The Renegade Writer Blog

Want to get more assignments? Follow these nine tips on getting published in magazines. Disclaimer: In no way did I write these tips to eliminate the competition and ensure that there’s more work for me. This is the real deal. Follow them and watch my — er, I mean your — income soar!

1. Always put a copyright symbol on your articles and queries. Don’t be afraid that you’ll insult the editor — you need to protect your work and your ideas, and the copyright symbol tells editors you’re no sucker.

2. If you pitch an article on yoga to a national publication, get a rejection letter, and then see an article on yoga in that very same magazine three weeks later, e-mail the editor to complain. Bonus points for threatening the editor with a lawyer whose name you pulled out of the phone book. Nobody flouts your copyright symbol and gets away with it!

3. In your query, tell the editor how soon you can have the finished article in her hands, as in, “I can have this article done within two weeks.” This relieves her of the burden of coming up with a deadline for you. Bonus points if you write, “Please let me know if you’re interested and I’ll send you the article right away.”

4. Sign off your queries with a listing of all the writers’ groups you belong to, as in “Ima Writer, member of the Northeastern Ohio Romance Writers Guild and Stitch-and-Bitch Club, the Super Duper Writers League, and the Wow Really Great Writers Association.” Bonus points if the only criterion for joining the groups is that you pay a registration fee.

5. Editors move around a lot. They also hate it when you get their name wrong or address your query to the previous editor. Avoid the whole issue by addressing your queries to “Dear Editor.”

6. Sometimes editors aren’t quite convinced that you’re a writer, so be sure to drive the point home by using clip art of pens or typewriters on your business card, on your letterhead, in your sig line — everywhere! Also, make sure some variation of the word “write” appears in your business name and/or e-mail address, such as “The Write Writer, Write Away.”

7. Editors love editing and are sad when they have nothing to change or correct. Make your editor’s day happier by sprinkling a few typos in your query or article. We suggest using “it’s” for “its,” “your” for “you’re” and “their” for “they’re.”

8. Editors don’t have time to read long queries. Help your editor save time by sending him a list of 20 or so quick ideas he can glance through and accept or reject, such as, “Adopting. Botox. Hiking trails in New Hampshire. Spring cleaning. Recycling.” Also, forward him copies of studies you found on the Internet and ask if you can write about them.

9. Editors do the hard stuff — making sure articles sparkle and are error free — but writers get the bylines and the glory. Since editors are, as a result, so starved for attention, they enjoy levels of contact that other people would consider stalkerish. Call your editor to ask if she received the query you sent five minutes ago, to make sure her e-mail address is correct since she hasn’t replied yet, and to ask whether you should include the title in your word count. Just when you think you’ve called too much — call one more time! [LF]