This week’s edition of Monday Markets has a magazine for people interested in genealogy, one that goes out to University of Oregon alumni, and a publication for credit union executives.
From the Web Site:
About the magazine
Family Tree Magazine is a special-interest consumer magazine that helps readers discover, preserve and celebrate their family’s history. We cover genealogy, ethnic heritage, personal history, genealogy websites and software, photography and photo preservation, and other ways that families connect with their past.
Articles are beginner-friendly but never talk down to the audience. Readers may be experts in one area of our coverage, yet novices in another. We emphasize sidebars, tips and other reader-friendly “packaging,” and each article aims to provide the resources necessary to take the next step in the quest for one’s personal past.
Writing for Family Tree Magazine
- We accept queries by e-mail and postal mail only. When querying by mail, always include an SASE. If we’ve never worked with you before, please include writing samples (published clips preferred) with your query. Please don’t call with queries or to check on the status of your query. Allow six to eight weeks for a response.
- The ideal Family Tree Magazine writer is both a writer—able to explain complex topics in clear, friendly, easy-to-read articles and sidebars—and an expert (or interested amateur) in one of our coverage areas. Your query should indicate both why you’re right for this topic and why you’re able to write it.
- Please query with a specific story idea. In general, we’re looking for stories that are right for our magazine, not writers to assign articles to. Please do not submit finished articles (except for our Everything’s Relative section) or articles previously published in other genealogical magazines.
- Issues are planned well in advance. Though our lead time is technically about six months, we’ll have a plan for the December issue by January of that year. Better to look too far ahead than to miss the boat. And we do like to be timely—scheduling a story on wedding records in June, for example.
- Our style is bright, breezy, helpful and encouraging. We’re NOT an academic journal or a genealogy-research journal.
- Articles need to be broad in scope to appeal to a general audience, yet narrow enough to support specific, useful information. “Getting Started with the National Archives” might be a good article for us; “1840 North Carolina Census Records” is not.
- We do NOT publish personal experience stories (except in Everything’s Relative) or the histories of specific families. Nor do we publish generic family or parenting articles—keep in mind that our focus is family history.
- Query with specific suggestions on accompanying sidebars, tip boxes, resource lists and other elements, as well as ideas for content that might be appropriate for posting on our Web site.
- For writers new to Family Tree Magazine, we are most open to short submissions for Branching Out (lively, newsy upfront section) and brief writeups of new resources for family history buffs for our Toolkit section. We also invite short, amusing stories of “the lighter side of family history” for our Everything’s Relative page.
- Please read a copy of the magazine before querying.
From the Web Site:
Oregon Quarterly is the successor to Old Oregon, the University of Oregon’s alumni magazine founded in 1919. Although our 100,000 readers consist predominantly of UO alumni, our editorial approach has evolved in the past few years from a traditional alumni magazine to a regional magazine of ideas. To highlight this change, we now describe ourselves as “The Northwest Perspective from the University of Oregon.”
Unlike a traditional alumni magazine, the majority of our features are not about the UO as such. Instead, we generally address topics of state and regional interest (ideas, issues, and personalities) using the resources of UO faculty and alumni. The UO benefits from its involvement in these stories, not as their subject matter. Our goal is to reach a broad, well-educated regional audience, whether or not they have ties to the UO.
As a magazine, we want to be recognized for the quality of our writing. Good magazine stories should have shape and depth. They are closer in conception and execution to a thoughtful essay than to a newspaper feature. They should involve the reader, awaken the imagination. They require some effort to write, but they are much more a pleasure to read.
Most of our stories are contributed by freelancers. If the topic has a contemporary regional interest, and if UO involvement can be demonstrated (through faculty or alumni participation), we’d like to hear about it. We prefer a brief query letter (with SASE) that show the flavor of the proposed article and your writing style. Submit clips that demonstrate your ability. If you don’t have a story idea but would like to be considered for assignments, submit clips with a cover letter explaining your interests and experience.
We invite queries for features and UO alumni profiles. Our features generally run 1,500–3,000 words; short subjects run about 400–1,000 words. Pay varies depending on subject matter and writer’s experience, with department stories usually ranging from $100 to $350 and features significantly more. We pay on acceptance (after requested revisions), plus reasonable expenses (with receipts), provided they are cleared by us in advance. For contracted stories we do not accept, we pay a kill fee of 20 percent the contracted amount. We generally follow the Chicago Manual of Style.
From the Web Site:
The tone of Credit Union BUSINESS is professional, but not stuffy. The “new guard” of credit union executives is younger and are probably as familiar with “… for Dummies” books as they are with The Wall Street Journal. Again and above all, our articles must provide our readers with information that they can immediately put into action.
The ideal Credit Union BUSINESS writer has some experience with credit unions, or at least banks. However, this is not absolutely essential. The ability to understand our readers (The C Level credit union executives) and to appreciate and explain how information from other industries relates to credit unions will often be sufficient. A clear, concise, informative writing style and outstanding interviewing skills are absolutely essential.
The Process
Each year Credit Union BUSINESS creates an Editorial Calendar (available on request). Once it is available, our current writers are sent a copy. The writers, then in turn, submit inquiries. On occasion, Credit Union BUSINESS will assign articles based on industry needs. Freelance writers may submit inquiries at any time. All writers are asked to submit ideas for new topics, new columns, or any other concepts that come to mind.Submission Requirements
All submissions will be submitted no later than the 24th of the month approximately 5 weeks prior to the publication issue (example August 24 for a July/August issue).Since we plan every magazine, please do not over/under-run by more than 100 words without first contacting the editor and gaining agreement.
Credit Union BUSINESS buys first North American serial rights, plus the right to archive on our Web site indefinitely after publication. We pay upon publication and offer no kill fee. If we assign an article, and your work is acceptable, we’ll use it. If for some reason the article is rejected, it may be published at a later date or simply killed (we do not pay kill fees.) The writer will be notified if either of these conditions occur.
Email all queries, questions, and submissions to “editor” at creditunionbusiness.com or “editor” at cubizmag.com.