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Question:
I recently read an interview with a woman who said she works as an "assistant" to the editor of a major women's magazine. The woman said that she occasionally passes a query to her editor, but the editor usually prefers to work with writers she already knows. Are all magazines like this? And how did those regular writers ever get their first assignments if the editor is like this? I thought an editor's job was to help writers.
Answer:
Yes, most major mags have "assistants" who go through the mail before an editor sees it. There's a good reason for this. I'll tell you why by example:
In my inbox this morning are approximately 40 submissions and queries from the past 2 days.
I only edit a writer's website. This ain't Good Housekeeping. Imagine how many submissions they get.
Anyway. If those 40 submissions, here's an estimate of what they look like:
10 of them are totally inappropriate. They query for gardening topics, or romance tips.
10 of them are "how-to" articles from authors with no expertise on the topics whatsoever. 5 of them are people who want me to run writing-related articles they wrote for "Themestream." They address things like "How to write a query letter," yet the author has never had a query letter accepted by a paying market.
The vast majority are addressed "Dear Editor" or "To Whom It May Concern,"
dead giveaway that the writer hasn't bothered to do much research about our publication, considering there's a big ole' "Letter From The Editor," signed by me, on top of the current issue.
A little under half of them are full of misspellings, grammatical errors, and other such giveaways that I do not want to work with this writer. An almost-exact quote from one I received the other day: "Dear editor, If your looking for submissions, I have lots of them and their great articles about writing. Go to my website at skdfjks.com and see for yrself. yrs, john doe."
(If he can't even bother proofreading his "query letter," and if he's so lazy that he can't type out the extra two letters in "yours," let alone-- God forbid-- taking the time to paste his submission into the body of the e-mail rather than inconveniencing me to have to go searching around his website to find it, can you imagine what his articles must have looked like?)
Five will contain attachments, depite the fact that my guidelines stipulate "no attachments." Once a week, a writer will inadvertently send me a virus. Three times, my virus protection software hasn't caught it in time. Twice, I inadvertently went on to share that virus with *my* editors.
There will be one or two queries/submissions that are very good, and several more that are possibilities. Of those, I can only assign one-- maybe two. We run about 9 article/fiction/poetry submissions each issue, so I can't assign everything I want to, and I have to make sure we haven't recently covered the topic.
Now, it angers me every day that I have to take the time to respond to everyone. I do it out of a sense of responsibility-- even though it's obvious that many of the writers haven't shown me the courtesy of taking the time to learn my name or anything about my publication. These are presumably bulk submissions they've simply copied to 100 other editors, yet I'm expected to compose a personal message back to each of them.
Do I wish I had an assistant to weed out the totally inappropriate submissions? You bet. Am I more likely to assign something to a writer I already know? Yes. Why?
More examples.
I took a chance about three months ago and assigned a less-experienced writer to do some book reviews for me. Deadlines came and went. I never saw a submission from her, ever, despite that I took the time to get her onto review lists at publishing companies who sent her free books and put my reputation on the line.
I also accepted a piece from a writer I'd never worked with before, just days ago. I offered him a contract at our usual rates, and he wrote back demanding double-- misquoting the name of our publication. I can't afford double, nor would I want to, so I again wasted my time with a writer who didn't take the time to read my guidelines, which clearly include pay rates.
I got a plagiarized piece from another writer I didn't know.
Another writer sent a great query and great credentials, and then used the space of the article as her own personal promotional piece for her editing business, rather than the "how to self-edit" piece she'd promised.
Basically, if I've worked with a writer before, I know whether or not I can trust the quality of their work, their ability to adhere to deadlines and word counts, their reliability in terms of source sheets and fact checking, etc. I'm often disappointed when I assign to people I don't know. I've gotten to know this base of writers slowly-- once they've submitted one or two good assignments, I know to look at their queries first when they hit my inbox. And if it comes to a choice between an enticing query from a writer I know and one from someone I don't know, I'll most likely choose the former because it's more likely that he/she will come through as promised.
That doesn't mean I won't work with new writers-- if a writer can clearly express a great idea to me, and can convince me of his/her professionalism, I'll assign.
An editor's job is NOT to nurture every writer who sends a note. That may be a nice side-benefit, but my job is to put together a great publication. If I believe I can best do that by working with reliable writers who I already know, then I'm doing my job. Part of my job is to keep the publication fresh, though, so I can't only look to those same "voices" every issue. That's why the slush pile is important, and it's why I do seriously consider every submission that comes my way.
If my entire job was simply to read submissions, well, then I'd have no right to complain. However, my job is a little more complicated than that!
I read queries. I make assignments and write rejection letters. I read the assignments and edit them. I fact-check. I offer contracts. I send the edited submissions to the associate editor. I write up editorial calendars. I answer questions from writers who are having trouble with an assignment. I keep up on current trends and articles other writing publications are putting out, to make sure we don't wind up with the same articles. I check in on late payments. I have weekly "marketing meetings" to discuss how to bring in revenue. I keep in touch with editors of other writing-related publications to discuss trade-advertising and cross-promotions. I write press releases and send our writer's guidelines to publishers. I answer "letters to the editor." I forward mail regarding articles we've run to their authors. I order review books. I approve layouts and advertising copy. I do promotional work for the publication. I go to business meetings with our board members. I come up with contests and often judge them. I brainstorm new ways for us to find subscribers, advertisers, and investors. I approve the final copy before it's sent to subscribers. And I give ridiculously long answers to letters like this.
It's no cop-out when editors say they're busy. Trust me. This is beyond a full-time job, I'm on constant deadline, and I have no desire to give every writer who comes my way their "shot." They have to earn that; first, through a great query and clips, and then, through a great submission. Each time another writer turns in a great submission, though, the playing field gets a little tougher for the next unknown writer, because s/he now has to compete with people who've already proven themselves.
Now, as far as getting that first assignment goes, here are my tips:
You have to propose something that no one else could. In other words, don't bother sending a query about "10 tips for a better marriage" to Redbook. There are hundreds of writers who can write about that topic, and no reason for an editor to go out on a limb to assign it to you. But DO query if you know of an outstanding, unique story that no other writer can tell-- for example, if your neighbor has single-handedly raised $1 million for breast cancer research through her innovative home business, propose a profile of her.
For your first piece with a publication, many will feel more confident assigning you a short piece, rather than a feature. (Features are complicated; inexperienced writers can rarely hold together a long article.)
If you have credentials, include them. If not, at least include an assurance: "I turn in clean copy, on time every time, and will include a source sheet for easy fact-checking."
It took me about 7 queries before I finally got an assignment from Writer's Digest. I turned in a great piece. Since that time, I've never had a query rejected by them.
And now it's time for me to get back to slogging through those submissions. ;)
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Jenna Glatzer is a full-time freelance writer with hundreds of national and online credits, recently including Salon.com, Writer's Digest, American Profile, Link Magazine, College Bound Magazine, Inkspot, Writer Online, Script, Screentalk, Voter.com, and Zooba.com. She is the Editor-In-Chief of the big writers' website Absolute Write, Editorial Director of WriteRead, and Public Relations Director for the upcoming film CURSE OF THE BOG WOMEN.
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She is the author of "The More Than Any Human Being Needs To Know About Freelance Writing Workbook," available as an e-book. You can learn more about it and order at Absolutewrite.com.
Jenna's work has appeared in several anthologies, and she has two books to be published in 2001. She enjoys working from home, and loves helping other writers achieve success as freelance writers.
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