Conventional wisdom (and common sense) says that you should read the magazine before you query the editor. But at about $5 a pop, that can be a challenge for financially strapped writers like yours truly. Here are few ways I’ve gotten around this:
Subscribe. If it’s a magazine I want to read every month, I’ll find a cheap subscription online and pay about $12 for the year instead of $4 or $5 per issue. I have a separate business account for expenses like this so it doesn’t come out of my food-and-shoes fund (whether the IRS considers my Cosmo subscription a “business expense” is another story). If you’re really shameless, you can order a couple trial issues and then cancel before they bill your credit card. Not that I would endorse such a shady practice… or would I?
Keep your eyes open. Every time I go to the gym, the doctor or the hair salon, I’m constantly on the lookout for new and unusual publications. When I find one, I flip through to see what they cover and jot down their web address and the editors’ names for future research. When I clean out my magazine stash, I bring the old issues to the gym so that others can enjoy them (have you ever noticed how the gym and doctors’ waiting area have issues of Redbook from five years ago? Nobody cares when the magazine came out, they just want a quick read). I also sometimes exchange old magazines with friends.
Do your research for free. Nowadays lots of magazines have online archives, so you can read the articles for free (although I like seeing how the magazine is laid out, because it gives me a better sense of who the readers are and what they like). You can also browse back issues at your local library. If your library gives free access to Lexis Nexis or another newspaper and magazine database, you may even be able to browse from home.
If you must pay newsstand prices… I’m über-cheap, so I only do this under one of two conditions. If I get Extra Bucks from CVS, I’ll sometimes treat myself to a magazine (or use my card to earn more Extra Bucks). If I’m ordering from Amazon.com and just need to a few more dollars to earn free shipping, I’ll add a single issue of In Style or one of the other single magazines they carry so I can get my $25 order without going too much over the minimum (a mathematical impossibility under most other circumstances). Now my only problem is finding the time to read all the magazines I’d like to query! What’s your secret?