Advice needed from journalists

[Freddiecat]

I have (mostly) written a short article which I'd like to submit to a pregnancy magazine. I have never had anything published before. How do I go about approaching a magazine? If I tell them the idea what's to stop them using it themselves?

Freddiecat, personally, I never write anything before I talk to the mag. Normal practise is to sell them on the idea first, and then see if they want it, and then have a discussion with the features editor about how to approach the subject, how many words they want etc but if you've never had anything published before then it might help to have the piece ready to send them. But first get the phone number or email address of the features editor of the magazine you would like the article to appear in. Check the magazine does indeed regularly feature the type of article you have written - most magazines tend to follow a formula. Then call her or email her and say that you have an idea for a feature about X, which you have actually written and wondered if she was interested in seeing it. Without knowing anything about the feature, I can't really advise on how to pitch it, but I would say, think - does this idea fit with the rest of the mag. Is it in a format the magazine uses? It is original? Can you imagine a snappy headline or even a coverline for it? If you can honestly say yes to those questions, definitely submit it. If not, maybe go back and think about changing either the feature or the mag you are thinking of sending it to.
Sadly, they may pinch your idea, but it's quite unusual.
Anymore questions??!

Well I wrote because it took me an hour to knock up 1500 words. However it's not nearly snappy enough so will probably spend 3 days reducing it!

Well I think it is original, but have not read the last 20 issues of every pregnancy magazine so don't know for sure. However working on the assumption that no one reads more than 9 issues it's probably less of a concern for them I guess!

I have a few issues of different mags so will review tomorrow and decide which to call.

My main problem is snappiness. Cannot think of a snappy title right now but it'll come.

Thanks for the advice.

OOOOH freddie - give me a shout....am intrigued!!!

Don't worry about the snappy headline thing - you don't have to come up with one, it's more that most attention-grabbing articles lend themselves to a good headline. Is it just 1.500 words of your opinion or experience? I ask because usually a long article will need other voices, expert opinions etc, unless it is an interview with someone with a unique or unusual experience.

Hmm I think I need to cut it drastically as it's only supposed to be a short - 1 page type thing.

Always amazes me how few words are in magazines compared to the dodgy pictures