Lesson 1: What Should I Write About?
Matching Ideas to Markets
According to Jill Dick the most successful freelancers find their potential markets first and then think of ideas which they think might match them. This is easier than thinking of the ideas first and then finding possible markets for them, because you have something tangible for which to aim.
Think carefully about what kind of idea would suit your potential market. A health magazine may be interested in new research on a particular disease, for example. Women’s magazines are often interested in human interest stories, or interviews with famous people. The latter could also be suitable for TV and screen magazines if they involve famous actors.
There are many different types of markets. They include:
1. Consumer magazines. These include women’s magazines and magazines on different subjects – everything from general interest to stamp-collecting. It is easiest to start with specialist magazines which often don’t pay as much as the larger ones, such as a cricket magazine, for example.
Women’s magazines are incredibly popular. According to Jill Dick: “Women buy over 80% of all titles of all types and ‘women’s interest’ titles sell in greater quantities than do those in any other single section of the market”. This field is extremely competitive, but pays very well and it is worth aiming for this market.
2. Trade Magazines. These are magazines for particular occupations and industries. There are trade magazines for lawyers, doctors, nurses, teachers... the list is endless. If you know a lot about a particular, specialised area it is worth checking the trade magazines. They often pay well, and are more accessible to new writers. However, according to Michael Perry, your research and facts have to be double-checked. Slips are likely to be noticed by specialist readers.
Even if you don’t know about the subject but you’re interested in writing about it it is sometimes possible to have your articles published in a trade magazine. This is harder, however. A magazine for engineers, for example, is not likely to want articles from lay people.
3. Literary Magazines. These have small circulations and don’t usually pay well, if at all. However, the quality of the writing is usually excellent and publication in these can be quite prestigious. ‘In the end, writing for literary publications will serve you two ways: it will reinvest your writing with emotion, and it will add life to your ‘everyday’ writing.
It is worth looking for new magazines, and for free copies of magazines that you may want to target. Airline magazines, for example, are often free. You can often find the latest issues of magazines which come from overseas at the newsagent at the airport.
You should now have a clearer idea of how to find marketable ideas and how to match your articles to markets.
