Channel Button

There are 8 articles on this title. You are reading the article ranked and rated #2 by Helium's members.

Arts & Humanities   >

Writing Jobs

Get a Widget for this title

Mistakes new magazine writers make and how to avoid them

Far too often new writers jump into the boat a little too fast and suddenly find themselves flailing as the boat tips over on them. It is important for a new writer to really take the time to understand the process of getting published, especially by a magazine before they make any attempts at it. If you don't understand how it works, then you most likely won't get published without much more effort than you would have needed if you knew what you were doing.

The first thing that you need to know, that many writers don't realize is that you can't just send your writing to any magazine, just because it is in the same genre as your article. Some magazines don't accept submissions in general, some don't accept from first time writers, and some don't accept without an agent. This means that you need to first know which publications you can submit to and which ones you can't. This fortunately enough is a relatively easy process.

One of the first things that you are going to want to do is purchase a copy of Writers Market, which is an annual publication. This book will feature all of the publishers, organized by genre. They will list all of the details about them, including the payouts, what types of articles they accept, who they accept from, and what you have to do in order to submit to them. Make sure that you read this carefully, because if you don't, you could find that you are getting rejected every single time and you'll never truly know why, because often the rejection letters are quite vague, including numerous reasons why you potentially were rejected.

The next problem for new writers is that they don't take the time to spell check and edit their articles. When you submit your work, especially if you are a writer without any clout or any type of name in the business, it is extremely important to make a great impression. Your work should be so polished, with every detail checked a thousand times by a thousand people if possible. The idea is that you want it to look so perfect that the editors themselves wouldn't be able to write a better looking article.

I suggest that you make sure that you spell check, grammar check, and then find as many people as possible to read over your work and make sure it's perfect before you start submitting it for publication.

Another major mistake is that new writers tend to write about things that are too old for publication. As a new writer, you have to realize that you can't just write about things that just happened. These


Below are the top articles rated and ranked by Helium members on:

Mistakes new magazine writers make and how to avoid them

  • 1 of 8

    by TA White

    Most errors made by writers new to the magazine market are correctable. They usually fall in the category of lackadaisical

    read more

  • 2 of 8

    by Clacky McSnackins

    Far too often new writers jump into the boat a little too fast and suddenly find themselves flailing as the boat tips over

    read more

  • 3 of 8

    by Jim Bradley

    When it comes to writing an article for a magazine or newspaper, it always pays to do some research beforehand. Oner of the

    read more

  • 4 of 8

    by Frances Laing

    I've got a lot of material to draw on here. I've made plenty of mistakes with magazines myself. Here are some of my worst:

    Mistake

    read more

  • 5 of 8

    by K.A. Smith

    Breaking into the world of freelance writing for magazines is daunting. With a little time and organization, new writers

    read more

View All Articles on:
Mistakes new magazine writers make and how to avoid them

Add your voice

Know something about Mistakes new magazine writers make and how to avoid them?
We want to hear your view. Write_penWrite now!

Helium Debate

Cast your vote!

Are used textbooks the solution to the high cost of textbooks?

Click for your side.

133400

Featured Partner

Taxpayers for Common Sense

Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS) is a nonpartisan budget watchdog serving as an independent voice for American taxpay...more

What is Helium? | Buy Web Content | Contact Us | Privacy | User agreement | DMCA | User Tools | Help | Community | Helium’s Official Blog | Link to Helium

Helium, Inc.
200 Brickstone Square Andover, MA 01810 USA