SiteWhat you don’t know about writer’s guidelines
Hi, everyone. I’m Denise Schipani, “guest blogger,” thanks to my writer pals Linda Formichelli and Diana Burrell. I’ve first got to confess I’m a mix of excited and kind of intimidated to be blogging here — this is my very first blog entry, on any blog! And this is coming from someone who’s been writing for a living for nearly 20 years (yikes, did I just type that? Let me count… well, okay, more like 19, but still). I’m a writer and editor for many national women’s magazines, and I’ve been freelancing now for about 2 1/2 years. Before that, I was a magazine editor, full- or part-time, both in New York and in London. My first-ever job was at the (sadly, now defunct) Child magazine — and that’s where my knowledge of writer’s guidelines begins.
Back in the day at Child, where I spent three years as an editorial assistant and an assistant editor, sending out writer’s guidelines to contributor-hopefuls who sent in their SASEs was one aspect of my job. Not my favorite aspect. Honestly? It was right up there with sifting through the always-growing, always-about-to-tumble-over pile of unsolicited queries. This was pre-computers (I had a typewriter on my desk!). So of course all correspondence between our editors and the writers who wanted to work with us was through the U.S. Postal Service. Suffice to say, we got a LOT of mail. And this is my first nugget of news about writer’s guidelines: the person opening your request (or, these days, opening your e-mail) is not going to be the senior-level assigning editor, but the lowly assistant, or the even-lowlier unpaid intern who’s there to take some of the grunt work off the back of the lowly assistant. My job back then was to grab your SASEs, and stuff them with our over-Xeroxed writer’s guidelines.
My second nugget of news? The guidelines did not exist to cultivate or encourage writers. Sorry, but it’s true: they existed to (sometimes subtly, sometimes not) dissuade would-bes and wanna-bes from overwhelming us with ideas we couldn’t or wouldn’t use. That’s why you’ll sometimes sense a somewhat strident tone in guidelines, with lots of nit-picky rules and regs. They’re like the moat around the castle, an extra bit of fortification.
That said, many writer’s guidelines, including ours back then, contain some very useful information — if you study them carefully. Fast forward to years later, when I was an editor at Bridal Guide magazine. I spent nearly 6 years there, mostly as executive editor, and I did all the assigning (save for travel). Knowing that unsolicited queries were going to be filling my mail box (both snail- and e-), I dug up our old writer’s guidelines and took a look. Yep, the usual moat material. I did update them (I mean, our interns had been sending out guidelines with my predecessor’s name on them!), but I kept up the unwritten guideline rule of using them to cut down, to weed out, to dissuade (though I swear I did it gently!). That’s what I mean by reading carefully. If the guidelines say “we don’t publish poetry,” uh, don’t send poems. (And people did!). If they warn that fashion stories aren’t needed, because all our fashion coverage is handled in house, take that to heart.
My third nugget of news about writer’s guidelines: Use them as just one piece of the puzzle, one tactic to help you reach your goal of breaking into a new magazine. And a pretty small piece at that. Read them with an eye to digging out the helpful advice they do offer (such as what sections of the magazine are even open to freelancers), and ignore the advice you don’t care to take (and that probably doesn’t matter anyway, such as that they “prefer snail mail”; that’s a classic moat tactic, designed to scare off newbies and the faint of heart). And please, don’t send your query to the editor listed on the guidelines unless you’re sure that editor is still at the magazine (for that you need a good old fashioned telephone).
Because my final nugget about writer’s guidelines? We don’t update them that often. (Shocking! But true! It’s about, oh, #4,326 on the to-do list for most editors.)
And just like this advice in writer’s guidelines? Feel free to take my point of view with a grain of salt, too. We’re writers. It’s our job to be skeptical. Go for it.
5 Responses to “What you don’t know about writer’s guidelines”
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Kristen Kirk
Said this on May 22nd, 2007 at 8:32am:Thanks for the insight, Denise. I’m sad to hear about Child. As a mom, I loved the magazine. When did it fold? I thought I had a May issue around here somewhere…
LindaFormichelli
Said this on May 22nd, 2007 at 10:38am:Denise, thank you for writing this! I get tons of e-mails from writers asking if it’s okay to e-mail if the guidelines say (which they always do) to snail mail only. How nice to get an editor’s-eye view of guidelines!
Jacqui
Said this on May 22nd, 2007 at 11:45am:Thanks so much for this, Denise. I sent a query to Cat Fancy at the end of April–by snail mail, which was their request. For my follow-up, I’ll try e-mail and see if I hear anything.
Jules
Said this on May 25th, 2007 at 1:04pm:Denise or anyone chime in here:
I have a follow up dilemma. I recently had a chance to meet with and pitch the EIC of a magazine I’m trying to break into. She said promising things but of course made no promises during my short pitch session. I sent a thank you (snail mail and e-mail) waited another two weeks and followed again with a short email.
Now what? Should I just let it sit there? I’ve never pitched an EIC of a national mag.before, should I call her? Would my email even reach her desk? I’d like to pitch the story somewhere else eventually.
Ciara
Said this on August 19th, 2007 at 8:18am:I do often find guidelines to be very…well, not the friendliest. But now I see why. If writers blatantly ignore most of it, I would write strict guidelines too.