# Newby needs advice on format and where to publish



## Eddiet (Jan 2, 2020)

Hi all,
I finally fond some time to get back to writing and want to just engage and get a feel for audiences before attempting anything more. I.m sort of familiar with the blog scene but not overly interested in that.
I started out writing a few articles themed around the current topics in the news and my own interests. Earning off these is not truculently the goal.
I have found myself writing 20 to 40 page articles in order to do the subject matter justice. Economics and current affairs.
The problem is that this seems an odd size and format. Hardly a book but definitely not a blog.
I cant see someone happening on that size and reading it in their break etc. Neither can I do it any justice in a few pages.
At the same time I am not ready to write a book and in any case, Im not sure that type of book is worth writing unless you are a University lecturer or something.
In a little while when I find my voice and audiences, I would like to write a book or two and look for other outlets like magazines.

I'd love some ideas form people who are familiar with the scene

Ed


----------



## Ralph Rotten (Jan 2, 2020)

You may be doing things backwards.
With magazines and shorter publications you really wanna become familiar with their current content, look at their article lengths, and write something that would be fresh in their world.
No matter how good your work is, it has to fit into *their* puzzle.

I'd suggest getting a subscription to a few of these magazines you wanna write for, study them, and then consider writing new content. Something else; You need to follow these magazines for a while so you know what they have already covered. Often writers submit stuff that is old-hat to the magazine. Sure, it was well written, but it was something the magazine had covered extensively in the past, so they had no use for it.


----------



## Eddiet (Jan 2, 2020)

Thanks, it makes sense.
Do you feel that magazines are the place to go with this sort of length and format?


----------



## EntrepreneurRideAlong (Jan 11, 2020)

Eddiet said:


> Hi all,
> I have found myself writing 20 to 40 page articles in order to do the subject matter justice. Economics and current affairs.
> The problem is that this seems an odd size and format. Hardly a book but definitely not a blog.
> Ed



Can you break them down into smaller blogs and create a blog series? Maybe a five part blog series so that it's not a 40 page long blog?


----------



## Ralph Rotten (Jan 11, 2020)

20-40 pages are kind of long for a magazine. Usually 3000 words are magazine articles, so you really need to master the *economy of words*.
Like I said, look at the magazines where you wanna publish, see what they already have, familiarize yourself with their content, then write stuff to fit there.

Also, to really understand a magazine you have got to read their stuff for a while. I have found that most magazines have a 24 month cycle.
Essentially, after you have read them for 2 years, you will see that they start repeating themselves.
So if you only read an issue or two, you may think you are writing something new & relevant, but on a 24 month cycle, it is old-hat.
To break into magazines,* you need to hit them with stuff they have not yet talked about*.


----------

