BlackHippyChick Day: Getting Published

This week, one of my friends was published by our top local newspaper. He’s not an experienced writer. He just set a goal, then worked to achieve it. One day, he had the balls to make a submission, and it was successful. I had a similar experience. A few years into my mentorship, I called up my favourite magazine at the time to give them a pitch. I found their phone number on the first page. How bloody convenient. They accepted the piece and began commissioning me to write more. That’s how I launched my career without a degree to speak of.

If you don’t submit, you can’t be published, and it’s easier than you think. Google is your friend.

The Guardian accepts pitches from anyone. They even provide a convenient guide to set you up for success. The Atlantic provides an entire list of submission addresses. If you’re a girly girl, Cosmo accepts query letters.

All those guidelines have one thing in common: they all ask writers to READ their magazines and papers. You cannot succeed unless you get an idea of their style and content. What is the wordcount of their articles? Do they have pages dedicated to niche themes? What is their philosophical leaning? Are you bringing them a story they published a month ago? All of these questions are imperative if you’re going to succeed. (Special hint: If you send them a PDF when they asked for a Word document, they will not read your work, so get it right.)

If you’re more of a high literature person, poetry journals and book publishers put all their submission requirements online, too. Whether you start as a big fish in a small pond or vice versa, there is only one way to enter the industry. That is by sharing your work.

In days of yore, you had to BUY all those guidelines, but these days there is no secret magic trick to getting published. I’ve been using Google to guide my submissions ever since submission guidelines were moved online. Almost all media companies accept random queries if they’re well-handled.

The writing cycle includes a writer and a reader. If you’re writing to be read, you’re writing for publication. You’ve got to complete the cycle one day. If your work is up to scratch, that day can be today. It’s easier than you think.