Best Practices for Submitting Work to Magazines
January 22, 2020Submitting photography stories, series, and pitching ideas to magazines and blogs can be a great foot in the door as well as helpful in generating more exposure to your work. With magazines cutting costs, issues, and staff more than ever, submissions and external pitches are becoming more common as they are less expensive to produce.
Here are some best practices to think about before submitting your projects:
- Do your homework. Make sure your content and style of photography fits the publication and their audience.
- Read submission guidelines and follow them.
- Don’t spam or cc multiple editors from different publications at once.
- Be clear in your subject lines and email copy, take the time to check your spelling and grammar.
- Don’t email large attachments.
- Do send beautifully retouched, final images and lots of options to choose from. Send a link to a Dropbox folder or something similar.
- Avoid pitching trends or stories that have already been done/overdone.
- Follow up once or twice, if you don’t hear back, drop it or pitch to another editor.
In my February Marketing Guide I interview PR expert Sara Hussey and dive even deeper in how to pitch your photography work, find the right contacts, and compose emails that will get replies. The February Guide drops 2/3/20 and you can get it by ordering the full 2020 Photography Marketing Calendar and Strategy Guide now. #ImRootingForYou
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