Magazine writers are able to write fascinating articles on a wide variety of topics. If you have ever picked up a copy of Rolling Stone, Vogue, Southern Living, or any other magazine, you probably have a good idea of what magazine articles are like.
If you love taking a topic, story, person, or experience and being able to explore what it means and why people should care, magazine writing might be a perfect career for you.
This article will go over how to become a magazine writer, cover what it takes to get your foot in the door, how you can get experience, salary expectations, and more.
Table of Contents
What is Magazine Writing?
For the most part, magazine writing is either under the umbrella of journalism or commentary. Most magazine articles are considered longform journalism.
Most magazine pieces have certain rules, with research needing to be done, people needing to be interviewed, and the whole story being put together in a particular way. Some magazine articles can also be fiction or personal narratives as well.
When the article includes the author’s perspective, experience, or thoughts, there is still a central theme or idea being explored.
Instead of it being a short informational piece, as you would see in a newspaper, magazine articles are well-researched, long, and thought-out. Most people who are in the field are people who come from writing for newspapers, first.
Skills Needed To Become A Magazine Writer
One of the top skills you will need to succeed as a magazine writer is being able to write like a journalist.
That means you know how to structure your pieces and you know how to inform readers with what you are writing about.
Research is also a key skills in order to succeed as a magazine writer. You will need to know how to dive deep into a topic, pull out the relevant facts, and double check that those facts are correct.
Once you know how to research well and compile the most important information, you will need to know how to put it together in a way that will be interesting to the audience. It is important to follow journalism-style of writing but at the same time, give them enough story and intrigue to want to keep a reader interested through the whole piece.
It will also be essential that you build good connections and contacts so you have people to interview or who can help you get in touch with people you could normally not get in touch with on your own.
On top of all of that, you will need to develop the art of pitching articles. For the most part, instead of being assigned articles from a magazine (although that can happen), you will need to find your own stories and angles and pitch them to magazines.
Do You Need To Go To School To Become A Magazine Writer?
For the most part, a lot of magazine writers majored in journalism, writing, or a related field.
While it is not always a necessity, it can help a lot when it comes to getting your foot in this field. Otherwise, if you do not go to school, you will need to make sure you write well and can make your work stand out on its own.
It might be harder to get your first few assignments, but it is certainly still possible.
How to Become A Magazine Writer
Okay, so now that you know what goes into magazine writing and the skills you need to succeed, let’s go over what it actually entails
#1 – Learn what it takes to do magazine writing
Before you start applying for magazine writing jobs, you will need to study how these pieces are put together. You might want to buy or subscribe to magazines that interest you and start to flip through them.
You might want to also take an online course in magazine writing or buy some books that can give you the frameworks you will need to succeed.
Keep in mind, you might also need to decide whether you want to work as a freelance writer or work to become a staff writer.
If you are a staff writer, you are only writing for one publication and will typically have a set salary. If you want to freelance, you can writer for a wide variety of magazines and you will often be paid per article.
#2 – Get experience with magazine writing
Whether you have a degree in journalism or not, you will still need to practice writing articles and putting them together in the same way magazines do.
More than anything, potential magazines will look at your portfolio before they decide to give you a shot. They want to be impressed with your work and be able to see that you know what you are doing.
This might mean you need to write samples on your own, do an internship, or even take on some free work just to get your foot in the door and start to put together samples.
#3 – Gather your samples and start to apply
You will want to take the time to put all of your samples into one place. In today’s modern world, that generally means you need to create an online portfolio of some kind.
Yes, some people choose to create physical portfolios to bring in when they meet potential employers, but the stronger your website is, the more likely they will want to work with you.
If you have written a lot of work, you might want to pick out the pieces that are more in line with what their specific magazine is so they can get an idea of what you can do for them.
Otherwise, you will want to pick your strongest written pieces to put in your portfolio.
If you choose to go the freelancing route, you will often be rejected more times than you can count in the beginning. This is just a natural part of the process and it is rarely personal. What matters is that you keep pitching anyway.
#4 – Optional: Develop an online presence
While having an online presence is not mandatory, it is certainly something that can help you grow your career as a magazine writer.
If you have a huge following, magazines are more likely to give you work because you can also distribute and promote your work to your audience, helping the magazine get more readers.
You can also use social media to network with other magazine editors, sources, and people in your space who can help you grow in this career.
Typical Salary For Magazine Writers
The average annual salary for a magazine writer is $72,487 per year.
However, the pay between some of the bottom magazine writers and the top magazine writers varies greatly. Some of the bottom salaries are around $20,000 a year while the top magazine writers make $125,000 a year.
If you are looking to get into this career, you will want to think deeply about writing for the top-tier magazine and making sure your skills are on a level of making decent money.
Want To Become A Professional Writer?
In this article, we covered magazine writing and how to get into it.
However, there are a ton of avenues you can pursue if you want to become a paid professional writer.
If you do not know the available career options out there, we have a writing career quiz that can help you figure out exactly which path is right for you.