April, 2005

Getting Published in Magazines

by Kit Brown, VP Programs, STC-SRC Chapter

 

We live in a great community, but sometimes living here means that we work as contractors or take lower wages than our peers in other areas. Writing for magazines is a great way to earn some extra money and to gain some recognition at the same time.

 

At the March 9th meeting, the inimitable John Hedtke explained how to get published in magazines. About 20 people attended the meeting, which was held in H&W Computing Systems' conference room. (Thanks H&W!)


John provided some great tips:

  • Assess your skills: What do you know? What do you like to do? What are you interested in learning more about?
  • Identify job specialties: If you haven't ever published in a magazine, it might be easier to start out with a trade journal in your field.
  • Identify life experiences: You know more than you think you do. Have you had an unusual experience or an interesting one? What about experiences of family and friends?

Once you have identified skills, then identify the broad themes that run through you life, such as, computers, finances, woodworking, hunting, and so on.
Once you have a broad theme, you can begin narrowing or combining them into actual story ideas. If you are having trouble coming up with something, think about what you would like to know about a particular topic and write about that.

 

John recommends writing query letters rather than writing the article and then shopping it around. It looks more professional, and you don't do a lot of work without getting paid.

 

Use the following resources to identify your markets and opportunities:

 

As John said in his parting shot, "There are over one billion words published in the US every month. There's no reason why some of them can't be yours."

 

    

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From the President

 

Continuing Education? STC Members Speak Out

 

Continuing Education in Technical Communication

 

Geting Published in Magazines

 

Advances in Education Initiative

 

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