Writing For Online Magazines by Allison Symes

Image Credits:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay images.

As well as writing flash fiction, I wear a non-fiction hat too. I write for two online magazines (Chandler’s Ford Today where I have a weekly column and Writers’ Narrative, where I contribute monthly). Online magazines are another way of getting your work out there. 

As with any publication, you should know your intended audience. Writers’ Narrative is written by writers for writers. Other online outlets like Chandler’s Ford Today have different columnists, so when you come across a magazine like this, look at the columns that most interest you. This will show you what the online magazine thinks its market is. My column is aimed at other writers (though there is a gardening column, a local history one and so on here).

Can you write something which would fit in with the chosen online magazine? Could you produce work for them regularly? Consistency matters.

You need to consider presentation. Huge blocks of text on the screen deters readers. So how can you make your presentation work for the magazine concerned? Does it use boxes? Does it use bullet points? Does it use (copyright free or your own) images? 

All of these can break up the text and encourage people to scroll and read on. The use of white space is important  too. Think about easy to read sentences and paragraphs (nothing too long). 

Don’t think of this kind of writing as “easy”. It isn’t necessarily. You need to think about how your article will work when broken into sections. It should work that way and still be a coherent whole. (I write my piece first, edit it, and then work out what the sections will be. Structure comes into non-fiction writing too).  

 

As ever, follow publisher guidelines. Usually there is a word count limit. Follow how they want you to submit a piece to the letter. There are always good reasons for wanting work submitted in a specific way (and this is often connected with formatting. No re-inventing of the wheel needed or wanted here).

 

Writing for online magazines gives you publication credits. For magazines with an ISSN (such as Writers’ Narrative) you can add your articles to your ALCS listing. ALCS is the Authors Licensing and Collecting Society. See link for more information about this wonderful organisation. Definitely worth checking out. 

Also the links to the magazine you are in are easy to share on social media. Doing that raises the magazine’s profile and yours. 

 

With print magazines less common than they were, online versions give an alternative way of having work published. Some print magazines do offer an online version as well, knowing people now are more comfortable with mixing up how they read. The online market is an avenue which can be usefully explored.

The great thing here is online magazines always do want material so why not consider writing for them? It wasn’t something I’d envisaged doing when I started writing seriously for publication but I am glad I have gone this route.