I'm wanting to submit a piece of work to a writers' magazine, they offer £300 for the best story they receive each month and I want to give them something, but something their readers would like and something that they'd publish. For short stories, I have in my inventory (unpublished, not even on the internet): A sad story to do with child abuse (Only about 400 words) A dystopian sci-fi about a religious super-power (1500 words) A strange story about a clone and his crazy doctor (2000 words) A story about somebody trying to overcome their fear of hand-gliding (400 words) A story about rape from the rapist's perspective (It's not graphic, 600 words)) A story about an obsessed stalker (1300 words) I can't imagine all of them being the right sort of material, but that's what I could submit right now (well a couple need editing), of course I will be writing new material geared towards magazines. But yes, what sort of Stories do writers' magazines like? Thank you.
I've read a few stories of this month's issue of the magazine and they seem to branch on 'real life' and the ones I read aren't the sort of thing I normally write. But I'll do a bit more research, though is there any general advice for magazine writing? (Perhaps I should have made the title 'Advice for magazine writing')
Every magazine and lit journal is different. In general, from what I've seen, anything above 2000 words is rare, but it depends on the publication.
Cog is 100% right. Begin your decision making by studying their most recent editions. Also, see if you can find an edition from a year of two ago (check library) so you can see if the company's focus is steady or evolving. When I was writing for the fishing industry, I was paid $300-500 (US) for each article. The company's focus was on fishing but they loved off-beat articles like the Take-a-Kid Fishing Theme, Working WITH Environmentalists Instead of Shooting at Them and one article I wrote got a lot of attention because it was a litany of screw-ups during a day on the water . . . launching the boat without the bilge plug, forgetting to attach one of the batteries, kicking a $300 fishing rod into the 200 feet deep water, gouging a deep scratch into your $40,000 boat on a dock nail, etc. Also, magazines LOVE pictures. Even in fiction, you can have a local college art major read your story and produce a drawing to fits with the story. Same with creative photos . . . if you write about suicide, get a local photography major to shoot some pictures of a person that reflect the depression; things like sitting in the corner of a dark room, holding a gun in a pensive way, standing on the railing of a bridge, etc. Pictures DO sell articles.
Ah, cheers. I guess I'll do my research properly, I might have to right a 'life' story for this one and check out other magazines for my preferred areas of interest - like say as Sci-Fi for my dystopian pieces. As far as the note on pictures, I hadn't thought of that. I have a family member finds it hard getting work as an illustrator, perhaps I could ask her to illustrate my short stories.
pictures can sell 'articles' but not fiction... for fiction, all that's wanted is a well-written, compelling story that readers will enjoy... i'd never advise anyone to send in art work when submitting a piece of fiction to a writing competition, or for publication in a magazine...
