As freelance writers, we struggle to find markets that suit our interests. Even sites dedicated to providing freelance listings, while excellent for the most part, can’t list every available market. Often, the smaller niche publishers aren’t even included in listings, but with some effort there are ways to find them.
Search Medium for [Subject] Writers’ Guidelines or Article Submissions
Medium is widely known as an online home where writers can create their own home for their stories and content. However, it has become much more than that, having also evolved into a search engine and a powerful tool to find markets you never even knew existed.
By searching for your subject, you can also narrow the returns for those journals and/or sites. For example, I searched for “lifestyle writers guidelines,” and the guidelines for Cosmopolitan Magazine showed up alongside The Lifestyle Café which had a listing for “Writers Wanted.” A little further down in the search I found more guidelines for Wellness Travel Adventures and for a site called Ice Cream. There were also articles with publications that paid lifestyle and health writers.
While some Medium content is behind a paywall, there is still enough available to make this worth your time to search.
Though this site is a place to get discounted magazine deals, it’s also a treasure trove of information on digital and printed magazines that won’t be familiar to a lot of people. Not only can you search by your interests like cooking and fashion, but you can search for regional publications, professional and trade, education, and more. You can also search by topic as well as category. Just to see what was possible, I searched for raising chickens and was surprised when a magazine popped up!
Once you’ve found a magazine that interests you, Google for the writers’ guidelines. I discovered Still Point Arts Quarterly Magazine on Magazine Line and found an open call for essays that were right in my wheelhouse. This isn’t a market that I’d seen on any other listing.
For particular geography interests, you can search for local and regional magazines. I spend a lot of time in Missouri and discovered Missouri Life and St. Louis Magazine. And, as a bonus, when I researched the submission guidelines for Missouri Life, The Missouri Review popped up. It not only reviews submissions year-round, but it has a contest currently underway with a $1,000 prize.
Refdesk
I knew nothing about this site until searching for regional newspapers, I clicked on a link that took me to Refdesk.com. There I discovered links to United States and Worldwide newspapers. I clicked on my state and was excited to see several smaller newspapers I’d never heard of before. It’s much easier to break into regional newspapers than larger publications. While smaller publications won’t pay as much, you could garner free marketing for any books you’ve written in the byline or even in the article itself if niche enough.
I reached out to a small newspaper in my area and ended up taking a local journalist for coffee. I pitched an idea for a column which she will discuss with her editor. That pitch led me to reach out to the news manager for our biggest newspaper, The Post and Courier and suggest that they include a section for book reviews that would tie into our annual local literary events like the Charleston Literary Festival and YALL Fest, which is our young adult book festival.
On a side note, when performing your searches, make sure to use specific terminology. Don’t just look for health magazines unless you want to write about a variety of areas. Instead, narrow your search to a specific issue like fibromyalgia, heart disease, or diabetes.
The best markets can be buried in unexpected corners of the internet. If you’re willing to dig, change up your keywords, and follow leads a little deeper, you’ll uncover publications that are looking for what you write. Writing takes talent, but it also takes initiative. The writers who are always working are generally always searching as well.
Bio: As well as being a published author of fantasy and paranormal fiction, Rachel Carrington is also a freelance writer who has written for the New York Times, FundsforWriters, Startrek.com, The Writer, to name a few. She can be found on the internet at www.rachelcarrington.com as well as on Instagram and Twitter at rcarrington2004.
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