- Joined
- Oct 4, 2011
- Messages
- 163
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- Location
- Las Cruces, NM
- Website
- tlbodine.blogspot.com
I've been content-milling full-time for awhile and have been contemplating dipping my toes into magazine markets, but I've always been too nervous to give it a shot. As I was rolling around my Facebook wall, I realized how profoundly stupid I was because I have a possible DEEP well of articles waiting for me.
I happen to be fortunate enough to be on at least friendly terms with several established and up-and-coming midlist authors. Most of them have books out right now and more upcoming within a year. And it only just now occurred to me that I could interview them, and that people might actually pay me for those interviews.
So, um, a couple questions because I am a complete n00b at this:
1.) Do magazines even buy interviews from freelancers? Is that a reasonable type of article/market to break into, or should I put that on hold until I have more clips?
2.) Do I do the interview first and then query, or query first and make sure I have the assignment before I do the interview? I was thinking I'd basically send a message saying, "hey, I want to pitch an article about you to xyz magazine, if they accept would you like to do an interview?" but not sure if that's the right way to go about it.
3.) How...um..."important"...do interviewees have to be? Like obviously nobody probably wants to hear from an unpublished writer or a self-pubber with no sales. But if you're midlist, are you "interesting" enough to warrant a magazine article (in an editor's eyes), especially if I can write a decent hook/angle?
What I'm thinking I'll do is find some magazines that are maybe not necessarily writing-related and pitch them instead of/in addition to writing magazines. Like, for example, I have one acquaintance who writes LGBT YA fiction. I was thinking I could try pitching articles to LGBT mags, teen mags, and LGBT-teen mags (which I'm sure exist although I don't know any off-hand).
My theory behind that is two-fold: 1.) The market might be less saturated for that type of article, so it might be easier to sell? 2.) It might be better for the person I'm interviewing because it would get them out into a fresh circle of prospective readers and out of the sort of circle-jerk writer community that we all tend to live in.
But I'm not sure if that would actually work. Thoughts?
I happen to be fortunate enough to be on at least friendly terms with several established and up-and-coming midlist authors. Most of them have books out right now and more upcoming within a year. And it only just now occurred to me that I could interview them, and that people might actually pay me for those interviews.
So, um, a couple questions because I am a complete n00b at this:
1.) Do magazines even buy interviews from freelancers? Is that a reasonable type of article/market to break into, or should I put that on hold until I have more clips?
2.) Do I do the interview first and then query, or query first and make sure I have the assignment before I do the interview? I was thinking I'd basically send a message saying, "hey, I want to pitch an article about you to xyz magazine, if they accept would you like to do an interview?" but not sure if that's the right way to go about it.
3.) How...um..."important"...do interviewees have to be? Like obviously nobody probably wants to hear from an unpublished writer or a self-pubber with no sales. But if you're midlist, are you "interesting" enough to warrant a magazine article (in an editor's eyes), especially if I can write a decent hook/angle?
What I'm thinking I'll do is find some magazines that are maybe not necessarily writing-related and pitch them instead of/in addition to writing magazines. Like, for example, I have one acquaintance who writes LGBT YA fiction. I was thinking I could try pitching articles to LGBT mags, teen mags, and LGBT-teen mags (which I'm sure exist although I don't know any off-hand).
My theory behind that is two-fold: 1.) The market might be less saturated for that type of article, so it might be easier to sell? 2.) It might be better for the person I'm interviewing because it would get them out into a fresh circle of prospective readers and out of the sort of circle-jerk writer community that we all tend to live in.
But I'm not sure if that would actually work. Thoughts?