Getting Published

I'm in St. Pete trying to get my shop set up. In all of the comings and goings, I left my laptop at my daughter's house last night!  Talk about having a hand tied behind your back! During my internet meanderings, I visited my Amazon.com page. In addition to my book, this is what I found ...

They've broken the book down into two separate Kindle editions!  Those guys at Amazon and North Light sure are clever!  I thought this would be a perfect lead-in to a conversation with you about how to get published.  Let's approach a magazine editor.  

We're going to start with the premise that magazine editors are always looking for new work, new artists, new ways to look at tried-and-true techniques.  I know you fall in there somewhere!

Next, you need good photographs of your work.  If you don't think that you can produce the best photographs, ask a friend to help.  This is THE most important part ... well, besides the work. :-)  You don't have to reinvent the wheel with your work.  You just need to present an image to the magazine editor that does your work justice ... and I wouldn't necessarily wait until submission deadlines either.  Actually, it might be better not to.

After you've established which magazine would be the proper fit for your work, send a general inquiry to the editor with an attached jpeg image of your work.  The image can be at 72 dpi, because that's the maximum resolution of our computer monitors. If your work is accepted, and we know it will be, they'll take the "beauty shots" for the magazine, so don't worry about that part. Your inquiry could be something like this:

Hi Sally,  My name is Susie Q and I make beautiful bracelets from hand-tinted Cheerios.  The attached image of my bracelet, "Bobblekins," shows the varied colors that can be achieved through this fun, but somewhat tricky technique.  I'd love to explain to your readers how I apply the tinting liquid to the Cheerios, while keeping them intact, because we know they want to melt when they get wet!  Should you be interested in this technique for your magazine, I can provide earrings and a necklace as further submissions.  Looking forward to hearing from you.  Susie Q   

Now, wasn't that easy!  Just make sure the piece is beautifully executed ... no stray wires ... that you submit great photos ... and create a simple introductory email that explains your idea so that the editor can understand your approach to the project.  That's it!