I was just wondering, Do you send your articles out to both Magazines(N Scale or N scale Railroading) and see which one is willing to publish your article? Or is their loyalty to the one that has published your first article That than gets all of your writings? And that question also goes for published model Railroad layouts that have appeared in either Mag. Also Congrats to all that have had things published in either mag:thumbs_up:
I was first published by N Scale Railroading and I continue to send my material to them. I had approached N Scale Magazine several years before and did not get a good reception, so I just tried NSR for my next attempt. I was published there, so I continue to send material there. I have had articles I sent to NSR not be published. Also, Kirk Reddie (NSR) was very helpful getting me started and explaining some of the Mac-PC interface issues for images. Initially, I sent him several disks that were not readable on his Mac because I had not properly loaded the data.
I have had two articles published in NSr thanks to the encouragement of Flash. I now only send articles to Kirk as I am a regular reader of his magazines
As a general rule you'll build a relationship with one editor and work mostly with that magazine. Sometimes if your material doesn't mesh with their schedule you'll go fishing somewhere else, but working with one can have definite advantages.
I only send articles or photos to one magazine at a time. I try to compose the material to fit what I feel that particular editor might want. Having NTRAK modules that I take to various national events, I am sometimes approached by editors who solicit a specific article. At that point there is no need to go elsewhere. If something has already appeared in another magazine, I try to highlight totally different aspects of the subject.
It's generally considered to be bad form to submit the same piece to more than one magazine at a time. It may land you on the permanent reject list especially if you go far down the path with two mags at the same time. However, there are certainly authors that are published in multiple mags in the same year; but there are certainly "serial authors" that started with one mag and then went to others. I've done two one-pagers for Kirk and have at least a page in every issue of "The N Scale Collector" (a "UMTRR Spotlight Car" excerpt from my regular column).
It is indeed considered very bad form to submit the same or similar articles to more than one publication at the same time. It helps if you first review the publication requirements of each magazine. I had an article published in Model Railroader 30 years ago, but Terry Thompson made it clear that MR is no longer interested in complicated construction articles, especially in N scale. Also, MR has very rigid photo megapixel requirements. If you have an article in mind, suggest you send an email, with a brief outline and a photo or two to either Pam or Kirk, asking if they would be interested in a complete article. Only of you get a "no" would it be O.K. to "shop" the idea to the other. I had articles in N-Scale in 1992 and March-April of 2005. I'll be submitting more to the same publication. :cat:
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This is a helpful subject. I recently emailed some shots of an idea for a small article to a model railroad mag. I never even got a reply. I figure i'm free to submit to another publication as they never acknowledged me.
While I just debuted in N Scale, I've been publishing in many other trade magazine since 1967, although I did stop from 1996-2006. I generally stick with one editor, and thus one magazine. I get to know the editor and vice versa. Many articles have been generated with simple phone calls instead of a long wait on an unsolicited manuscript. While I did many articles for Electronics magazine, that never stopped me from going to Computer Systems Design if I had an article better suited to that magazine. When trying to break into a new magazine, I always send a query letter (now email) first. This message outlines what I plan to write and sometimes my qualifications to do it. I once had an agent, but when he died, I just went off on my own. There are very rare times when you can submit simultaneously, and then all editors have to be informed from the beginning. I can't think of a model railroading topic that could qualify. If you do submit simultaneously without informing the editors, you will ruin their trust in you. You can, however, publish the same article in non-competing magazines, with the first editor's permission. For example, I did a story about computers helping to design long-span bridges. It first appeared in Computerworld, and then in a civil engineering magazine. Getting paid two or three times for the same article really helped me get started. If I have a submission rejected, I always write back to formally withdraw the submission. Here's why: editors can get desperate for materials. I had Computerworld reject a manuscript about a database product, so I went on to Infoworld, who put it on the cover. A week before Infoworld went to press, I saw it in Computerworld. It seems the company that produced the product had just bought $1 million worth of advertising there, and the editor "wanted to do something for them." Friend or not, I nearly punched him out, and never wrote for him again, nor ever saw him socially. Luckily I had another story for Infoworld, and the editor accepted the situation.
It's certainly easier to get a first item published in one of the smaller targeted model railroad publications before making a run at the more general magazines. That gives you a reputation and a clip file to use when approaching MR or RMC, for example. This isn't any different from any other subject area: it's rare that you'll get a piece in The New Yorker or The Atlantic without having been published in The East Overshoe Review. It's also been said over and over that photography is a key attribute of model railroad magazines, and frankly, that's the attribute that keeps holding me back. One of these days, though.
Photography is everything. The magazines that pay do so separately for text and photos. Even if they are able to supply a photographer or file photos try to do your own photography first. The photos from a feature article can easily outpay just the text alone.
George, Please give me addy for The East Overshoe Review. I'll start there!!!!! Yes photography is a major hurdle and I want the article written by me and photographed by me 100% or nothing
I supplied photos to NSR and got paid for the page that the entire piece took up. I was paid the same amount for the page that I did for which I didn't supply photos. But yes, that is definitely the exception.
One at a time I suppose I could say that I'm a published author, having written and published several dozen books and a couple of hundred articles (none on model railroading, alas). From my point of view, it's really unethical to submit the same material to more than one publisher simultaneously. When the publisher receives your material, the editorial people are going to have to spend some time -- hours, possibly, and more if fact-checking is involved -- trying to figure out whether the submission has merit. If it doesn't, they'll let you know as soon as they can. Now suppose they DO want it, only to find that you've submitted it elsewhere -- and you've decided to go with the other publisher. So all their effort went for naught. It's only natural that they would not be terribly thrilled to receive a second submission from you! Bear in mind that the best publication experiences result from a happy marriage of author and publisher. Choose the publisher that you think best suits your material, write a cover letter explaining why you think so, and indicate that you have not submitted this material elsewhere. Out of consideration for this, ask for them to make a decision in a timely manner. That's how the pros do it, and that's why the pros keep getting published. Best wishes, and good luck, Bryan Pfaffenberger Charlottesville, VA
Photography, as BrianS noted, is the most important thing in publishing in model magazines. I disagree that it's everything. The quality of your modeling, as portrayed in your photographs, is everything. I've learned that the best photography doesn't hide my modeling mistakes. It was a hard lesson, but it prompted me to do better in both my modeling and my photography. I'm still not where I want to be, but I learn every month to get better.
Pete, I was going on the assumption that anyone who would be considering doing an article would already have the skills to back those thoughts up. Since my work is with railroad magazines I don't generally consider the subject to be important as that will vary depending on the audience. If you're writing for a model magazine, however, make sure you do something to your Bachmann train set before you write an article on it.
Good points, Brian. I'd much rather be photographing bears in Alaska than stumbling over lights and a tripod in the train room. Good studio photography requires not only skills, but the patience to get everything correct. I had to learn both the skills and the patience. Still, my first attempts were miserable. Shots were carefully lighted and composed. But the nits in my modeling showed. The camera does not lie! I had to go back and correct my modeling before I got shots that were publishable. When I'm out in the field, I always ask anyone with me to ask "Camera check?" when I am shooting. That way I don't shoot at ISO 800 with a 12mm lens or ISO 200 with a 300mm lens.
