I want to write for a magazine. What do I have to know?!

I want to write for a magazine. What do I have to know?

I know nothing about the magazine business, but I read articles and think, "I could do that." What do I have to know about this business? How do I get my foot in the door? What can I expect as payment?

It's mostly proposing ideas and submitting articles according to the submission guidelines for whatever publication catches your fancy. To get your foot in the door, you'll likely start small - online magazines are usually cool, school papers, local indie magazines are also a good starting place. Some thing you may want to keep in mind is if you want to specialize in a certain area like music, health, fashion, celebrity, etc. As you go along with more articles published, it'll be much easier to write for larger publications and you can expect a larger payout. Pay is a difficult one to pin point as it will differ. It can be from $0 to over $100 per article. Some publications do not offer compensation except for it looking good on your resume to have experience. A pay scale would be a set fee or often, a per word fee. (like $0.05 a word), others you can negotiate. My advice would be to search out a magazine that fits your interest, check the submission guidelines - I'd look for one with the $0 pay but "experience" type one that seems to have been around for a bit with a large readership - know the layout of the magazine (columns and typical submissions in that area), and find the section you want to submit for. Then gather up your writing courage and go for it.

Magazines value well researched material that fits into their overall theme.