Mary Rosenblum, your web editor, has published three SF novels, four mysteries as Mary Freeman, and more than 60 short stories in multiple genres, as well as nonfiction.  Her very first nonfiction query letter, years ago, netted her a monthly column instead of a single article.

 

 

 

Breaking into Nonfiction

By Mary Rosenblum

 

            You may have heard it or you may not have;  It’s easy to break into nonfiction.  Well it is.  Much easier than breaking into the fiction market.  Why is that?  The nonfiction market is much much bigger than the fiction market.  Take a walk into your local bookstore chain or newsstand or library – any place that offers a good selection of magazines.  See all those magazines?  They come out every month or every week or every two months and they must be filled with interesting articles.  Every time.  And you are only looking at a small selection of all the magazines out there.  More magazines are being published every year. 

 

            Great.  So if it’s so easy, just how do you get your piece between those covers?  Well, it is easy.  You read your market choice and then you give your editor what your editor wants.

 

To Market To Market

 

            You want to sell to the magazine market, but when you look at the market lists, you are discouraged.  You’re no expert.  What do you really know about anything?  Who are you to tell people what to do?   What do you have to offer? 

 

            Way more than you think.  Close the market index for a minute.  Before you go any farther, go get a pen and a piece of paper.  Now write down everything you know anything about.   Nothing?  Go on!  Do you have kids?  Write down children.  Do you have pets?  List them:  cats, dogs, hedgehogs, stick insects…  Were you in Boy scouts, Girl scouts, Blue Birds, 4-H?  Did you ever collect stamps, coins, rocks, stray dogs?  What do you work with?  People?  Money?  Cars?  What are your hobbies?  Archery, fishing, scrapbooking, bowling, flower arranging, wrestling crocodiles? 

           

            This list is your ‘expertise list’.  No, you’re not an expert in many or any of these areas, but you have experience in these areas.  This gives you a couple of options.  You can be an expert, or you can connect with experts.  Editors want experts.  They don’t mind if your expertise is thin and you can only offer a personal narrative about the terrible week you spent as a 4-H leader at your local state fair and what you learned from it.  They will happily publish you if you have showed cats and won at your local cat show.  If you simply aren’t an expert,  you can call up someone who is an expert – a local fishing tournament winner, a NASCAR name, a local 4-H official or a renowned quilter.  You can say, I did this and I’m writing about it, can I interview you?  Editors want experts, remember?  If you offer an interview with one, they’ll be happy.   And guess what?  The experts love to be interviewed, nearly always.  Who doesn’t love to hear that he or she  a celebrity?

 

Think Globally Look Locally

 

            Okay, so you’ve opted for the interview.  Now what?  Well, you’re going to write this as the 4-H mom who struggled through State Fair and loves the system.  You’re going to interview the head of your county’s 4-H Extension office.   You have a point to make – that it’s a great program and a personal slant – it’s a lot of hard work but well worth the effort.  This is where you call up the 4-H person and tell him or her your plan.  It’s highly unlikely that you will be refused.   You are a 4-H leader.  You won’t misrepresent the issue and the 4-H person can hear the enthusiasm in your voice.  You are an expert, too, remember?  You are family here.  This gets you the interview.

 

Now What?  Query or Write It?

 

            Let’s talk about the process of professional freelance nonfiction.  This is a business where you query with a topic and slant and you get a yes or no.  If you get a yes, then you write the article for THIS magazine, THIS editor.  But….you are unpublished.  You have no clips to offer, and maybe they ask for a writing sample, but what should you do about your 4-H administrator and the interview?  

 

            Well, most professional freelancers don’t write ‘on spec’…that is, they don’t write first and try to sell it.  But if you have no published clips to offer, and the writers guidelines for a particular magazine ask for clips or a writing sample, you can send in the complete article as the writing sample.  Why not?   Do realize that if the guidelines ask only for a query and clips and you send in the entire article with no clips, it may get ‘round filed’.  That is a risk, and if you do that…send in a query and the complete article both…and get no reply at all, make a note of it in your file (you are keeping a file of what you sent out, when, and to whom, and when you heard back, right???) and don’t do it again. 

 

            But if you have clips, or if you have something your church, or PTA, or local paper published, send that in with a query and write the article only if you get a ‘yes’.  Saves you time. While you’re waiting you can be working on the next article. 

 

Writing What the Editor Needs

 

            Now remember that every editor is putting the magazine together for his or her readers.  You must read at least one issue (three is best) of the magazine before you know who those readers are.  What are the ads like? Do they seem to target twenty-somethings or near-retirees with big disposable incomes? What do the articles contain?  Lots of technical information or more of a ‘I did this you can too’ slant?  Do you see a lot of sidebars?  (If so, offer one).  What about the ‘voice’ of the articles? Lots of taut prose, very tightly paced and dramatic?  Or is the prose very literary, leisurely in style?  Do you see third person or first?  Use this particular style in your query letter.  It tells the editor you noticed what she publishes and you mean to suit that need.

 

Start Small…Unless

 

            Remember that when you query the top, large circulation magazines – Redbook, Sunset, Fish and Game, GQ, you are targeting the top pro markets, so you’ll compete with the top pros.  But Barb Wire Fence Monthly, the trade journal for the barb wire industry has to fill twelve issues, too!  And gee, all the people around you are using vinyl fencing and you’re noticing problems.  So why not propose an article as a local with a good eye who has talked to the neighbors who are not happy.   Query about an article that includes interviews with local cattle owners who have had trouble with the new fencing and want to go back to barb wire.  Wow, a sale!  Okay, you only made $100, but hey, it’s a CLIP!  Next time, you can query a bigger magazine.  That clip proves you can deliver a publishable article on deadline. That is what clips mean.  Now you move up…and up…and up. 

 

            Remember that list?  Go get it out.  Somewhere in that list is your next sale. 

 

            Get busy!