Every resource I've checked has suggested that a new freelancer trying to break in should start with local publications. And to break into specific magazine markets, say parenting magazines, the key is to establish yourself in local publications first in order to get clips to earn your right to go to progressively larger markets (cuz most of the big national magazines require you provide a clip from another national magazine--a chicken/egg kind of conundrum, huh?)
I'm not here to dissent that the advice is wrong, but it did not work for me. In fact, in my nearly ten months of earnestly trying to get freelancing off the ground, most things have not gone in the order or progression that is typical, advised or expected.
Where I live, there are few local publications it's reasonable to even consider myself a food candidate for freelancing. I interned at Central PA when I was in college; I have ties there--it should be the easiest publication for me to start with, right? Well, except that the kind of stories they're looking for aren't really things I could easily write about. I'm a "naptime writer"--I am a stay-at-home-mom to two small ones and I have to write what I know. I don't have the time or resources to go places for interviews or to seek out stories. In nearly a year of trying this freelancing thing, I've not thought of a blessed thing to offer them. The second local publication, which is up my alley, is a parenting magazine. However, I've gotten nowhere sending pitches. I've noticed the same few freelancers write everything in nearly every issue. To me, this magazine, though small and local, has been as much of a brick wall as the national Parents magazine. I've sent query after query and have heard as much back as if the editor were dead or the email address were nonfunctional. Other parenting magazines that I'd call mid-tier (not as big as Parents, yet national) actually have gotten back to me--I've received polite and specific "not interested" responses, as well as once an on-spec assignment, and most recently, a sale of an article, to be published next month, from an absolute cold-send of an article.
I've always read too that networking was so important, but so far, I can't say any of my success has come from any such connections. For instance, when I was an intern, the man who was the managing editor then is now an editor at another small, local-ish publication--and yet there too, I cannot see a way to make use of that connection. We got along well--in fact, when he was a senior in college, and I a freshman, we were on the literary magazine staff together, and we had a good working relationship. However, a style magazine for the perhaps upper-crust middle-aged women just isn't a publication I can readily conjure an idea to pitch. (Not to be rigidly uncreative or anything, but again, I know that right now I have to stick with what I know and can write from my living room)
Over the year, I've received a slim newer local magazine in the mail. It's free to every woman in South Central PA, and while it was at first quite simple, it's blossomed in quality and depth in recent issues. It describes itself as a local how-to magazine for women, hoping to offer something akin to what Real Simple and Martha Stewart offer. I have nursed an idea I could pitch to them for a number of months, but because it is seasonal, I've waited until now. I sent the pitch today for a story on how to make a whimsical herb-scape (herb garden in a pot, designed to look like a miniature park, fairy forest, etc.) Within hours, I heard back from the editor, asking if I wanted to freelance for the magazine. I just need to send a resume and clips, including something written from objective 3rd person point of view. Who knows where this will go, but getting a response so swiftly is certainly already leagues better than my experiences with the other unnamed local publication I've mentioned!
My actual scaffolding, in my hopefully upward projection, is as follows:
Midwifery Today, a national/international trade publication that doesn't pay writers, yet this magazine gave me a great clip to prove to other editors that I can/do write.
You and Me: America's Medical Magazine. This is a paying market, and the publication has also been useful because i can include the link in email queries.
Not yet in print, but soon to be, a story in a Chicken Soup book and an article in The Green Parent (UK). (Also, I've been writing in the Christian Devotional market, as well as online content writing, but for the purposes of this article, they're not applicable or part of the scaffolding.) I expect each to be a good clip to establish credibility for me in certain markets.
Who would have thought--I'd get published in a national magazine and a UK parenting magazine before a local publication, which is purportedly easier??
Articles I've published online:
What is a Disposable Diaper Made of Anyway?
Pregnancy Due Date: Why Do So Few Women Deliver That Day?
Stay-at-home-parenting: Who Can Afford It?
Fight Breast Cancer with Salmon, Not Pink Cupcakes (And Other Cancer- Fighting Tips)
Fire Retardants Found in Babies' Umbilical Cord Blood Associated with Developmental Delays
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