Angie asks: In your e-course, you recommend that we come up with an elevator speech about our idea in case an editor picks up the phone when we call the magazine to ask for contact information. Can you tell me more about this?
I’ve had students call a magazine’s editorial department to ask for an e-mail …
Feb 17, 2010 Advice, Editors, Marketing, You Ask, We Answer
This query sold to the now-defunct Better Health & Living magazine. This is what I call an “opposite idea,” which is a great way to breathe new life into a tired idea. “Do what you love” was a mantra in the self-help world, so I flipped it on its head.
Jennifer Lawler, an expert I quoted, …
Feb 15, 2010 Writing
On Monday Damon Brown begins his popular Renegade Writer e-course, “Tech Journalism 2.0: Making Money With Your Inner Geek.” The Tech Chair of the 2010 American Society of Journalists and Authors conference, Damon is the author of nine books and regularly contributes to Playboy, New York Post, Family Circle and AARP: The Magazine. You can …
Feb 10, 2010 Advice, Classes, Query letters
By popular demand, I’m posting the article I wrote for Writer’s Digest in 1999 that was based on the query I posted last week. While the query was about magazine writing vs. copywriting, the editor asked me to focus on advertorials in place of copywriting.
I’m leaving in the sidebar of places that buy advertorials even …
This is the query I used to break into Writer’s Digest in 1999. (I started writing for magazines and doing corporate writing in mid-1997.) I’ve been writing for them ever since, and am now a columnist. Notice how I end with a statement that shows that I understand the magazine’s market and explains how my …
Feb 5, 2010 Advice, Query letters
