Gumshoes 101: Cluing in to Magazines
by Lisa A. Wroble

Did you ever imagine writing required wearing so many hats? Not only do we need writing skills and imagination, we need to be our own secretaries, record keepers, and researchers. We also need to figure out the markets and that means looking for clues. So, come on Gumshoes, grab your detective hats and magnifying glasses. You'll soon be Sr. Investigators of the magazine world.
The trick is to learn to read between the lines in a magazine. The more you do this, the easier it will become. Don't just read the articles and stories, analyze them and look for the following clues to determine if a magazine market is right for your story or article.

Is the magazine mostly staff written?
Market guides, such as The Writer's Market, indicate the percentage of freelance submissions published each year. The masthead of the magazine will give you a far better idea, issue by issue, of freelance opportunities.

The masthead is the column of small print, usually on or near the table of contents. It lists the title, volume and issue of the magazine, the publisher, editors, production staff, and contributing writers or contributing editors. Editorial and production staff sometimes write articles for the magazine. Contributing writers are often freelancers. Sometimes magazines commission articles from a stable, or database, of freelance writers. Writer's guidelines will often indicate this and include information on becoming a commissioned writer.

A contributing editor is a freelance writer whose work appears in the publication on a regular basis. The title is given to recognize and thank a freelancer for his contributions to a magazine. I was a contributing editor for a short time to All Kids Considered (now metroPARENT). They regularly called me to assign articles. It got to the point I was suggesting ideas as well as writing the assigned articles.
It's important to compare each article and story with the masthead. How many stories and articles are staff written? How many are freelance written? Write down the topics of the articles and stories that are freelance. Some magazines only use staff for particular topics, or commission writers. Use clues to determine which topic proposals will get you nowhere as a freelancer. For instance, don't bother to send anthropomorphic stories to Ranger Rick. The only talking animals are in the staff written "Adventures of Ranger Rick."

What age group is it geared to?
Market guides and magazine guidelines also indicate the age range for a publication. Another clue to the target age is to look closely at the photographs of children in the magazine. If the magazine is written for girls 8 to 12 years old, but the photos include mostly girls around 10, as in American Girl, target your writing and topics to the interests of the average 10-year-old.

Look at fiction
What are the stories about? Do they fit into a theme with the articles, as in Cricket magazine? Read the stories from several issues of the same magazine looking for common threads. Is there any pattern to how the characters solve a crisis or the types of adventures they have?
How many stories are in each issue? You'll have an easier time getting a story accepted if more than one story appears in each issue. If there are several stories, are they the same length or is there one longer story and several shorter stories, as in Hopscotch? You may have an easier time breaking into a market with a shorter story. Do the shorter stories appeal to younger readers, as in Highlights?
Write down the answers to these questions and anything about the stories that jumps out at you. (This will get easier the more you do it. You may have to read the stories twice, once for enjoyment and once again to look for clues.) Don't forget to write down story ideas that come to you as you study each magazine. Chances are those ideas fit with the needs of that particular magazine.

Look at nonfiction
How many articles are used? Are they long, or short? Are the shorter articles newsy bits of information, as in Science World, or are they accompanied by lots of photos with additional information in the photo captions, as in KidCity?

Subheads are another important clue to articles. They help break up the text, but keep the article, and the reader focused on the topic. Use the subheads to quickly outline an article to get a feel for how the topics are handled. How narrow is the focus? What is the slant or angle of the article? Ranger Rick uses subheads and each section is like a mini article with the subhead a mini title to draw the reader in.

Don't forget to look at the language. More often nonfiction is using the techniques of fiction to make articles read smoothly and quickly. Are lots of adjectives used? What about descriptive words that make the article as exciting as fiction? Are hard words explained in the text or in margin notes as in Cricket? Are pronunciation guides for unfamiliar words part of the text?

Sometimes short articles called sidebars explain a piece of an article in depth. Look for these as well as lists of information in bullet form. Taking notes on all these clues will give you a clear idea of the article needs of the magazine.

How long are the articles?
Market guides and writers guidelines indicate the length of articles published. This is only a minimum and a maximum range. To get a feel for what actually gets published, count the words in each article or story. This may sound crazy, but it can easily be estimated.

Count the number of words in an average paragraph and multiply by the number of paragraphs to get an estimate. If the guidelines say the magazine publishes articles from 750 to 1200 words, but most of the articles are 1000, keep your articles to 1000 words.

Don't forget the advertisers
Some magazines contain no advertising except contest notices and subscription forms, as in the Children's Better Health Institute Publications. Most magazines, however, rely on some advertising to offset the cost of printing. The types of advertising give clues to the overall feel of the magazine. Study the ads and decide if they are commercial or educational in nature.

Commercial ads sell products and are targeted to the audience. For example, Seventeen includes ads for make-up, perfume, and clothes for the high-school age reader. Scholastic Scope, however, is geared to the same age range of readers as Seventeen, yet the ads are educational in nature. Of five ads, in a sample issue, two are army and air force recruiting, one is for a scholarship competition, and the last is for an acne product. Scholastic Scope is distributed mostly through schools and is often used as classroom supplements in English and social studies.

You can learn a tremendous amount when reading between the lines of a magazine. It may sound like a lot of work, but it does get easier with practice and will pay off with magazine sales. Taking time to read writer's guidelines, study market guides, and do a little detective work will help you solve the marketing puzzle. Good luck, Gumshoes. Happy sleuthing-er, writing!

Lisa Wroble works in Children's Services at the Redford Twp. District Library near Plymouth, MI. As a freelancer, she writes about parenting and educational issues. She is also author of the nonfiction book series KIDS THROUGHOUT HISTORY. To learn more about Lisa and her books visit her website at www.provide.net/~lannrhugh.

<Back to Articles