Know Your Markets by Allison Whitehead (author of 'Hey, I Really CAN Sell My Articles!')

The coffee cup is steaming away next to you, you've allowed yourself a biscuit or two for sustenance, your computer has a blank word document open, and you've got an idea or two to write about.

What next?

Start writing? Well... no. Not if you want to be published, anyway.

Now that might sound like a contradiction in terms - I mean, if you want to be published you need to write. Right?

Well, yes you do - but not before you've done your market research. You'll need to know your markets inside out before they will want to know you. And that's exactly what this article will help you to do, because if you want to be a successful, published writer, your marketing skills are just as important as your writing skills. It's possible to be a mediocre writer with excellent marketing skills, and get published - but it's a whole lot harder to be an excellent writer with non-existent marketing skills and get published. That's how vital market study is.

The key to success is to have a strategy to follow - a plan of action. It's very easy to become overwhelmed by the sheer number of markets there are for writers - newspapers, magazines, websites, newsletters, trade publications... the list goes on. There are many opportunities out there, and you can miss out on them if you don't narrow your focus.

This is the golden rule to remember if you truly want to succeed as a writer. Instead of writing for various magazines as and when the fancy takes you, you need to have a well thought out plan of action to follow. You'll only achieve true and lasting success as a writer if you keep plugging away at it, and concentrate on breaking into a small number of markets at a time. Focus your efforts - and you WILL succeed.

So - how to start? Rule number one is not to make things any harder than they have to be. Select just a couple of markets to target your submissions towards to begin with. Pick two markets whose subject you have a genuine interest and knowledge in - don't aim for mass market magazines, or ones you know attract huge volumes of submissions from freelances.

Let's start with your first choice. You may already have a few article ideas in mind, but if not don't worry. Once you study some back issues and get a feel for the magazine, the ideas will soon start to flow. This is where some quality study time will repay itself later on. Take time to consider why each article was published. What made it suitable for the magazine's readership? How is it constructed? What style is it written in?

Take note also of the adverts in each magazine. Advertisers do a lot of research to make sure they are advertising to an appropriate readership, so study the ads closely, as they will tell you a great deal about who your target readers are.

I'm sure you can now see the importance of targeting only two markets at a time. If you spread yourself too thinly and try and break into too many markets at once, the quality of your efforts will also be spread too thinly. Far better to concentrate your efforts - you will be published far sooner if you follow this method.

Another point to bear in mind when you are just starting out is payment. It's very tempting to aim for publication in the magazines that pay £150 per thousand words, or such like. I started out by aiming at the top women's weeklies! It was only when I lowered my sights a little and started aiming at the lower paying end of the market that I gained my first acceptances. It is far easier to get published here because the competition is far less. It gives you a good opportunity to build up some published work, which you can then use to establish your credentials with other markets.

So - back to our strategy. Concentrate your efforts on your two chosen markets. Develop some ideas and put together some good solid queries to submit to each editor. If you are able to supply photos or illustrations say so - being able to provide a complete package will make you a far more attractive prospect.

But this is only part of our strategy. The second part is to plan ahead - think long term and keep plugging away at your writing. This makes the inevitable rejection slips much easier to bear. If you think short term and are determined to succeed with your very first article, a rejection can be devastating. But if you think long term, and you have a master plan to write a couple of queries every week, until you eventually gain that first acceptance, a rejection won't seem so bad. You will learn to study each rejection letter to see if there's any advice, hints or tips you can learn from it. Study each article, too, to see if you can tell where you went wrong.

Having a game plan is possibly the most important thing you can start your writing career with. Narrow your focus when it comes to targeting markets, but plan ahead for the long term if you want to keep going.

If you do these two things, the only way you will fail as a writer is if you stop writing. Keep going, and you will be seeing your name in print - maybe sooner than you think.

And to that end, I wish you the very best of luck.

About the author: Allison Whitehead has published hundreds of articles in many British magazines, including The Lady, This England, Prediction and Writer's News. Her latest e-book, 'Hey, I Really CAN Sell My Articles!' is available now. Visithttp://www.lulu.com/smoo_publishing for more details.

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About the Author

Allison Whitehead has been a freelance writer for sixteen years, and has published hundreds of articles on motivational, self help, writing and business topics. Her latest e-book, 'Hey I Really CAN Sell My Articles!', is available athttp://www.lulu.com/smoo_publishing