Writing for Magazines – Waste of Time?

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A fiction author recently was pondering if it is worth to write magazine articles, and asked me if he should not better use his time to write for his own blog / website. My answer: “Well, it depends how many subscribers / readers your website or blog has … Should your blog have less than a million readers per month, consider to write for these magazines with enormous readership numbers, such as:

• Huffington Post (43 Million/month)
• Salon.com (7,7 Million / month)
• Travel & Leisure 950,000 magazine readers
• Delta Sky Magazine over 5 Million Readers / month
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Wikipedia  provides a list of American / International magazines and their paid yearly circulation:
AARP The Magazine 21,931,184
Better Homes And Gardens 7,624,505
Reader’s Digest 5,241,484
Good Housekeeping 4,396,795
National Geographic 4,001,937
People 3,690,031
Southern Living 2,824,751
O, The Oprah Magazine 2,417,589
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The National Trust Magazine UK 2,043,876
Mathrubhoomi India 1,600,000
India Today 1,100,000
Australian Women’s Weekly 470,331
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Resource: Alliance for Audited Media

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US Newspaper’s Daily Circulation:
The Wall Street Journal with 2,378,827 in circulation; The New York Times at 1,865,318; and USA Today with 1,674,306.

If only one percent of their readership finds your article and the byline with your name, website and book info … it’s worth to write for them, one might not be able to pay their ads, but having a by-line and often even get paid for an article is worth to send a pitch to their editor.
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Best Paying: In-Flight Magazines
Travel pieces are a staple of in-flight magazines, but only when showing the culture and feel of the place. Airline publications also contain articles on technology, business, sports, and food, as well as lifestyle trends. Some in-flights feature celebrity profiles, fiction, humor and many have regular columns.

• Alaska Airlines Magazine/Horizon Air Magazine
• enRoute Air Canada’s magazine 

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In a former blog post writers can find lots of tips how to get into the airline magazine market. Compared to consumer magazine publishers, airline magazines often pay a higher rate for freelancers. Excellent writers might earn up to $3.000 for a three page feature with photographs. Rates are typically between $0.75 – $1.00 per word. Even though, you’ll rarely get your name in the article, at least you have it in your portfolio, and you can mention it in Social Media – and at the same time mention your book(s).
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6 Helpful tips on how to pitch to magazine editors:

• Get to know and understand the magazine before you query, read 10 issues back.
• Make a list of editors at prestigious magazines, blogs, newspapers.
• You do not have to write new articles, take what you have, re-write it a bit, add or subtract an introduction
• and conclusion.
• Don’t forget a catchy byline at the end of the article with two links to your book / website.
• Very important: Learn how to write a query for magazines
• Send your pitch to dozens of editors at suitable magazines / newspapers.
• Offer your best photographs to illustrate your articles.
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Best of All:
The research for your books and often parts of your manuscript can be used for articles – in a huge variety of magazines and newspapers. You can use published articles as clips to show to potential publishers and clients in all writing areas. You will receive traffic, money and credibility as a writer, and you will get a huge audience that you could never reach with your blog and Social Media alone!

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More Resources:
http://boostblogtraffic.com/write-for-magazines/
http://money.howstuffworks.com/magazine-writing.htm
https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2013/07/07/free-brilliant-book-marketing-to-a-million-audience/
http://www.wikihow.com/Become-a-Magazine-Writer-from-Scratch
http://www.dailywritingtips.com/writing-for-magazines/
http://goinswriter.com/how-to-get-published-in-a-magazine/
https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/06/23/writing-freelance-for-magazines/
https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2012/02/28/freelance-writing-for-childrens-magazines/
https://savvybookwriters.wordpress.com/2013/08/13/smart-authors-get-paid-for-marketing-their-books/

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If you would like to get more support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or to learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer all this and more for only $179 for three months – or less than $2 per day! Learn more about this customized Online Seminar / Consulting for writers: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 1,060 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.
Thanks a lot for following:

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http://www.111publishing.com
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Difference Between Marketing and Advertising

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Advertising / free day campaigns are just a very small part of marketing. As very well described here, it is only a tiny slice of the “marketing pie”.  A humerus approach to illustrate the difference between Marketing, PR, Advertising, and Personal Branding can be found in these examples. The huge variety of Online Marketing approaches are shown in this wheel-shaped graphic below. 

Continue reading after the graphic
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Unbounce – The DIY Landing Page Platform

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Book Marketing Strategies
Selling your book for a very low price or for free is not really a marketing strategy, unless … And it should only be done and only works well in these circumstances:

• when you have already a name,
• when you have several books or
• when you are a well established as a writer.

It costs money to advertise and then you loose sales, the sale of a couple of books short after the free days will soon be over and the book will turn back into it’s old Amazon rankings. See also a former blog post blog post “Free Days on KDP Select – is it for you?

Consider this too:  You must commit exclusivity with Amazon for 90 days, which means that you must remove your e-book (NOT the print version!) from all other retailers and give up your e-book royalties from Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple iBook store and Sony’s Nook eBook store or wherever else you sell it.
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Giving away a short story (1000 to 1,500 words) or writing guest  blogs is a much better approach – and publishing stories on a high-frequented magazine or newspaper websites helps to find new readers (and you might get even paid for it). You can split your book into many short stories (re-write or spin it a bit to make it “new-looking”).  Tweeting or posting about these free short stories will bring you even more additional promotion for you book – and links to your sales page and your own website, where you hopefully have an opt-in form for your email newsletter to invite readers to your next book.

Most Successful KDP Free Day Campaigns
Authors with multiple books or a series of books use promo days to give away the first book in a series (or the third or fifths, hoping that customers will come back and buy the other books from that series. Which they often do. You can use each of your books to advertise everything else you have written.

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Don’t forget:  If you have only one book there is nothing that readers can actually buy from you, after they received your book for free! The only benefit is the lending program for Prime Members that bring you some revenue – but only if you have priced it higher than $2.99, as readers usually prefer to borrow higher-priced books.

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If you would like to get more support in all things publishing, have your book intensively promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites – or to learn how you can make yourself a name as an author through content writing: We offer all this and more for only $159 for three months! Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/Seminars
Or visit http://www.e-book-pr.com/book-promo/  to advertise your new book, specials, your KDP Select Free Days or the new Kindle Countdown Deals.

Please check out all previous posts of this blog (there are more than 970 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.
Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing
http://www.111publishing.com
http://www.e-Book-PR.com/
http://www.international-ebooks.com/
http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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FREE, Brilliant Book Marketing to a Million Audience

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Island Apart – Martha’s Vinyard

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One of the most savvy and clever marketing stunts by an author, I have seen in a very long time: Steven Raichlen is a food writer, known for his books: The Barbecue Bible and How to Grill, just wrote an article for Huffington Post 10 Great Places to Eat in Martha’s Vineyard. You might ask: fine, but what’s the point? Read on:

He also wrote a love story, which takes place in Martha’s Vinyard, MA, where he summers. His book in a nutshell: A New York book editor recovering from breast cancer, her diffident daughter, a self help guru, and the real life iconoclastic psychotherapist, Wilhelm Reich. Ultimately, it’s a story about love, loss, redemption — and a lot of really good food, that is mixed in the story. German readers might remember the bestseller: Es muss nicht immer Kaviar sein, by Johannes Mario Simmel.
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Steven Raichlen’s brilliant coup:
He wrote an article for Huffington Post Foodie Paradise: 10 Great Places to Eat in Martha’s Vineyard.  In a salute to some of Steven Raichlen’s favorite local restaurants, coffee shops, lobster shacks, and ice cream parlors on Martha’s Vineyard, he had his characters visit the same places which he usually patronizes with his wife.

He writes in this article: “I hope you’ll discover them by reading Island Apart. As my present to you and just in time for July 4th, here are 10 great places to eat in Martha’s Vineyard, who knows, maybe you’ll maybe run into Claire and the Hermit of Chappaquiddick …”  And then he gives even a link to his book on Amazon, explaining that it is now available in paperback.
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Huffington Post: Blog empire and newspaper
Writing this article, Steven Raichlen was able to mention his book to a million readership FOR FREE, as the famous Huffington Post is a blog-empire, newspaper and online news aggregator, is also ranked the most powerful blog in the world by “The Observer” and is number 42 in “The Guardian‘s” Top 100 Media List. Their print version is available in eight major countries.
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Steven Raichlen’s book promotion
Writing about his new book takes up about as much space as the listing of his favorite restaurants (which are really good!) His Huffington Post article ends with: “For more information about Island Apart, photos, a video of the island, and exclusive recipes for dishes, mentioned in the book, visit http://www.stevenraichlen.com. To order “Island Apart” click here.”

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What can we learn from author Steven Raichlen?

• Clever Marketing and reaching millions of people can be done totally free (other than your time). Just use your creativity and imagination!
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• Be self-assured and don’t hesitate to pitch international newspapers / blogs. It takes as much time as to pitch your local neighborhood paper.
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• Write something of value for readers – which is “by chance” part of your book, such as travel tips to the location of your books plot, museums, festivals or public transportation that are mentioned in your book.
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• You have to do your research anyway, why not use the material you gather and write several articles that you can offer – always mentioning your book.
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• As a writer you know how to write, just learn how to write online content by reading lots of online articles and how they are set-up
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• Have a stunning photo on your books cover!

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The possibilities of marketing your books are endless:

• A writer of romance, situated in a Western ambiance, could for sample write how to learn wrangling horses or write about guest ranches – and offer these articles to travel magazines or newspapers.
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• A writer of historical novels could write many articles about fashion, way of life, recipes or interior decoration in the 19th century world.
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• A writer of crime thrillers could elaborate in an article about weapons, psychological reasons behind crimes, or details about the police work.
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• Writers of business thrillers could offer an article what hedge funds are, how banks and mortgage companies are working or portrait business tycoons.
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• If any kind of animal is mentioned in your book – write about their habitat and their life cycle, you can even write about your own pet, if it is a character in your book.
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Got the idea??? You have thousands of nouns in your manuscript – which means you are able to write thousands of articles. As a writer you don’t lack fantasy, that’s for sure… Let this talent work for you!
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It is called CONTENT MARKETING

Content writing is the most fun and casual way of marketing your books and some newspapers and magazines even pay you a small amount for your article. Although NOT Huffington Post. However in any case, you have a fantastic and free marketing outlet for your books to a huge audience, and you can brag that you write for ….

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If you would like to get help in all things publishing, have your book heavily promoted and learn how to navigate social media sites: We offer all this and more for only a “token” of $1 / day for 3 months. Learn more about this individual book marketing help: http://www.111Publishing.com/  Once you are on this website, click on Seminar to register.

Please feel free to check out all previous posts of this blog (there are 790 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Chime.in, Facebook, Tumblr and to StumpleUpon.

Thanks a lot for following:

@111publishing

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http://bit.ly/VmtVAS 111Publishing @ Google+

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