Innovative
Research
G.
Ravishankar
Can you determine what constitutes a thorough
research?
How to submit a
well-researched query? Have obtained the
writer''s guidelines and read an issue or two of the
publication?
Take the study of your prospective audience one
step further. Delve a little deeper into what the publication is all about.
What is the magazine''s statement of purpose? Perhaps you have a travel article
in mind that you would like to submit to a magazine whose focus is on families
spending more time together. You have found two prospective targets for your
article. One magazine''s mission is helping families spend time together, but
with an emphasis on education. The other magazine''s purpose is to provide
information and inspiration for families to spend time together with an
emphasis on fun. If your article is about visiting Washington, Arkansas,
one time Confederate Capital, you would target the first publication, whereas
you would target the second if you were planning to write about a fun weekend
of canoeing and horseback riding at a dude ranch or spending the y at a theme
park.
More follows
Learn more by reading the letter from the editor
located in the front of most magazines’ goal is to get your finger on the pulse
of the
readership.
Find out who is most likely to be reading the
publication. Where do they live? If the readership is spread out across the US, try to
pinpoint where the highest percentage of readers is located. Some subjects are
universal, of course, but as I once learned from a co-worker, if you are
writing about travels in Oklahoma and
providing a list of great restaurants, with recommendations on foods one might
order, and your readership is mostly in Maine,
then you had best be clarifying what chicken fried steak is.
What age is the average reader of the publication?
Are there children in the household? For
obvious reasons the answers to these questions will make a difference in your
article submissions.
What is the average number of children per
household? If you are writing for readers who, on the average, have several
children, as opposed to a single child family, their outlook will vary on many
matters. Even though they may both be interested in subjects concerning
children, those subjects will not be applied in their every day life in just
the same way. The more information you have about your reader, the better you
can address their interests.
The average income of the readership also holds a
key to what subjects they will find of interest. The higher income reader with
one child probably will not be as interested in tips on frugality as the lower
income reader with three children. Are you writing for stay-at-home moms, or
for moms who work outside the home? One audience may be interested in cooking
from scratch and tips for cleaning her home more efficiently, while the other
finds it more interesting to read about what qualities to look for when hiring
a cleaning service and recipes for quick and nutritious meals she can serve her
family after a day of working outside the home, with an emphasis on quick.
Is your article directed toward women who are
married, or women who are single? Some things will always be the same in
dealing with children, but a single parent has an entirely different set of
problems than a married parent. What is the average reader''s level of
education?
We need to thoroughly analyse all these facts to
before sending a query letter.
ENDS
Write your abstract here.