DREAMS CAN COME TRUE
I'm not a famous journalist. I've never written fiction, and my mother tongue is Italian. But if you are reading this in a magazine, this means that I've understood the snags and tricks of the freelance journalist.
Freelance writing for magazines is exciting, absorbing, and - I can't deny it - sometimes frustrating. But any published writer will tell you there is nothing quite like the exhilaration of seeing your own work in print and knowing that for that day or week or month, at least, many thousands of readers will be reading what you have written.
There are no mysteries. Any book on writing for magazines and any short journalism course will teach you how to get published - how and what to write, where to research and how to sell an article.
But no matter how many books you read or how much guidance you absorb, success in writing journalistic features depends on four important factors:
1 Dogged
perseverance
2 Quality writing
3 Dedicated market study
4 Accurate Research
"Every course I've four or five students out of 16 who get published somewhere," says Kevin Sheridan - a freelancer who teaches 'Introduction to Journalism' at the Birkbeck College. "Most of the people who attend my evening courses have already a good job. But they want to try writing because it is more charming than their job. And who succeed are those who persevere."
"The secret is to get something - anything - published," says Sue Dawson, freelancer for the FT. "Then you can send more ideas to other magazines and say you are a published writer. Because one editor had taken your copy, others felt that they weren't taking too much of a risk with you."
"Now most of the daily papers have an extra supplement every day," says Stephen McGookin, news editor of the FT's web site. "But no paper could ever afford to employ full time staff to cope with those vast acres of paper. In fact nine times out of ten those features are commissioned to freelancers."
"There are magazines wanting us as badly as we want them," writes Jill Dick in her guide book 'Writing for Magazines'. "Imagine looking at a sheet of paper the size of a tennis court and knowing you have to fill it with words and pictures every week. For not only must the space be filled, it must be irresistibly filled, if existing readers are to be kept happy and new ones attracted."
The whole aim of submitting to a magazine is to please the readers and that means pleasing the editor. So you need to know how editors think. They know their readers' tastes (their jobs depend on such knowledge) and if you can hook them you are off to a good start.
"Catch the editor attention with an intriguing, topical and well-targeted query letter. And quite easily the editor will call you back for more details" - says Geoff Hobbs, Sunday Times freelancer contributor.
To know the editor and the readers, you have to read and re-read the magazines themselves. For a monthly magazines a study of at least six issues is advisable, including the most recent, and paying close attention to at least ten editions of a weekly magazine is likely to yield the best results.
Contacting the editor at the right time often makes the difference between success and rejection. For the May issue, go back four months to the start of January. This is the month in which the May issue will be planned and articles will be allotted space. But the buying, i.e. acceptance of freelance submissions, will already have taken place before this - say during December.
So how do you get to the editor? A useful solution for a beginner is to try 'work experience' for a magazine. You will end up in preparing coffees and doing photocopies, but it is a useful way for networking and meeting editors to propose your ideas to him/her - face to face.
Professionals phone or write. Some editors prefer written pieces, some prefer a quick call. It will depend more on you. If you feel confident on the telephone, a call can't hurt.
But don't assume editors are there to take your call. They are in editorial conference or out for their lunch break. Call the switchboard and ask witch is the best time to speak with the editor. I always phone at around 12.30pm - the editor will just have come out of conference promising stories that he probably hasn't got. However, you must be well prepared and it could mean instant rejection.On the other hand, preparing and writing a good query letter doesn't guarantee success, only a long wait. Always remember to enclose a stamped self-addressed envelope. Stamps and envelopes cost money. Then politeness always pays. Why should anyone reply to something uninvited and perhaps unwanted?
But by not doing either, you won't get any reply - and that reply could have been positive. Go for it! You have nothing to lose apart from a 26p stamp or a 10p call.
felice petrelli