by Rachelle de Bretagne

Created on: March 17, 2007   Last Updated: April 17, 2007

I have written this guide, as there are good writers who do not know how to go about selling their work. I am a professional writer and it took me many years to establish a market for my work, and I believe that my research can help writers to get published. In the U.K. there is a vast market for written work, and room for everyone to try their hand at writing. My speciality is fiction and it is only fiction that I am writing about because this is my craft and my expertise is limited to fiction writing.

SEARCHING FOR THE RIGHT MARKET

Each magazine has its own guidelines. The mistake that many writers make is not following the guidelines of a magazine. As writers, if we want our work to be sold, we have to understand that the market will not change for us, and in order to establish which markets are suitable for our writing, a little bit of homework is essential. If you write to the Fiction Editor of a magazine and ask them for a list of their guidelines, they will gladly supply it. After all, they do not want to wade their way through stories that are not suitable for their magazine and it helps both the writer and the magazine to have guidelines. Always remember that magazines are profit making and that it will be appreciated if you enclose a stamped address envelope for their reply.

HAVING ESTABLISHED THE MARKET

The next step for a writer is researching the magazine itself. In order words, reading. With all markets for writing, there are a certain subjects that are acceptable, and those which are not, subjects that have perhaps been outplayed, and a fiction writer needs to read current editions of magazines in order to know what kind of stories each magazine publishes. When you find a magazine that publishes the kind of story that you feel you can write, keep that magazine in mind to sell your stories.

Here it is interesting to note that my particular market, i.e. the magazines in the IPC group which can be seen on line by tapping IPC into Google, although aimed at women, accept both male and female writers alike.

PRESENTATION

When you first approach a magazine with a short story, there are certain rules that may not be obvious to all, and it took me a while to learn these rules. For example, always provide your work double spaced with large margins. This may seem petty, but in fact what you are doing is making it easy for the magazine to scribble notes for the printers that eventually print your work, and making it possible for a Fiction Editor to edit your written

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