by Mark Herwig

I have purchased hundreds of articles, photos, and illustrations for the three outdoor magazines I’ve edited the past 13 years out of White Bear Lake, Minnesota. I’ve also sold quite a few freelance articles, including this one, so I know the game from both sides.

The writers I consistently buy from always have good ideas. People can be good writers, but if the ideas they shoot me don’t work, that’s the end of it. If I like an idea, but the writer is new to me, I ask for the story on “spec” (speculation); that is, I only agree to buy it if I like it.

If someone is a known entity or has done good work for me on several occasions, and if I’ve given the assignment or accepted the query, I’m paying for the article, period. I make one exception: if I get a great, unique idea from a rookie writer, I’ll let him or her write the article knowing I’ll end up doing a lot of editing to make it usable. I like helping new writers, and they are so grateful.

If a new writer sends me a poorly written story on spec or after an assignment, I sometimes work with him or her to get it right. But I’m just as likely to drop it and never use the person again. Why? It’s much more work to make good writing out of bad and I don’t have time for a lot of on-the-job training. Lastly, there are many good writers out there I can use. Why bother with the bad ones?

Another mistake that will get a writer off my list in a hurry: missing deadlines by more than a few days without a good excuse. I have a deadline from my printer and if I miss it, the magazines won’t get printed. If a writer stiffs me, I have to scurry to fill the hole. Not good.        

Get to Know the Editor

A few years ago, a company we work with invited a bunch of outdoor writers to a seminar near St. Louis, Missouri. There, I met several writers, two of whom I use to this day. We got to know each other on both a professional and a personal level. The upshot: if you have the chance, get to know an editor face-to-face. Again, these guys are good writers, but had I not met them, I doubt I would have struck up a business relationship. Neither of these gentlemen had queried me before.

Here are some more tips:

• Before writing a spec story or querying, study your target publication and its audience.

• Focus your idea, outline, and story like a laser beam.

• Get the publication’s freelance guidelines, if it has them, and proceed according to the rules.

Speaking of rules, here are a few unwritten ones:

Editors are busy and get lots of material from many sources, including freelancers, so don’t send someone an idea that just ran in the last issue. This is really a bad way to start. Assume an editor is there because he or she really loves the publication and is dedicated to it. Sending a query on a subject that ran in a recent issue tells an editor you are just out to make a sale and don’t care enough to do some basic research about the publication. Querying a publication is like a job mini-interview: you must show enthusiastic interest in a job beyond just getting a paycheck.

I’m much more likely to buy a story if I also receive good photos that tell the story. It is a lot more work for me to hustle photos from someone else to fit your story. If you’re not a shooter, team up with a photographer who can fill the bill.

I don’t mind getting completed stories, although I may not read them for a while—even a year or more—because I get lots of material and may not have time to drop everything and read your story now.

Once I buy good stories and photos from someone two or three times, and see that the work arrives on time without my babysitting, I am much more likely to consider his or her work in the future. I have many regulars I buy from all the time. They just shoot me an idea and I tell them to do it. I have confidence they’ll deliver.

It’s okay to send a quick e-mail to an editor or call to check on a submitted story. Editors get a lot of material and an e-mail or call will help get your story renewed attention. I’d suggest waiting, though, for a few months or so. It takes awhile to plug an unplanned story into a future issue. Most editors have the next one or two issues already mapped out.

Leave the ego at the door. Most stories can be improved with editing, so do so cheerfully when your editor asks you to. Don’t nag an editor over changes to your story unless they are inaccurate. High-maintenance prima donnas usually don’t get a second assignment.

Send a story or two to a publication you’ve never queried before or once your work has been used in that particular publication, but don’t send more than that. Most pubs use a variety of writers to keep from becoming any single writer’s “journal.”

Always get a contract detailing what the story should include, deadline, and pay scale—or an e-mail spelling out the same.

Lastly, write what you are knowledgeable about and what you enjoy. Your expertise and passion will come through in your story and make it richer and more appealing to a wide audience.

Mark Herwig edits Pheasants Forever Journal, a membership magazine with a national circulation of 110,000; Quail Forever Journal, 8,500 circulation; and Upland Tales, a 20,000 circulation national magazine for teens of mostly PF and QF members. “The outdoors inspires me and I know when it does a freelance writer by how he or she writes . . . you can feel it when it’s real,” Herwig says.