Pitching the big pubs first

**If  you’re new here, start with: 12 Hints for Magazine Health Writers for all the basics of becoming a freelance writer for magazines with health, fitness, and nutrition, articles. ***

One of the questions health writers ask when they’re just starting out is how long to wait before they can pitch their health article ideas to the big nationals. The answer is do it now.

That doesn’t mean you should pitch a publication like Family Circle, Prevention, or Reader’s Digest and then wait for the phone to ring. You may get your first articles published in much smaller magazines first. But then again, you may hit on the perfect idea and the perfect editor who will assign it to you straight-away. This has happened more times than you might think. Particularly with health and medical articles, if you bring some inside knowledge, some professional or personal experience with the topic of your query, all the better. This will help make up for any lack of writing cred.

An informal poll taken among working writers found that the best approach is to send queries out to your ideal markets, then send them to your tier-two markets, and then move them down the line. If you always have a half dozen or more ideas circulating, something will surely stick. Of course, you’ll retool each query before resending to the next market, but the hard work is done. You want to pitch the big publications first, just in case they bite. Then if/when they don’t, you’ll be happy to hear from the nice editor at another publication. The article you produce will make a fine sample to show Mr. Big editor and that dream magazine that you do have writing cred.

Happy Health Writing,

Kathy Summers