As the winter blows by, I’ve been wondering if I should branch out in the writing world. I mean, right now it feels like I spend a lot of time with my work, but there’s not a lot of publishing happening, and what is published appears in the same two periodicals. Sure, I have the piece coming this spring in a devotional, but that’s it. Maybe I need more.

As I’ve pondered this, I’ve also done research on picking a periodical for submission. The one consistent theme is this – know the magazine! Ugg. That’s the hard part. I don’t read magazines. I don’t even read the paper regularly! I’m a book reader, which is why I’m a book writer. But if I want to do more in the writing world, I’ll have to read the mags.

With that said, I sighed up for a free subscription to a women’s magazine. I got my first issue and tore into it. Finally – I’ll get an idea of what people are writing!

Oh…my…gosh. Talk about shell shock.

At least 1/3 of the magazine is nothing more than ads for pharmaceuticals! I’m pretty sure the only drugs NOT advertised were for ED…and that’s because it’s a women’s mag. The other 2/3 consists of OTHER ads, recipes, and blurbs and sidebars.

There were only 2-3 real articles (1-2 pages), and I swear I’ve read them in another magazine before: there was the piece on effort-less weight loss (probably written by a skinny lady someplace who is telling you what she read in another magazine) and the piece about the woman who endured hardships, but made it through (and I found it VERY hard to sympathize with this woman…not my favorite article).

I was kind of disappointed. I didn’t think I was bringing expectations to the table, but I must have…or I wouldn’t have been disappointed. But I did learn something from this – I’m going to have to try harder. This is obviously not the periodical for me, which doesn’t encourage met to write for them. It does, however, eliminate one possibility…so I can cross it off my list.

So I’m going to try again. I’ll need to do more research though. I should probably do that at the book store…reading their magazines…drinking their coffee. It’s a tough life (hee, hee).