Here it is: a step-by-step guide to working and/or writing for magazines. The website is run by editors currently working at magazines. It's called ed2010.com, and was started about 10 years ago by aspiring magazine editors who said they'd have their dream mag. jobs by 2010. Well, many of them suceeded and they're still running the site to network and help other people who want to get into the business. The bad news: it seems you have to have a few internships under your belt before you'll be considered for entry-level editorial positions, and that the entry-level jobs are filled by kids who've just graduated from college. [insert explative here]
God, I wish I'd found this site when I'd first graduated from college. I had no clue about how to get into the magazine business and thought the only way I could get in was to either a)know someone at a magazine or b)be pushy and aggressive enough to make them hire me. Needless to say, I never got into the industry, even though I Love-with-a-capital-L to read and write articles for women. This website explains how to get into the business without being obnoxiously pushy or having connections initially. It sounds too good to be true, but I really believe it's legit.
I applied for an editorial intern position listed on the site and the editor (who is involved in Ed) actually sent me an email back saying she was sorry that the internship was taken! Now, any sane person would tell you that's bad news, and maybe I should have been disappointed. But no editor I've ever submitted to has taken the time to personally write me back. If I get any response at all (and usually I don't), it's a standard rejection. Seeing the editor's name there in my inbox gives me hope. Sure, it's a rejection. But it's a personal rejection. I must be doing something right.
After that response, I decided to sign up for Ed's $35 workshop, to be held this Wednesday in NYC, about how to pitch myself and my articles to magazines. I know I shouldn't be nervous, but I am. What if they're all 21-yr olds there? Not that I'm ancient, but I've got a good decade on them. I'm trying to psych myself into some networking like all of these job websites suggest, but I hate forced smalltalk and always end up feeling phony. Anyways, what the wallflower inside of me is comfortable with is coming up with a list of questions to ask him, and bringing a query with me, just in case the instructor offers individual advice or asks for a writing sample.
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