Ji Hyun Park

The editors of AARP The Magazine are set on featuring rich content that inspires, informs and entertains, but freelancers don’t need to have reached the second half of life to break into this widely-read publication. All it takes is a timely story that resonates with their 50-plus audience.

“We tend to green-light freelance queries that are innovative, forward-looking and indicate that the writer has carefully studied the magazine,” deputy editor Marilyn Milloy said. And, lucky for you, any section not penned by a regular columnist is wide open to pitches.

Get all the details in How To Pitch: AARP The Magazine.

With the blockbuster TV show in its fifth season, Gossip Girl has firmly cemented its place as one of the most successful young adult franchises of our time. But the author of the fiction series that spawned the show has sobering words for authors hoping to do the same with their titles: “just go write a screenplay.”

“I really think it’s to a book’s detriment to think of it as, ‘Oh, this is going to be a great movie.’ It’s hard!” Gossip Girl creator Cecily von Ziegesar said  in mediabistro’s So What Do You Do? interview. “I think the best thing to do is write a book thinking no one’s going to read it.  It’s certainly not going to be made into a movie, and I’m just doing this because I have to write this book, because I really want to write this book. I’m not writing this because it’s going to be a huge hit. The most successful books were not meant to be; they came out of nowhere.”

Click here for the full interview.

As an intelligent travel magazine with eye-opening photography and bucket-list travel experiences, ISLANDS keeps true to its mission to empower readers to find what editor Eddy Patricelli calls “the last little pockets of independent cultures.” So, to land a byline, freelancers will need to offer literary tales of an exotic destination.

That means no half-baked queries on a resort or spa, Patricelli warns. Editors hate receiving a destination pitch “that smells of a Wikipedia entry” and lacks a unique, compelling and well researched angle. “You know what I mean, in that someone’s just pitching us on, ‘Oh this place has great snorkeling, great diving, great resorts,’ but there’s no story angle there for us,” he said.

For more on freelancer-friendly sections, check out How To Pitch: ISLANDS.

You’re not the only one intimidated by the Bloomberg Businessweek name. In mediabistro.com’s latest How To Pitch article, editors admit that, despite the brand’s cachet, they aren’t inundated with freelance pitches — good news if you’re looking to land a byline there.

“Ultimately we want someone to spin a really great yarn that happens to be of interest to business readers,” explained features editor Sheelah Kolhatkar.

To find out which sections are the most freelancer-friendly and for a list of all editors accepting pitches, check out How To Pitch: Bloomberg Businessweek.

Sometimes pitching feels like auditioning for a seat in the high school cafeteria. Only the popular kids get the good bylines, right?

Not true at Filter. These  editors at this L.A.-based glossy say all you have to do to break in is love good music and introduce yourself through email. Yep, that’s it.

“Be creative and show us who you are,” said Pat McGuire, the editor-in-chief. “You have to understand that there are so many people seeking similar positions that you have to make yourself stand out a little bit.”

McGuire added one piece of advice on getting your foot in Filter‘s door. “I have a sense of humor; everybody at Filter does. So entertain us. Make us remember you — without being unprofessional.”

To find out what to do once you have McGuire’s attention, check out How To Pitch: Filter.

As an official judge for the Erma Bombeck Writing Competition, Joel Schwartzberg has seen his share of cringe-worthy essays. And, in his latest piece for mediabistro.com AvantGuild members, he says there were a few glaring errors that kept them from being potentially powerful stories.

“People tend to write personal essays in which they’re either the hero or the villain, but most of us are squarely in the middle, which creates an opportunity for a narrative as unexpected as real life,” said Salon.com personal essays editor Sarah Hepola. “I love it when a writer says, ‘I thought you were the one to blame, but actually, now that I think about it, maybe I am.’”

Get more tips from Hepola and other writing pros in The 7 Biggest Mistakes Personal Essay Writers Make.

Does the approach of spring have you daydreaming about vacays and road trips? Well, if your story is an interesting one, it could net you $1/word at AAA’s exclusive publication, Journey.

Because Journey is a regional publication, editor-in-chief Nicole Meoli‘s first priority is to hire local writers to offer an insider perspective on the mag’s home turf. “The main stable of writers I work with are from Washington [state],” she said. However, she’s not opposed to working with Cali freelancers, as long as they bring locally relevant ideas to the table.

For more on breaking into the magazine’s feature well, read How To Pitch: Journey. [sub req'd]

Although the entertainment and gossip site Young, Black and Fabulous is reeling in 15 million hits a month, it had its humble start as a simple site on Blogger.

Back in 2005, Natasha Eubanks noticed major online outlets weren’t discussing African-American celebrities, so the former law student decided to take matters into her own hands and launch her own site.

“I didn’t make a penny off of anything because I didn’t have any readers. I didn’t see any money until two years, and I only saw a few dollars even then,” the blogstress said in mediabistro.com’s So What Do You Do?. ”But I saw [Google AdSense], and I think that kind of sparked it in me. I was like, wait a minute. There’s an ad platform? What does that mean? You can make money just by writing what you think? That’s insanity.”

For more on how The YBF became the go-t0 source for Black Hollywood gossip, and Eubank’s personal advice for aspiring bloggers, read the full interview here.

To nab a byline, we writers toil over every word until a shining query letter is crafted, but, for Essence senior editor Tanisha Sykes, perfection simply means leaving no aspect of the article unanswered.

“The more detail you have, obviously the stronger the pitch comes off,” explained Sykes. ”So what’s the potential hed? What’s the potential working title and blurb? Tell us background for the story. Who are the key players, sources and/or statistics?”

Along with solid facts, Sykes said most importantly, “We really want to know why this story is unique to us and our reader.”

To find out specifics on word count, sections open to freelancers and how Sykes describes the quintessential Essence woman, read click here. [sub req'd]

With 400 million copies sold worldwide, 27 New York Times bestsellers, and nine movies and mini-series based on her work, Jackie Collins has earned the title of the ultimate Hollywood insider.

“If you have never been to Hollywood and you’re going to write this expose on Hollywood, then it’s going to be a flop because you cannot fool the public — they know,” she said in our So What Do You Do interview. “They know that when I write the book, I’m not standing outside my mansion with my nose pressed against the glass trying to get in. I’ve already seen this, done that.”

The author sat with mediabistro.com and detailed her plans to self-publish one of her biggest titles and shared tips for aspiring novelists hoping to follow her path. Check out her full interview here.