They Want by W. Terry Whalin

When the slick full-color magazines arrive in your home, many writers would like to write for those magazines and get published. But then a number of objections are raised in their minds like “it’s really hard to get into this publication.” Or “the editor probably already has their stable of regular contributors.”

From my many years as a magazine editor and writing for different publications, I know these objections are not true. In this article, I want to help you understand the needs of the magazine editor and how to write what they need for their publication.

  1. Editors Need Writers. Every magazine editor starts their issue with a blank slate then they fill that issue with quality writing targeted to their particular audience. While you should be encouraged that editors need you, they are also looking for a particular type of writer—someone who understands their audience and can produce excellent writing.
  2. Excellent Writing Is Required. What qualifies as excellent writing? Admittedly this qualification is subjective but excellent writing has patterns and standards that every writer can learn and apply to their own writing. For example, tvery story needs an interesting headline, an intriguing first sentence and first paragraph to draw the reader into the writing. Also the story must have a solid and logical flow or a beginning, middle and ending. The story must also have a single point for the reader which in the magazine world is called a takeaway. If your article doesn’t have this takeaway, show it to someone else and ask them if they got the point of the article. If they did not get it, then you need to rewrite your article until it is there.
  3. Study the publication and their guidelines. It seems simple and obvious that writers need to read the publication before submission. Too often writers will fire off their submission without covering this basic territory—and it is critical. As you read the publication in print or online, think about who is their audience and readers? What is the style of the various articles, length and shape of them? Is your submission similar? It should be. Then locate their submission guidelines and read this information. These guidelines tell you what the editor needs. Are you meeting one of their explicit needs in your submission? If so, you are increasing the possibility of getting published in this magazine.

To get your writing into a magazine, takes planning, thought and finally action. It doesn’t happen just “thinking about submitting your article.” You must take action—even if you get rejected. You need to keep trying to find the right place for your material to be published. Whether you are beginning or continuing to be published in magazines, write your article, then send it into the world. It’s the only way it happens.

________________________________________

Terry Whalin, a writer and acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing, lives in Colorado. A former magazine editor, Whalin has written for more than 50 publications including Christianity Today and Writer’s Digest. Terry is the author of How to Succeed As An Article Writer which you can get at: http://writeamagazinearticle.com/. He has written more than 60 nonfiction books including Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams. His latest book is Billy Graham, A Biography of America’s Greatest Evangelist and the book website is at: http://BillyGrahamBio.com Watch the short book trailer for Billy Graham at: http://bit.ly/BillyGrahamBT His website is located at: www.terrywhalin.com. Follow him on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/terrywhalin

Categories
Magazine and Freelance

MAGAZINE WRITERS WANTED – BY W. TERRY WHALIN

As a long-time writer for magazines and a former magazine editor, there are some basic truths about publishing in magazines. Through writing for magazines, you can build publishing credentials and make a valuable contribution to the publishing world and help many people. If you’ve never been published or rarely published, to enter the print magazine world can be scary. It doesn’t have to be frightening if you learn some straightforward truths.

Continue reading “MAGAZINE WRITERS WANTED – BY W. TERRY WHALIN”
Categories
Magazine and Freelance

First Things First

WTerryWhalin

By: Terry Whalin

Many people want to publish their writing. After working as a magazine editor for years plus writing for many publications, there is a simple truth every writer needs to remember and practice:

[bctt tweet=”You have to do first things first…submit your work #freelance #magazine” username=”@A3forme”]

If you only dream about writing and never submit your work, then you’ve never taken that first step toward publication.

Yet even before you submit anything, you have to handle the blank computer screen. How do you figure out what to write?

Many writers and would-be writers have told me how that blank page petrifies them. In this article, we’ll explore my technique for getting started to write for magazines. It’s a rare day that I have trouble putting those initial words on paper. I always jot down some ideas ahead of time before I write. Maybe my notes are just a couple of points that I want to cover when I write the article. The reality is ideas for magazine articles are everywhere and the places to write are just as plentiful. Maybe you have had an interesting personal experience that you want to capture in your story. Possibly you have been involved in a ministry and created some unique materials that you’d like to tell to others through a how-to article. Maybe you’ve compiled some teaching on a topic from the Bible and would like to get that into print.

Or if you don’t have any material from your own experience to write about, consider interviewing some interesting people around you and writing their story for publication.

Before you write anything, the first questions to ask are:

Who is my audience?

What publication will use this article?

The possibilities are endless: adult, women, men, children, teenagers, or youth. Are they in a specialized occupation such as pastors or school-teachers? Are they a certain age?

[bctt tweet=”The important thing is to be sure to target a specific audience. #Freelance #amwriting” username=”@A3forme @terrywhalin “]You can’t write an article assuming that every reader will want to read your material because that simply isn’t the case. Articles are written for a particular audience and a particular publication.

Every writer meets with rejection and projects which are never published. In fact, I have files of material which has circulated and never been published. I caution you that rejection and unpublished articles are a part of the writer’s life and the road to consistent publication.

As a writer, you have to practice first things first. Craft your article for a particular audience then get it off your desk and into the hands of an editor. It can happen, if you get it into the market so make your move today.

Terry Whalin, a writer and acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing, lives in Colorado. A former magazine editor, Whalin has written for more than 50 publications including Christianity Today and Writer’s Digest. He has written more than 60 nonfiction books including Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams. His latest book is Billy Graham, A Biography of America’s Greatest Evangelist and the book website is at: http://BillyGrahamBio.com Watch the short book trailer for Billy Graham at: http://bit.ly/BillyGrahamBT His website is located at: www.terrywhalin.com. Follow him on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/terrywhalin