The Easiest Way to Crack Women's Magazines (and 8 Ways to Do It Well)

I started my freelance career two decades ago writing for women's magazines. My first sale was to Cosmopolitan; after that, I wrote for publications including Woman's Day, Family Circle, Self, Shape, Redbook, Fitness, Fit, and Woman's World. 

I had several reasons for doing so. First off, I was familiar with some of the publications already. I'd been reading mags like Cosmo and Shape for years before I pitched them. I knew what topics the magazines covered and what kind of stories that editors were likely to be interested in. 

But even more important, these magazines paid well, and used plenty of freelance material. While some sections of the mags might be produced in-house, the majority of them relied on freelancers for short FOB (front-of-the-book) pieces, departments, and longer features. 

While a lot has changed in 20 years, some things haven't. Women's magazines still work with lots of freelancers, and while some of their contracts request all rights, they pay in the $2/word range. Plus, there's still some cachet to writing for these big publications, and they make impressive clips when you're starting out. 

Best news of all? There's any easy way to crack these markets, even when you're short on clips. That was the message I heard from editors from Family Circle, Woman's Day, and First for Women when I moderated a panel on women's magazines at this year's annual ASJA writer's conference. 

The answer? Pitch "real women" stories. Editors from all three magazines said they're always looking for compelling pieces about real-life women, and these stories are often difficult to find. 

So, what sells? When pitching a "real woman" piece to a woman's magazine, keep these factors in mind: 

• The woman you profile should fit within the magazine's readers' demographics.
• The woman should have a compelling story to share. Consider the challenge she faced, how she overcame it, and the takeaway for the reader. 
• Even if the story is sad, there should be some kind of positive or uplifting aspect to it. (Generally speaking, women's magazine readers aren't looking for depressing reads.) 
• Send a photo of the person along with the pitch. 
• Look for people who haven't been covered in national media (local media is usually fine). 
• If pitching a story about more than one woman--say four women who have successfully started their own at-home businesses--strive for diversity in terms of age, race, geographic location, etc. 
• Tell your friends and family members you're looking for possible story ideas. The bigger the net you cast, the more likely you are to find possible stories. 
• If one market doesn't say "yes," try another. I pitched a story about a woman whose doctors didn't believe she was sick for years--until she was finally diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome and successfully treated--to nine women's magazines and finally the ninth one assigned the story! 

I hope you find these tips helpful to pitching, and selling to, women's magazines. Good luck with your pitches! 

**New to the blog? Welcome! If you're serious about making your freelance writing business a money-maker, I suggest my freelance classic, Six-Figure Freelancing: The Writer's Guide to Making More Money, Second Edition. 

If you're more interested in getting into ghostwriting and content marketing, I suggest Goodbye Byline, Hello Big Bucks: Make Money Ghostwriting Books, Articles, Blogs and More, Second Edition. 

If you're brand-new to freelancing, Dollars and Deadlines: Make Money Writing Articles for Print and Online Markets walks you through the process of launching your freelance career. 

Finally, if you like your books full of shorter pieces, check out a different format--Writer for Hire: 101 Secrets to Freelance Success is divided into five broad sections to help you make more money regardless of what kind of nonfiction writing you do. 

Do You Know Your FOB, LOI, and TK? Publishing Terms Freelancers Should Know

Like any business, freelancing has its own lingo--and that can be confusing for new writers. Here are 13 terms freelancers should know: 


All-rights contract: Contract where the publication purchases all rights to a piece, preventing you from reprinting it or making any additional money from it in the future. All-rights  contracts are becoming the industry standard, but you can sometimes negotiate changes to them. (I have a whole chapter on contracts in Dollars and Deadlines: Make Money Writing Articles for Print and Online Markets.) See work-for-hire.

Backup: The material you submit with a piece so that it can be fact-checked. This includes names and contact information for sources, links to online material, and copies of journal articles you cite or mention in a piece. See fact-checking. 

Clips: Short for clippings and refers to when writers actually cut their pieces out of newspapers or magazines. Refers to published samples of work, whether in print or online. 

Fact-checking: See backup. 

FOB: "Front of book," or the section of the publication that includes shorter, often news-driven items. A great place for new writers to break in.

Indemnification. Usually refers to a contract provision that requires writers to insure the publisher that the piece won't lead to legal claims. (Know what a fair one looks like? Check out the contracts chapter in Dollars and Deadlines: Make Money Writing Articles for Print and Online Markets.) 

Lead/lede: The opening to an article or query letter. The most important section of your query--if you can't catch the editor's attention, he or she will stop reading. (Six-Figure Freelancing: The Writer's Guide to Making More Money, Second Edition contains more than a dozen queries along with LOIs and other templates.) 

LOI: Letter of introduction. Another way to pitch a market; this focuses more on your background and experience than on pitching a particular idea the way you do with a query. 

On acceptance: a payment term that means you'll be paid when the story is accepted. See on publication.


On assignment: When an editor asks you to write a piece (e.g., an article or a blog post) on a specific topic for a specific amount of money by a specific deadline for a specific publication. Often the assignment is made in writing, but it can be verbal as well. (In this case, you'll want to follow up with an email confirming the details of your assignment.) 

On publication: a payment term that means you'll be paid when the piece is published. Freelancers prefer to be paid on acceptance, because you can't control when a piece will appear in print or online--or even if it's published yet.

On speculation: When an editor is willing to look at a piece you submit, but doesn't offer you a formal assignment. (See "on assignment.") Editors often ask inexperienced writers to write "on spec" as they're unproven, and this can be a great way to get your foot in the door if you're short on clips or experience. 

Query/query letter: A query or query letter is used to pitch an idea to a market. You can also "query" as a verb, as in "I queried her three weeks ago and just got a response." 

TK: a publishing term that means "to come." If an editor asks you to TK something, it means you need to double-check it or add missing information. I use TK when I'm writing a draft to remind myself that I need to fix or clean up a particular section or word. 

Work-for-hire: While legally different than an all-rights contract (technically only an employee can sign a work-for-hire agreement), it's a term for a contract that purchases all rights to a piece from the writer. 

**Got a publishing term or question for me? Email me at kelly at become body wise dot com or post a comment here and I'll be happy to answer! 

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Eight Ways to Break into Health Writing

Want to break into one of the most lucrative and fastest-growing freelance fields? Start writing about health. First, you'll find no shortage of timely ideas, nor potential markets for your work. Establishing a background in this area makes you a valuable commodity to editors, and often lets you command higher rates for your work as well.

And you needn't be a physician or researcher to make your mark in the competitive world of health writing--if you keep the following in mind:

Tap into trends. Yesterday's news is just that--yesterday's. If you want to write about health, you've got to stay up what's happening now. I always try to have a newsy, time peg in my health-related queries to first, show the editor I've done my homework, and second, convince her that's it a hot, current topic.

Stay specific. To catch an editor’s attention, you’re better off pitching a narrower story idea than something more general. Instead of suggesting a piece about asthma, for example, pitch a parenting magazine with a piece on how to asthma-proof your home. Instead of a piece on back injuries, pitch a story on simple exercises to maintain core strength (and flatten your tummy!) to a fitness magazine.

Match the market. Make sure that the story you’re pitching is a good fit for that particular publication. Tailor your query to the market—a beach body workout might sell to Fitness while Prevention may be more interested in exercises that help maintain flexibility and strength as you age.

Move to the front. If you’re a freelancer without a lot of health-writing experience, pitching ideas to the “front-of-the-book” or FOB section is the easiest way to break in. In most magazines, these pages consist of short, often news-driven items. The editors usually need material to fill these sections every issue, and it’s a great way to get your foot in the door and prove yourself for longer assignments.

Use yourself. Many of my first health clips resulted from my own experiences or that of friends and family. After I started using a heart rate monitor, I wrote about how they can make you fitter for Fit. Years of battling urinary tract infections led to a short piece on the latest treatment methods for Good Housekeeping while my sister-in-law’s sleep apnea was the spark for a story on women and fatigue for Woman’s Day. A personal connection with a topic can easily become a selling point, so constantly scout for ideas.

Develop a Rolodex. When writing about health, you've got to have expert sources--and that means looking beyond your chiropractor or Spinning instructor. You’ll need to find and interview credentialed, recognized experts to back up any claims you make.

Develop a specialty. It’s impossible to keep tabs on every aspect of health and fitness today—MEDLINE, the National Library of Medicine’s database of journal articles, contains more than twenty million citations and that number grows daily. You're better off specializing and focusing on a specific area or two than to try to cover every possible health topic.

Back it up. Finally, expect to provide fact-checking material to your editor. I turn in an annotated copy of the finished story with references, names of experts and contact information, and journal citations (as well as copies of the articles) noted thereon. Make sure you keep your backup material--most magazines are very careful to fact-check any health information they publish. You can’t simply cite a statistic you read in the paper or heard on the news; you’ll need to find and confirm the source.

Want to know more about turning your health woes into cash? Health writing is one of the top ten specialties I cover in Ready, Aim, Specialize! Create Your own Writing Specialty and Make More Money, second edition. You'll also find out how to break into related specialties like writing about food/nutrition and fitness/sports.

Four Reasons to Send a Query--Even for FOBs

Last post I talked about the FOB and why it's the best place for new writers to break in. You may be surprised that even for a short piece, I suggest you use a query (as opposed to writing the piece and sending it in).

It seems illogical at first. For a short article, why not just write it up? Why bother with a query?

1. It shows you "get it." That's what professional freelancers do--we query. Writing an article and sending it in looks amateurish. (The exception is if you're pitching an essay, where you send in the completed piece.) Show the editor you're a serious freelancer, not just a reader of the publication, by querying her.

2. You save time. Your editor may have already assigned a piece on the subject, or have a similar piece in inventory. You don't want to spend time writing a piece that has no chance of selling because your editor is already covering it.

3. You stay out of the delete pile. Most national magazines don't accept "unsolicited submissions" (i.e. completed articles) but they do accept queries. Easy decision. right?

4. You boost your chances of success. When you write a piece, you decide on the subject, angle, length, format, sources, and tone. What are the chances you're going to make all the same choices with your story that the editor would when you're basically writing in the dark?

A query tells your editor how you plan to approach the piece, but lets her have the final say. Maybe she wants more words, or fewer. Maybe she likes the basic idea, but wants you to take a different angle. Or maybe she wants you to use an expert and a real person source, not just an expert. Regardless, when you query, you give the editor a chance to assign you the story she wants instead of writing the story you want and crossing your fingers that she'll say yes.

Make sense? Readers, do you agree or disagree?

The Best Place for New Writers to Pitch

I'm often asked by new freelancers for market recommendations--those which are more "open" to using less experienced writers. That's a tricky question. In general, smaller markets (think regional and trade magazines) are more open to new writers simply because they don't receive as many queries as their national counterparts--so you face less competition.

When it comes to nationals, though, there is a place where new writers should pitch. Where is it?

The front of the book. Front of book, or "FOB" refers to the departments that run in the front of the magazine. They often include several short pieces on the same page, typically 50 to 300 words or so. These "shorts" are sometimes written in-house but are often penned by freelancers.

Why is FOB such a great place for new writers to start?

1. It takes a lot of stories to fill the pages, up to about twenty depending on the market. That's a lot of assignments, even if they're short ones.

2. The editor for each FOB section must fill it each issue. Every issue. Issue after issue. And that means she's always prowling for new ideas--and new writers--to help her do that.

3. The editors in charge of FOB sections are usually lower on the masthead; meaning, they're newer to the magazine and less likely to have a "stable" of freelancers than more seasoned editors do. (See reason #2.)

4. If a new writer screws up a story (or fails to turn it in--it happens!), the editor is stuck with a pretty small hole to fill. She's not going to have to scramble to fill two or three full pages the way she would if a freelancer dropped the ball on a feature. So an editor is more likely to take a chance with a new writer on an FOB than a longer piece.

5. Established freelancers often don't bother with FOB pieces. We're paid by the word, remember? So while I pitched and wrote FOBs early in my career, I've given them up in favor of better-paying features--and many freelancers follow a similar trajectory.

6. FOBs give you a chance to prove yourself both to the editor and the magazine. As a new freelancer, I couldn't always get feature assignments with the magazines I wanted to write for. But after I pitched and wrote two FOBs for Self, I nailed a feature assignment--and the editor came to me!

And before you ask, yes, you should still use a query to pitch even a short FOB. Next post, I'll tell you why.

Are you a new freelancer or do you want to become one? You'll find my first two books on successful freelancing enormously helpful. Ready, Aim, Specialize! Create your own Writing Specialty and Make More Money includes 20 queries that worked along with advice on launching your freelance career by starting with what you know about already; Six-Figure Freelancing gives a broader overview of treating your writing like a business and succeeding in a competitive field.