Monday, January 17, 2005

Market Monday

Market Monday is a weekly feature that looks at markets for you to pitch your work. The idea being that, while the daily job leads we send are good for paying the bills, these markets will give you an opportunity to work on projects that truly interest you. Each week we’ll be focusing on two to five high-quality markets. We’re looking to showcase lesser known markets that still offer rates of 50 cents a word or more and have immediate needs for freelancers’ work.

There have been several updates already this year in needs lists of several, top paying publications. As I continue to rethink how to present Market Monday (I’m looking to offer more “exclusive” and less “recycled” info in this section) I’ll use the next couple of weeks profiles some of the better markets that have had recent updates.

Chicago Reader
Target audience: Alternative tabloid for Chicago.
Frequency: Weekly.
Circulation: 129,000
Rates: $100-$3,000 for features from 500 to 50,000 words.
Kill Fee: Not specified.
Terms: Pays on publication.
Right purchased: One-time rights
Address article queries to: Kiki Yablon, managing editor, mail@chicagoreader.com
Mailing address: 11 E. Illinois St.Chicago IL 60611
Phone: (312)828-0350
Fax: (312)828-9926
Web site: www.chicagoreader.com
In the editor’s words: " "Our greatest need is for full-length magazine-style feature stories on Chicago topics. We're not looking for: hard news (What the Mayor Said About the Schools Yesterday); commentary and opinion (What I Think About What the Mayor Said About the Schools Yesterday); poetry. We are not particularly interested in stories of national (as opposed to local) scope, or in celebrity for celebrity's sake (à la Rolling Stone, Interview, etc.). More than half the articles published in the Reader each week come from freelancers, and once or twice a month we publish one that's come in `over the transom'--from a writer we've never heard of and may never hear from again. We think that keeping the Reader open to the greatest possible number of contributors makes a fresher, less predictable, more interesting paper. We not only publish unsolicited freelance writing, we depend on it. Our last issue in December is dedicated to original fiction."
Market notes: Nonfiction needs include magazine-style features; also book excerpts, essays, humor, interview/profile, opinion, personal experience, photo feature.
(via Writer’s Market)

Other markets covered in today's edition: Skiing, POZ