How To Write For Big Periodicals

Preface

If you are interested in actually becoming a professionally accredited author or writer, with a peerless portfolio of paid works, eligible to submit for the highest paying freelance gigs - and if you want to learn how to apply for those gigs and how to pitch and query the highest paying mass-market periodicals, literary agents and book publishers - you are going to want to read every word of this article, as well as the others in this series which are linked herein.

I promise that the aggregate $.20 I earn from you reading them all will not in any way significantly improve my quality of life. However, if it is your intention to someday earn a living through your use of written or spoken words, this series might very well improve yours. So buckle up…here goes nothin'.

Within the publishing industry, largely circulated periodicals (magazines and newspapers) are called ‘Mass-Market Serial Publications.’ Writing in them and for them is difficult to break into, but it can be done — if you condition yourself to do so and understand that getting in, is a skill all to itself.

I’ll explain more about that in just a bit. For now, just know that it's important that you know what they are and how you can make money writing for them. Before I get into them though, I need to establish some background and points of reference.

First, who’s telling you all this?

I’ve been playing around with these crowdsourced publishing platforms for about a month now — since April 6, 2022. I want to start by saying that love it, and I love the people who use it — well, at least most of them. More on that later.

That doesn’t mean I’m a new writer. Quite the contrary. I published my first article (for money) when I was 16 years old. That was in 1987, by the way. So yes, I’ve been doing this for a while now, and yes, I really do know what I’m talking about.

No grocery list of accomplishments

Without doing what many people I see who write on these platforms do, I’m not going to spend the next 6 paragraphs telling you how many times I’ve been labeled a “top writer”, a “top 1,000”, or narcissistically spewing the entire list of writing accolades I’ve accumulated over the past almost 35 years. I hope it will suffice here to say, I have a lot of them — really — a lot.

Nobody works as a writer for 35 years if they aren’t successful at it. A big part of being successful at anything is whether or not you are good enough to make a living doing it. Accumulating 750,000 ‘followers’, 820,000 ‘likes’, and 1.6 million ‘claps’ doesn't mean anything if you’re living in your car, writing on your prepaid phone, and using Starbucks for your internet access.

The fascination with worthless metrics

My point in writing that last paragraph is simply this, too many people on these platforms get hung up on worthless metrics. What are worthless metrics? Any statistics that we can see which don’t directly correlate to the quality of your writing or how much money you’re getting paid for it.

Sure, amassing 30, 40, or even 50k ‘followers’ seems really cool. The problem? That’s all it is — cool. It does absolutely nothing to quantify the quality of your writing, nor does it — in any way whatsoever — translate into money in your pocket.

Actually, I take that back, it can translate into money, but only if you’re actively trying to sell something else to those people — something other than your writing. In which case, guess what? You aren’t a writer.

Writers get paid for what they write

Before I start, I have to clarify, I’m not condemning anyone for promoting a side hustle or for peddling God-only-knows-what, to God-only-knows-who.

If you do that, more power to you. My point is, that your ability (or lack thereof) to sell products or services online doesn’t make you a good writer. In fact, it doesn’t make you a writer at all. It makes you a salesperson and a marketer.

This is the prevailing difference between what are traditionally called writers, and the newest iteration of writers — bloggers. Wherein, the term ‘writer’ is a much more general term, and the term ‘blogger’ designates a specific kind of writer. I have an entire article written expressly for this purpose, which I suggest you read. It's called : The Terms ‘Blogger’ And ‘Writer’ Are NOT Synonymous.

Such differentiation was never necessary before but within the past fifteen years or so, a plethora of niche markets in writing have evolved with the advent of digital marketing and self-publishing, making new and different designations necessary.

A brief distinction between being a ‘Writer’ and being a ‘Blogger’

As I mentioned before, blogging is really just a type of writing. However, there are people who can’t seem to wrap their minds around the differences.

Whether some want to accept it or not, there are differences — some are potentially substantial differences, particularly when it comes to getting paid for your work.

I could write an entire article on these differences. In fact, as I write this, I've added it to my topic calendar to do a feature on it later this week. (more on topic calendars in another article also).

For the purposes of this story, I think it’s a good idea to start by establishing a few accepted vocabulary terms that pertain to writing today.

Some important writer’s vocabulary words & definitions

1. Mass-Market Serial Publications — Mass-market serial publications are any periodicals that are distributed (or circulated) to very large quantities of subscribers (subscribers are usually customers who pay an annual fee to receive the publication). This includes newspapers, magazines, newsletters, catalogs, and other print or digital media that people sign up for and usually pay to receive. These types of periodicals are ‘the big boys’. Magazines like GQ, Good Housekeeping, Reader’s Digest, The New Yorker, People, Car & Driver….etc..
2. Clips — The term ‘clips’ is a holdover from years past when there was no internet and writers had to send actual cut-out clips of their previously published articles to editors they were pitching new article ideas to. Writers did this to prove that they had been previously published. Today, this is accomplished by either sending links to published articles or a link to a centralized website containing numerous samples of an author’s work, called a portfolio.
3. Staff-Writer — A staff writer is a writer whose full-time job is working for a specific media outlet. Staff writers author pieces only for publication in a specific platform or family of platforms that are owned by a single parent company called a media conglomerate.
4. Freelancer — A freelancer is a writer who works as an independent contractor. They can write ad hoc, on spec, or by assignment. these writers usually write what interests them and then try to sell it to various publications after the fact.
5. Query — A query is a freelance writer’s written application or request for work. A query is usually a single page. It is a carefully and craftily sculpted pitch that tells a specific publisher about the writer, their work, the specific piece they’re trying to sell, and why the piece would be a perfect fit for that specific publisher. Querying, like painting or sculpting, is an art, not a science. What is brilliant to one publisher is complete crap to another (I will be writing several pieces on querying in the days and weeks to come).

Tying it all together

Okay, now that we’ve established a few basics, I can get into the purpose of this article.

In the roughly two weeks I’ve been using Medium, I’ve seen an amazing amount of veteran Medium writers attempting to help other ‘newbies’ like me, by sharing their experiences on the platform.

I’ve also seen more than a few who, at first glance, appear to be doing the same thing, but in reality, are just copying what others have written and are using this ‘knowledge’ to try and sell some product or service.

This takes the form of workshop lessons, newsletters, video series, and all manner of other nonsense.

So what makes these different from those who are genuinely trying to help others? The details

To anyone who has been publishing as long as I have, it is not hard at all to tell when someone is giving bogus advice about publishing. That’s because they promise all manner of grandiose publishing expectations and encapsulate them with comments like…. “…all for the content you’re already writing anyway!”

The harsh reality check

I’m sorry to be the one to have to break this to you, but publishing with the ‘big boys’ doesn’t work that way. Not now, not ever.

In the past two weeks, I have read no less than a dozen articles promising to show ‘newbie’ writers how they can write for major publications paying thousands of dollars per article. So far, every single one of these articles I have read is 100% wrong.

The hard truth

Mass-market serial publications DO NOT accept articles or offer assignments to writers who do not have a substantial portfolio of clips.

Further, contrary to what anybody on Medium tells you, articles that you have published on Medium, Simily, Quora, NewsBreak, Substack, or any other crowdsourced blogging site do not count as published clips to those publishers, even if they earned you money.

Why?

Because absolutely nobody with any sort of professional, editorial background ever vetted the quality of the writing or the material in them. Nobody besides the writer ever determined that they were of professional quality or were commercially viable and — I know this is going to hurt a few egos — most of them simply aren’t.

Most of the pieces that appear on Medium and the other crowdsourced media posting platforms are blog posts. They might be great stories, informative, interesting to read, and even educational, but that doesn’t make them professionally written.

This is why there is an entire discipline of writing, known as ghostwriting. Ghostwriting is employed when people have a great story to tell but are ill-equipped to tell it themselves.

Does this mean my hopes for a professional writing career are hopeless?

Absolutely not. What it does mean is that you have to make a decision. It also means that whatever decision you make is going to require hard work and dedication.

Mastering the craft

There is no getting around it. If you want to be a recognized professional writer, able to write for mass-market serial pubs, you’re going to need to demonstrate writing mastery. And, you’re going to have to demonstrate it to seriously experienced professional writers, editors, and publishers. this is called mastering your craft.

There is a whole school of debate on the topic of whether writing is a skill or a talent. Quite honestly, there is no need for either of these to be mutually exclusive. In my experience as a former professor of English and creative writing, mastering the craft of writing comes easier to some than it does to others — those people have a natural talent for writing.

That being said, there’s no reason that people who weren’t born with that particular aptitude can’t still achieve the same level of mastery as the people who are — they just need to work a bit harder at it. Sometimes, a lot harder.

But if it’s something a person seriously aspires to do or to be, there’s absolutely no reason why they can’t apply the necessary dedication and relentless practice necessary to achieve that mastery.

In summation

The bottom line of this article is simple. If you want to be a professional writer, you absolutely can be. But it’s not easy, it’s not quick, and it requires a level of dedication to the craft of writing that most bloggers simply don’t have, or ever desire to obtain.

There’s nothing wrong with being a blogger either. Just be very cautious when those bloggers try to offer (or sell) you advice on how to be a well-paid, professional writer, particularly submitting to mass-market serial publications.

Stay tuned for more articles on how to become a better writer. If you want to learn, I’m happy to teach. Feel free to subscribe below if you want to get notified when I release new articles….no, I’m not trying to sell you anything.

I will now reiterate and embellish on what I said in the preface

If you are interested in actually becoming a professionally accredited author or writer, with a peerless portfolio of paid works, eligible to submit for the highest paying freelance gigs - and if you want to learn how to apply for those gigs and how to pitch and query the highest paying mass-market periodicals, literary agents and book publishers - you are going to want to read every word of the other articles in this series which are linked above.

Now for the sales pitch

I will soon be calling for applicants to submit work demonstrating their writing abilities - writers who wish to be personally tutored by me (an Ivy League-educated 30-year professional writer and former Associate Professor of English). The students I select will be taught not only how to write better, but how to sell what they write. yes, I said the students who are interested which I select. that's because it will be a waste of my time and your money if you don't at least have some rudimentary writing ability.

"I can remove rust and shine brushed nickel, but not even I can polish a turd." ~ Kurt Dillon

If that sounds like the career path you want to take with your writing, I can teach you how to master your craft and sell your work to the big boys for up to $2.00 per word instead of on crowdsourced publishing platforms like Medium or Upwork for pennies per thousand clicks or $10 per gig.

The tuition for this Masterclass will be inexpensive compared to what many of the people on here charge for their 'services', and won't need to be paid all at once to help truly struggling writers budget for it.

If you're interested, be sure to follow me and subscribe to my newsletter.