Q - What tips do you have for being published in Guideposts?
A - Guideposts seems to be a favoroable target market for a lot of Christian writers. It may be partly because this magazine has such a large subscription base--3 million--or because they pay well--$100-500. To hit this market, you need to get and carefully study their writers' guidelines. They get so many submissions every month, it's easy for them to discard those that don't follow the guidelines.
They accept only mailed submissions--complete manuscripts with cover letters--and do not consider e-mailed submissions or query letters. According to the editor, the most open section of the magazine is a regular monthly column called Divine Touch--which deals with stories that show tangible evidence of God's help. Unlike the rest of the magazine (which needs to be written in first person), this column calls for third person only. Length for Divine Touch is 400 words and it pays $100.
If you are not familiar with the magazine, read several issues before submitting. Also keep in might that this is not a strictly Christian publication, but has a much broader outreach/audience. Stories for the rest of the magazine tend to be overly dramatic. They tend to get an overabundance of stories about death or healing, so your chances with those kinds of stories are pretty slim.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
4 comments:
Ms. Stuart, your wrote in this entry that Guideposts does no accept online submissions, yet their site offers an online submission page (http://www.guidepostsmag.com/tell-us-your-story/)
Should we consider this void and stick with snail mail?
Question two, what if, say - merely a for instance, mind you - a writer has already used the said online submission link. Should he or she resubmit via snail mail?
Hi! I'm a writer for Guideposts magazine and regular contributor to Guideposts and its sister magazines; Angels on Earth, and Positive Thinking. I just wanted to add that a great way to break into Guideposts is to submit to their Writer's Workshop, held in October every other year (submission details are on the website). Each year nearly 5,000 entries are submitted, and the 15 most promising writers are invited to attend a week's all expense paid workshop in New York. I was one of the winners of that contest in 2004 and have had the most rewarding experiences ever since. The people at Guideposts are truly wonderful to work with.
Ms Stuart, I'm working on a short story that has a powerful message to dead beat parents. I'm having a tough time knowing who to trust and who will pay well. Can you help me with this?
Christine M. Ramey
www.christinemramey.com
I see that these comments are several years old. Does anyone know if Guideposts still requires hard copy submissions by mail? The only option on their site now is via electronic submissions. Anyone have updates on this?
Post a Comment