Look at Writer's Market

[Wichita]

When I look at Writer's Market for children stories, I see a tremendous number of Sunday School Literature publishers. Now I'm not disparaging the church going community but where are the Markets for Children's stories that are NOT church related?

Or to put it simply - which magazines do you recommend for "ordinary" children's stories?

[cwgranny]

Among the religious/inspirational magazines, several take "ordinary" children's stories as long as they have a moral grounding (something that also tends to be true of many of the secular children's magazines). Among these would be Guideposts for Kids and Pockets (these just happen to be two of my favorites though I know of people who have sold ordinary stories to other religious markets.) Secular magazines would include Highlights (a top market but they do use stories with a "message" -- meaning stories where the main character learns something through the plot.), Ladybug, Cricket, Spider (they are actually fine with little or no message but have a more literary tone), Hopscotch, Boys' Quest, Fun for Kidz (they take slightly "old fashioned" stories -- and they use themes), Appleseeds, Cobblestone, Calliope (these are history and World Cultures magazines and use themes, so stories must fit -- they don't buy a lot of fiction but they do buy some), Turtle (who along with the other CBHI magazines likes stories with a health slant but they are only buying rebus stories and...maybe poetry, I would have to check. Anyway, the CBHI magazines aren't buying much these days.) Wee Ones, Story Station, American Girl (viciously tough market), Boy's Life (makes American Girl look like an easy market)...there are probably more but my brain can only kick out this many without more tea. You can find dozens of links to magazines and guidelines at http://www.kidmagwriters.com in the upper right Market Guide. Several of the magazines also have an editor interview listed and a special report that looks at the contents of a sample issue.

All of the stories I write are pretty ordinary as I am not a religious writer but I find there are actually more than enough markets -- what I need are more hours in the day for writing.

gran

[Wichita]

Thank you. That is VERY helpful.

[jdkiggins]

Wichita,

Here's a few sites you may want to peruse. :)

http://www.write4kids.com/
http://www.highlights.com/
http://www.cbhi.org/magazines/turtle/talktous/talktous.shtml
http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/magazines
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/kids/

There is also Humpty Dumpty and Jack and Jill Magazine.

Good luck!

[cwgranny]

JD,

Have you sold anything to Humpty Dumpty or Jack and Jill lately? Are they buying again? I've had some folks with great health-related stuff who're looking for markets but last I heard, the CBHI magazines weren't buying much of anything (especially Humpty Dumpty). I would love to hear that folks are making sales there again.

gran

[jdkiggins]

Granny,

I haven't sold anything to Humpty Dumpty or Jack and Jill. I added them to the list because they are great little magazines for kids.

Not sure how much CBHI magazines are buying these days, but there's nothing mentioned in their guidelines that they aren't accepting submissions.

I always figure it never hurts to submit to each publication; there could be a chance they'll like a story and accept it for a later edition that's not already planned out.

[cwgranny]

Thanks Joanne, I was hoping you knew something about their recent behavior that I didn't. I tried to contact all the of CBHI editors to see which were buying ANYTHING -- the Turtle editor told me Turtle only wanted rebus stories and something else...poetry, I think. No fiction though. The other editors didn't respond at all but I can't find anyone who has sold anything to a CBHI magazine (other than Turtle) in the past 6 months...maybe even a year. I know some of the CBHI magazines went into submissions shutdown and only ran material from old issues (since they buy all rights and have for a long time, they can build new issues from old issues for a long time).

Of course, the worst that happens if you submit is a rejection (though I have heard a couple people complain that you don't even get that -- some aren't getting any response at all). But I would love to know what's really going on at each magazine.

gran

[jdkiggins]

Granny,

LOL, they were at least kind enough not to leave me hanging when I did submit. They did send a nice rejection stating that they had something similar in line, but that was quite awhile ago.

I'd be interested to know if anyone else here has had any luck with either of the publications.

[Wichita]

That's lots of information. Thanks.

[sthrnwriter]

I'm glad I'm not the only one that noticed all the Christian magazines and publishers in Writer's Market. I'm the moderator of a children/ya critique group on another writing community site and I'm sure this info will be a big help for them. Thanks.

[Wichita]

http://www.cbhi.org (http://www.cbhi.org/magazines/turtle/talktous/talktous.shtml)

In case you havent' looked at this website recently

-> it's closed.


"We're sorry, but we have temporarily taken our site offline to make improvements. We expect to be back very soon. Again, we apologize for the inconvenience, and thank you for your patience. Your friends at the Children's Better Health Institute."