Learn to Write: How to Pitch an Online Magazine for Fun and Profit!
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Writing online comes in a variety of flavors. If you’re looking for long-term work and don’t care if your name shows up on the things you write, then you could look at ghostwriting. If you prefer getting your name out there, you should be pitching online magazines. There are thousands of online publications that publish the work of authors. Not all of them pay, however. In a few cases, magazines will ask you to pay them to host your story on their website. You’re not looking for that sort of gig. Instead, you’re looking for a magazine that will pay YOU to do some writing.
The Sliding Scale of Pay Rates
Magazines differ drastically in what they will pay you. As a writer, you might see this as potentially short-changing you. The truth is that magazines can only pay you based on how much they make. That value is a combination of their subscribers, ad revenue, and the number of donations they get to keep their services running. Some magazines can only afford to pay a cent a word or so.
Fiction and Non-Fiction Markets
In writing, two markets exist, that for fiction and non-fiction. Fiction markets tend to be pretty saturated and have lower rates because of it. To become a specialist in a particular field, you should look at the non-fiction market. The articles from these non-fiction sources pad out your resume and give you a rapport with publishers who may accept your articles in the future. Non-fiction markets can pay well, with some magazines willing to pay $100 or more per article.
The Pitch Outline
So how do you get online magazines and publications to notice you exist? One way to do so is to check if you can write for the publication and its guidelines. More prominent publications have different requirements for accepting pitches. Most of them will outline what they want and don’t want on their “Write for Us” page. Format mentions that in most cases, pitching breaks down into three things:
