e-Reader Magazines Ahead

Magazine publishers are prepping for tiny formats. A lack of good e-readers for magazines isn't stopping them. They are trying to stay one step ahead by readying small format digital versions of their offerings. A digital newsstand just for magazines is coming out in a few weeks, according to MediaWeek.com's e-Reader Mania Hits Magazine Publishing:

Condé Nast last week showed off what an imagined e-reader version of its glossies would look like, starting with Wired. And Time Inc. is developing e-reader versions of such titles as Time and Sports Illustrated; it’s expected to introduce those iterations early next year.

The article mentions other upcoming editorial products that will soon arrive on small media readers, such as the iPhone.

I've read New York Times' stories on a friend's iPhone. It was surprisingly easy on the eyes, but what I'm wondering is how this will affect writers and editors? Are publishers just going to pour the digitized copy into the applications or will writers need to learn a new, more concise method of preparing stories. Or will editors regain their positions of actually working with words? Will this revolution create more employment or continue the trend of consolidation and layoffs?

Just when we're anguishing over languishing magazines, hope pokes over the horizon.

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Best Magazine Cover

Amazon customers have a unique opportunity to pick their favorite magazine cover of the year! Who do you think had the hottest look this season? Customers can vote for their favorite magazine cover from ten categories, and also choose the best cover out of the top finalists. Customers who vote for their most memorable cover will have the chance to win a $10,000 Amazon.com gift card!

This year, the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) has selected six finalists in each of the ten categories, including Best Obama Cover, Sexiest Cover and Most Delicious Cover, among others, with the final winners to be announced on October 14 at the Magazine Innovation Summit in New York City.

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Magazine Freelancing

Every once in a while I visit Ed2010.com to check out the Helpful Links list. This time I puzzled over the first set of resources. What are these, scandal sheets? I'd only heard of Gawker:

• Jossip
• Gawker
• Gothamist
• iwantmedia
• The Kicker
• Romenesko

It was the magazine list I wanted to review. Just for fun, I looked at ones for which I'd written: Bon Appetit, Family Circle, Harper's, Redbook -- yes, still in business if having a website counts. Many others weren't even listed. It was when I reached YM that a jolt came. The link redirects to a site for Teen Vogue with this notice:

If you're on this page, you most likely came from one of our sister sites, YM.com or Flip.com. Unfortunately, both YM and Flip are no longer being published. In their place, we invite you to explore Teen Vogue magazine and TeenVogue.com.

Magazines have always come and gone like fashion fads, but it's sad to see some old standards MIA (or DOA). Of course, I have Reader's Digest and it's recent bankruptcy filing in mind. Yes, I sold a piece to them, too, in the late 1960s.

Magazine freelancing is a fast-paced kind of work. You must pay attention to all sorts of details, as well as the [cliché alert!] big picture. I recommend following sites/feeds/pubs like Publishers Weekly and Mediabistro to help keep up. Or better yet, set up Google and Yahoo alerts for news about changes in the magazine publishing world. Even Ed's on Twitter (and seems to have abandoned his blog). See http://twitter.com/ed2010news for the latest, and beware, he tweets a lot!

Twitter, a news source?

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Renewed Fiction Market

The revamped Saturday Evening Post returns to "a quiet read," according to an AP story by Charles Wilson. He quoted Post Publisher, Joan SerVaas: "There is a void of magazines now that do emphasize art and creative writing and fiction." Not only have fiction markets dried up, magazines themselves, like newspapers, are shrinking, shrinking ... gone in many cases.

I thought the news Twitter-worthy and jumped on a friend's laptop to blurt it out to all 155 of my "followers" and anyone else who happens onto my page. The friend and I were at Starbucks discussing how to handle the weights in multiple regressions and correlations used for a meta-analysis. Yes. You can be creative with math and stats, too.

This news about the Post is worth more than a tweet. See the Post's submission guidelines which say:

We also welcome new fiction. A light, humorous touch is appreciated. We are also always in need of straight humor articles. Make us laugh, and we’ll buy it.

Lest you wonder why the hoopla, or worse yet never heard of the magazine, Wilson explained:

America's love affair with the Post and its predecessor date to 1728, when Benjamin Franklin founded the Pennsylvania Gazette in Philadelphia. New owners changed the publication's name to The Saturday Evening Post in 1821, but it remained a newspaper for decades.

So, all you beginners and funny writers, pull up your shorts and try out this new/old market.

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James Ellroy's Los Angeles

Playboy Walkabout - James Ellroy's Los Angeles --Warning: Adult Material XXX:

James Ellroy is the critically acclaimed author of My Dark Places, American Tabloid, The Black Dahlia and L.A. Confidential. In The Hilliker Curse—Ellroy's four-part memoir running in the April, June, September and November 2009 issues of Playboy—the modern dean of noir delves into his tangled sexual and romantic history. In the first installment of Playboy's new writers series Walkabout, Ellroy invites our readers to visit the places in Los Angeles that haunt him and to meet the ghosts that possess him still.

*****

In Los Angeles, you can take tours of the haunts of dead writers and their characters, but Ellroy is a living legend and conducts his own tour. A unique opportunity.

Books on Amazon by James Ellroy

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Editing Queries to Magazines

I like Joe Wallace's post on How To Query Magazine Editors at freelance-zone.com. His concise summation of points can serve as an editing method before you click on the Send or Submit button or print out your snail mail letter. Use it like a pre-flight check list.

The items are do or don't, which is not unusual because most advice can be presented in either light. Like: don't write to "Dear Editor"/learn the editor's name and use it. Wallace covers contact info, expertise, length, pitching, and staying on target. Secret insider tips to success which I endorse.

If you want to find local publications to query or pitch, it isn't a bad idea to start with your phone directory. All businesses have a phone, and usually they are listed in the advertising section formerly known as "The Yellow Pages". Live in the outback? Libraries often stock phone books for at least the nearest major urban areas. Such directories are also online like YellowPages.com and Verizon's SuperPages.com.

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Writing for Magazines

Whether you want to keep up with the onslaught of new magazines because you want to freelance to them or check out potential competitors because you want to start one of your own, have I the resources for you! First stop is to visit Mr. Magazine.com - The Official Site of Samir "Mr. Magazine" Husni, Ph.D.. Husni is the experts' expert in what's happening with the mag world. To stay abreast of the news, don't miss his blog, apparently with the same name as his website.

Another resource for finding out about new mags is Magazine Yellow Pages. They even project launches as far as the third quarter of this year. It's also a subscription service with many features.

If you've been thinking about starting a magazine yourself, Husni provides a step-by-step free list of FAQs to help you get started, in addition to his book, Launch Your Own Magazine: A Guide For Succeeding In Today's Marketplace. Once you've determined your new enterprise's launch date, don't forget to let the Magazine Yellow Pages know by phone: 1-877-205-8061 or e-mail info@magazineyellowpages.com.

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Trade Magazine Writing

Earlier this month, I wrote about resources for free magazines from trade publications. In the comment chain, I invited veteran freelancer/editor Lori Widmer (at the left), who blogs at Words On The Page to prepare an article for us on writing for trade magazines. She's come through admirably with one she calls "Trading Places". I've added it to the list of free articles on the Writing Help page.

Highlights from Lori's piece include:

• how the audience differs from consumer mags
• the how-to focus for trades
  
• finding steady jobs in the business
  

The trade magazine is a great opportunity if you’re willing to do a little bit of basic research at the beginning, find an idea that matches that magazine’s style, ask questions with curiosity and no fear of looking foolish, and delivering a good product that shows your enthusiasm and your interest in learning more.

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Free Trade for Writing

If you're getting started as a magazine freelancer or looking to supplement your income while waiting for the fiction to pay off, consider writing for the trades. Trade magazines offer decent pay and, once you become established, regular writing gigs. The editors like to keep a stable of dependable writers both to commission and ones who can find good stories to query about.

As always, however, you need to know the market before trying to break into it. With magazine writing, that means reading, no, studying several issues before querying. How to get your hands on the trade rags? Here's good news: free subscriptions are available through at least two websites:

Free Trade Magazine Source

TradePub

Both offer search services and you can sign up for email alerts when new publications are added. TradePub even offers RSS feeds by category -- a truly handy feature for those who intend to specialize in this type of business writing.

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Celebrate Granta Magazine of New Writing

Another innocuous-appearing brown mailer lay in my back yard. "What book have I agreed to review now?" I wondered. Out slid what looks like a trade paperback and a thick one at that. But wait, Granta is a magazine, bearing an ISSN, interesting advertising and all. But wait again! There's that new book fragrance ... what kind of ink do they use in the UK? Sniff, sniff ... mmm ...

The book, er, magazine is a special 100th anniversary issue. Special it is, from the David Hockney front cover to all 152 pages crammed with new pieces by the likes of:

Julian Barnes
Salman Rushdie
Isabel Allende
Martin Amis
Ian McEwan
Harold Pinter
Zadie Smith

I'm going to be dipping into this box of literary chocolates for a long time. Granta subscriptions are available through Amazon.

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New Pages of Good Reading

Here is what NEWPAGES.COM has to say about itself:

Good Reading Starts Here! News, information and guides to independent bookstores, independent publishers, literary magazines, alternative periodicals, independent record labels, alternative newsweeklies and more.

Especially rich is their guide to "the best" literary magazines in print right now. The full listing page for each individual magazine offers a wealth of information about the publication, including a link to its website (if available).

I'd like to see a search engine for this database, but you can get listings alphabetically on the complete list page. The alpha listing on the guide page mentioned is only to sponsors.

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Magazine Writers' Salaries

Yelena Shuster, writing for Ed2010, recently revealed that the salaries for most magazine writers is $31,000-$39,000 a year--not bad for entry-level jobs of people who don't have a degree in journalism, either. The average age of the 300 respondents to a survey was 23. Tara Cox, Managing Editor for Everyday with Rachael Ray offered suggestions for salary negotiations when beginners take the next step (up):

1) Ask if there's overtime pay.
2) Know which company's benefits are flexible.
3) Get agreements in writing.
4) Make the most of the perks like free food.

I can say "Amen!" to number three, having had a couple of jobs where the workplace reality didn't match the job description, when more tasks piled on and benefits were slashed. How you force an employer to put it in writing, however, is another form of negotiation that might tag you as a potential trouble-maker.

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Get Journalism Jobs

One of my favorite resources for jobs in journalism has been Ed2010.com. The site does not limit itself to newspaper-type journalism, however. See Ed2010 | Next stop: Your magazine dream job for tips on dealing with all types of editors and job hunting. Writer's Digest editor Maria Schneider discovered the site and praised it in a blog post, saying:

Ed is a collective of young magazine editors (and wannabe magazine editors) who have created this website to help young journalists get jobs, mentors, and support, both emotional and financial....One of my favorite things on their site, though is their 60-minute mentor program, in which they attempt to match you (the just-starting-out journalist, job seeker) up with a working magazine editor for a 60-minute conversation.

I think the most useful section is the detailed job listings, called Whisper Jobs for a good reason. Most real and good employment opportunities aren't advertised. You hear about them by word-of-mouth and get them often by recommendation.

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Magazine Awards

Each year the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) gives out awards for the best productions of the previous year. They're called the "Ellies". As usual, many categories had many winners. For magazines, they are separated by size of circulation, although I don't see what that has to do with editorial excellence.

According mediabistro.com:

New York magazine, which was nominated for seven awards and took home five, including general excellence for magazines with circulations of 250,000 to 500,000, and interactive feature, a new category, for nymag.com ... The other general-excellence winners were National Geographic, Rolling Stone, Wired and Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Have you ever even seen a copy of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists? *shrugs* Anyway, you can find the entire list of winners in all categories and sizes with links to the magazines and particular winning features in many cases.

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Magazine Mastheads

Looking for magazines in which to place your work? Maybe Mastheads can help:

Mastheads.org is a collaborative directory of 360+ magazine mastheads built for professional writers, editors, illustrators, photographers, designers, advertisers, creative agencies, and media firms.

Complete, unabridged staff lists in every department (editorial, art/photo, advertising, marketing, & business) with phone, fax, mailing address, and e-mail formats.

I especially appreciate the pitch reminder you'll find a little lower on the main page. It notes that editors are now preparing fall issues and looking for pieces on seasonal themes:

Labor Day (1st Monday in September)
Grandparent's Day (1st Sunday after Labor Day)
Native American Day (4th Fri. in Sept.)
Columbus Day (2nd Monday in October)
National Bosses Day (Oct. 16th)
Halloween (Oct. 31st)
Election Day (1st Tues. after the 1st Monday in Nov.)
Veteran's Day (Nov. 11th)
Thanksgiving (4th Thurs. in Nov.),
Chanukah/Hannakah (Dec. 5th-12)
Christmas (Dec. 25th)
New Year's Eve/Day

There's your set of writing prompts/pitch plans for the week!

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