It would see between all my online classes in the past ten days and my podcast yesterday, I reached a few of you and that excites me to no end. Lots of questions that can all be summed up in “How do you find them?” Find who, the photo buyers, the photo editors, the folks to send your text/photo packages to to get published, that’s who!
Understand this all starts with your images, then your written word and those should be based in part on the magazine you’ve selected to send them to and what’s this short piece is about. You need to haunt the magazine rack, doctor office and tire store, any place where there is a stack of magazines and then start flipping through the pages. You might need to think outside the box. Like if you’re wanting to place an article on wildlife, you might look at Golfing which does a lot on wildlife on the greens. The key here are your photographs, your story and then the homework. Once you have the magazine you want to submit to (and don’t start with the big boys, start local to learn the ropes), just open it up!
You will find the Masthead and there you will find the photo editor / art director / head illustrator, the person who buys the photographs. Yes, I send my text/photo package to them. No, I don’t send a query letter. Why would you try to sell someone your photographs with a piece of paper with just words on it?
So you find them starting by looking at your own photographs and then doing some homework. It’s a well proven technique that works time and time again for photographers. There is more on making a submissions here on the website as well in my podcast archives. Have faith in yourself, you can find them!