We Like it Fresh What Womens Magazine Editors Want

We Like it Fresh What Womens Magazine Editors Want Every month, without fail, I vow to give up writing for women’s magazines. It’s usually when an editor I’ve worked with (or worse, never worked with before) has asked for â€Å"fresh† ideas and I’ve racked my brain from here to eternity and come up empty. I hate the word â€Å"fresh.† Because the truth is, what my editors at women’s magazines want is not fresh. What they want is â€Å"evergreen† - another word I learned as a new writer that I’ve come to detest. How do you write a story that’s evergreen but fresh, and oh, has tips no one’s ever read before? Figure that out and the world of $2 per word markets suddenly opens up to you. Here’s how to make dull stories interesting, twist headlines to make cover lines that entice, and come up with ideas that make editors jump with joy. * Practice your copywriting skills: One of the best ways to take a stale, overdone idea and make it interesting is to think up a really clever headline. Copywriters know that they only have a few seconds to grab someone’s attention, so they spend hours crafting the perfect headline. This is exactly what you should be doing, too. Take your time coming up with a headline that will grab an editor’s attention immediately. Make her want to read your pitch and you have a sale. * Throw different and distinct ideas together: I like to come up with absolutely random subjects that, on the surface, have nothing to do with each other and brainstorm story ideas that use both. For instance, take friendship and confidence, two topics women’s magazines love and put them together to create â€Å"Are Your Rich Friends Wreaking Havoc on Your Self Esteem?† * Be specific and use numbers when possible: Women’s magazines have known for decades what the online world is only just discovering: People love lists. The longer, the better. Come up with 101 ways to do something, be something, know something, and you have a winner. Remember to make the list clever. The 101 ways to be happier idea just makes them sad because it’s been done 101 times. Be specific, too. If you’re talking about saving money, don’t say â€Å"How to Save Money.† Say, â€Å"How I Saved $1,389 in a Month.† * Appeal to an emotion: Many of us, when we first start writing for women’s magazines think about solving problems. That’s usually what all the books and guides advise, too, so you’re certainly not alone if you’ve gone down this path. The difficulty with this approach, however, is that there isn’t a problem you can think of that a woman’s magazine hasn’t already solved for its readers. So unless you can come up with a unique problem (or a unique solution), my suggestion is to be counterintuitive, personalize your approach, and appeal to a reader’s emotions. â€Å"How Asking for a Divorce Strengthened My Marriage,† is a good example. * Test the tips: Another great way to find unique women’s magazine stories (and to have a lot of fun researching them) is to take several theories that have been advocated The great thing about women’s magazines (other than that they pay well) is that they’re always hungry for writers who can bring new twists to old ideas. Do that and you’ll have steady clients for years to come. **