anyone ever submitted a magazine article before?

[kevin.303]

i'm working on a few that i think are of publishing quality.i'm curious to see if anyone else has done this. if so what is the average pay out? how long between the time you submit it and the time they publish it?

[crawfish]

All the name brand magazines have staff writers under contract and usually don’t accept un-solicited manuscripts UNLESS they have a “readers stories” section. Most will send your stuff back unopened. Some of the small single subject magazines will take un-solicited manuscripts. Which ever you try make sure you follow the directions that are always published in the magazine, you want to submit to, on what you need to send and how it has to be formatted. MOST now require that you also submit subject photos and that those photos are on a disk or CD of a certain size and resolution and how many photos you have to send. Some go so far as to say that ONLY manuscripts with photos will be considered. Many required that you send it via electronic means. Manuscripts that are “general” in nature i.e. “Hunting Whitetails During The Full Moon” do better than “The Ratifications of The Full Moon On Deer Movement On Frank’s Farm”. That is a bit extreme as an example but it applies. Good luck and don’t let a few rejections dissuade you. I submitted photo essays 31 times before someone published any now I sell about 2 a month enough to support my camera hobby.

[kevin.303]

i'm going to try for Fur-Fish-Game. my article is about the .303 British and how it is still an excellent round for most real life practical hunting situations. the big magazines like Field & Stream and to a lesser extent Petersens Hunting like push the latest and greatesgear theat there big money advertisers offer.

[Darrell Davis]

Hey there Kevin.303,

Been there and done that. First time was a long time ago and it was, to say the least, a very sorry effort.

The second time, I was in the business of professional Photography and had recently completed a delightfull commerical job which produced some very good images. The intended use for the images was publication/advertising.

The fellow who hired me was at that time the advertising director for one of the monthly horse magazines.

I contacted the editors of The Rangefinder, a professional photographic magazine, about the possibility of having a "cover" and a color artical.

They bought the idea, but before the artical came out they had a change in managment and we ended up settling for a Color artical and no cover.

Anyway, my employer for the job, was and still is, a very talented writer, having a number of articals to his credit as well as editing for newpapers and owning at least one newspaper.

The Rangefinder project would include my images and a two part artical - one part by Vern Barr ( my employer) and the other by myself. Not being a writer, it was agreed Vern would "ghost" write my part.

NOW COMES THE IMPORTANT PART!  The first time I read Vern's redo of my efforts, I DID NOT like it!  BUT, a few days later I picked up and read the same information to someone else and suddenly realised something very important.

Vern HAS the skill to write in the same style of any given publication and when I read the piece the second time it came to me that what I was reading sounded like it had already come from the pages of The Rangefinder.

Without this skill, you force the publication to do a great amount of editing to your work. AND, when this happens you may not like the end result, let alone have it say what you intended.

Know your intended publication and write to match their editorial style if you intend to sell your work.

Good luck and Keep em coming! :wink:

[Rustyinfla]

There are a few more publications that you might want to try should Fur. Fish, and Game turn you down. You could also try "Backwoods Home" the editor there is Dave Duffy. You can find the requirements on their web site for submitted articles. You could also try "Backwoodsman" which is owned by Charlie Ritchie. "Backwoodsman" does publish a lot of articles like the one you have in mind, but if you see where  "Backwoods Home" tends to lean and keep that in mind you might have some luck there too.

                  Rusty <><