Market Analysis/subTerrain

Thought for the Week: When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot. ~ Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Market Analysis

When deciding where to submit my work, I review a publisher’s guidelines and read samples of what they have recently published. A sample copy of a magazine can help me identify that market's demographic by looking at the ads in addition to the articles. Do the ads target young professionals, singles and/or families, people with/without children, etc?

When studying sample articles, I’ve found a semi-automated way of comparing my writing to theirs. If I key in a few paragraphs or download one of their stories, I can use MS Word’s “readability statistics” function to analyze and compare their piece to mine. These statistics include the number of sentences per paragraph, words per sentence, characters per word, and estimated education level necessary for comprehension. I’m sometimes surprised by the results; you may be, too. I find changing sentence length or word choice is usually a simple edit task.

SUBTERRAIN

This Canadian magazine is published three times a year.  The theme for the fall/winter issue is "Our Dying Planet" and the deadline is September 1, 2012. Pays: $25/poem and $25/published page of prose. You need not be Canadian to submit but payment will be in Canadian collars.