"Who do most like to contribute to?" Topic

For those of you who frequently write articles for the wargame glossies, how do you decide who gets your article?

Do you have to shop ideas around or just send articles out cold?

Any general insight into how the submission process works?

Any rookie mistakes to be avoided?

I write the article, take the pictures, make the illustrations and then send it out-- that is when the Courier and the Historical Gamer were still around.

I usually contact the editor and indicate that I'm interested in writing an article about a certain topic and then I generally get the green light to go ahead with it. Several times an editor has contacted me about writing an article and I usually agree to do it.

I wouldn't send in an article cold without talking to the editor first. Unless your article is about some obscure period of history, minimize the "potted history" part of the article and spend more time on the game, the rules used, sources of figures etc.

Flashman 14

The main thing is to talk to the editor first. And obviously, look at what the magazine publishes, the contents, topics, word count, maps, etc. Do you like what they publish? Are they interesting enough? Do you really want to research and write up the same type of article? Or do you think they would be open to a new style article?

Once you talk to the editor, he may request you offer some ideas for articles or a sample article. Or he may request you research and write up an article based on a certain action that the magazine might be interested in.

It is then up to you, although I doubt anything is ever definite, not even an article researched and written up after a request made by the editor. You can't take for granted that what you write will be accepted, just because you researched and wrote it.

And as a contributor you can only do your best and contribute your article and hope it is good enough and acceptable for the magazine. But when you see it in print, it makes all the research 'fun' and frustrations, the painful rewrites and early hours sessions, worth it.