CASHING IN ON TRUE LIFE TALES
Lured by the huge payouts offered by the tabloid magazines and newspapers, it is no wonder that many writers turn their attention to writing sensational true life stories. Present an editor with, My grandmother celebrated her 80th birthday by becoming a devil worshipping lesbian and he will practically smack you in the face with his cheque book!
Payment for these kinds of magazine articles far out strips anything else on offer, typically anywhere from a thousand pounds upwards and the additional prospect of a byline in a magazine with a circulation of many thousands is a further attraction.
How hard is it then to break into this type of magazine writing? If you have something like a husband with a mistress in the coal cellar, pretty easy! Once word gets out, you will probably find buyers coming to you, but there are plenty of agencies and brokers who will be more than pleased to help you sell your story for a percentage of the fee.
These are usually journalists who know the industry inside out. They have excellent contacts and have a good command of payment rates so will know exactly what your story is worth.
This is not a problem if you are only interested in the cash and have no real writing aspirations, but if you are seriously interested in writing for magazines, you will want to do your own writing and build a portfolio of creditable clips.
For this reason you will be well advised to leave this area of magazine writing alone. A further warning should be given at this point. Should you decide to pursue this avenue, be prepared to have your story substantially altered even to the point where much of it is down right lies!
The good news is, you can earn a reasonably good living writing for magazines without having to paddle in these somewhat murky waters!
If you have a reasonably good command of the English language, some basic research skills and the ability to writing in a clear and entertaining way, there are hundreds and hundreds of magazines and websites willing to pay realistic fees for your work.
Give yourself a good grounding in the basic skills of writing magazine articles and take on board the fact that writing is a business and you will soon begin to make sales.
You will find there is a lot of help available so do plenty of back ground reading on writing for magazinesbefore you start submitting your articles.
Get started by joining a good creative writing community. These very often carry market listings which pay for magazine articlesand are also a pillar of support for the emerging writer. You should also sign up for Mags & Rags, a superb ecourse on writing for magazines.This is currently free and will give you a good grounding in all aspects of magazine writing.
Alan’s Rave..Outspoken Personal Opinion
