The Demise of Borders (and Brick-and-Mortar Bookstores in General): A Side Effect on Freelancers
With the death of Borders, we freelancers have one less place to find a wide variety of magazines to do market research. Where else can we go to find magazines to browse before submitting?
- The library. My local library has a reasonably good selection of consumer magazines in a variety of niches. This is a good place to start (and maybe to check out a writing book or two while you’re at it).
- Local independent bookstores. Your local store usually carries a good magazine selection, and they might be able to order you a specific title they don’t carry. It is also a good idea to build a healthy relationship with your local bookstore personnel. If you release a book, you may want to have events there, and you will want to work with them to do autographed copies, special local placement, and other promotional ideas.
- Magazine websites. A lot of magazines have full digital editions on their sites. You can read them online or just scan the table of contents to see what types of articles they run, how long they are, where freelancers fit in, and what they have recently covered.
- The grocery store. You might be surprised at how many magazines they have in the magazine rack. Typically, I find the best selection at a one-stop shopping store, such as Fred Meyer, but even Safeway and Albertsons carry a variety of niches.
Where do you find copies of magazines to pitch to? Or do you go Renegade Writer style and pitch blindly?
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