Have you considered writing magazine articles as a way to help market your book? Of course, real print magazines are failing fast these days, but there are still opportunities if you look diligently. So, herewith are a few thoughts to help along the way.
What magazines do you read regularly that touch on any of the issues, topics, or settings for your book?
What other magazines might publish articles related to your book?
Do you belong to social, community, or professional organizations that publish magazines for the membership?
You can research magazines and what kinds of article they publish and need by spending time in a library at the magazine racks, browsing the magazines sold in bookstores and newsstands, and by buying a copy of the latest edition of Writer’s Market. There is a wealth of information about magazines large and small in that thick book, many you will never have heard of. All need freelance writers to help them fill those pages every month. Not only will you get some great publicity (free advertising!) for you and your book, but you might actually get paid for it. Getting paid for advertising you and your book is very cool.
Now, come up with a half-dozen article ideas that you could write for those magazines that would make a connection between your own knowledge and background and that of your book — just a working title and a two-sentence description. For any article you publish, you will get some kind of author bio published with it — and you can mention your upcoming book in it. Writing articles certainly is not mandatory but can begin to build some interest in you as an author and in your book. You want these articles to be exercises in storytelling — depending on the magazines you choose, the stories probably need to be true. Everything you write from now on should be done with your creative writing hat firmly planted on your head — good nonfiction requires as much creativity as fiction, sometimes more.
If your book is a novel, do any of those magazines ever publish short stories? If so, could you sell them an excerpt from the book (it would have to be a complete sub-story with a beginning, middle, and end)? Or maybe you could write a short story using characters and ideas from your book.
Personal stories and essays are another possibility, although only valuable to your ultimate goal of marketing your book if the magazine reaches the same, or similar, audience. Writing World has a good list of possible personal essay markets.
For novels, you might also consider publishing a couple of short stories, based on your book and its characters, on your blog or on your website (you do have those up and running, right?).
Also, come up with a half-dozen or more ideas for short factual pieces that address issues, places, things, and events in your book that could be posted on online article sites. You won’t get paid for these, but they may get redistributed all over the online world with links back to your website and/or blog.
Many book authors prefer not to invest the effort in writing for magazines, thinking it is somehow a waste of their time. I have published four books over the past dozen years plus dozens of articles in the U.S., the UK, and Australia. Those articles have ensured that editors know who I am, thus making them agreeable to reviewing my books, and that readers of those magazines recognize my name and take time to find me and my books online. Some years ago, I wrote a monthly magazine column for 18 months. For the past two years, I have written a bi-monthly column for Cessna Flyer magazine. Both have kept my name and work in front of my primary target audience.
Waste of time? I don’t think so.
But you get to make your own decisions. Just don’t dismiss it out of hand.
The best thing to do is query these markets first, although some do take full manuscripts. Make sure the publication matches what you’re proposing. It is hard to break in but, like you say could be worth the effort. I write consistently for Country Lines Magazine (www.countrylines.com). They pay me for the article and I believe I have a following of people who will be interested in my next book.
Absolutely! In fact, I should have included that in the article. Thanks for bringing it up, Neil.
I NEVER send a complete article to a magazine unless it is requested. I ALWAYS query first. And, back when I was doing a lot of magazine article writing, I often queried multiple magazines for the same article.
Yes, I know the “experts” tell you not to do simultaneous submissions — but that’s primarily because those “experts” almost invariably are stakeholders in the mag industry status quo. If you are lucky enough to have two editors ask for the same article, you have two choices: (1) tell one of them that you have had to withdraw the article and then suggest an alternative or (2) use your material to write two different articles on the same subject (but you will have the alter the thrust of the article in addition to the words).
However, I have been paid for many articles that required very little actual effort on my part. How? By excerpting material from my books, sometimes almost verbatim sometimes edited (for length or cohesiveness). You can get a lot of mileage from the material you’ve already written!