THE PUBLISHING PROJECT

 Freelance writers study their target magazines

---First they understand the Writer's Guidelines available in most magazines and respect word length and other requirements the magazine has for pieces submitted. (Type the name of the magazine plus the words 'writer’s guidelines' into Google.)

 ---They become familiar with the tenor and the style of the pieces that the magazine has published by reading the magazine. I had a friend who would go further and read the first and last paragraph of every piece in a magazine to get the feel for any style of article structure the magazine may like.

---Even if you aren't an article or short fiction writer, there may possibly be sections of a larger work you are creating that could be taken out and offered as a shorter piece.

 

For those of you who don't have a background in submitting, I've suggested you start by studying the magazine, Northwest Primetime ( http://www.northwestprimetime.com ).

 

---They are a completely online magazine. As a way of studying a magazine I suggest subscribing to it, it's free. Read it regularly, look over each issue and get a feel for the magazine as a whole.

 ---Its primary readership is seniors, thus articles of interest to seniors would get more serious consideration (If you want to know to what population a magazine targets, read their ads.)

 ---They accept general articles, though. I have had a couple that centered around recipes and a humor piece about wearing scarves. 

 ---There is a special section called, Sharing Stories, that accepts an eclectic mix of articles, short fiction and poetry.

---Submitting a piece to it would be a more realistic way of breaking into publishing pieces and gaining 'tear sheets". A tear sheet is proof you've been published usually a .pdf of the first page of your article or piece in the magazine. (Computer centers at Senior centers can help with computer related needs.) When you send future articles out to magazines your cover letter can then say, "Tear sheets available" which catches the attention of editors realizing your pieces have been acceptable to other editors.

 

Get started, if interested, I encourage you to celebrate the pieces you write. It's fun to see them in print. You have a unique voice why share it.