Submitting article to a Jewish magazine- help a first timer!

amother

Foxglove

Yesterday at 6:01 pm

Read a few copies of the magazine so you are familiar with what they publish- style, format, word length...Make sure your submission is typed clearly, free of spelling and grammar mistakes. Introduce yourself in a few lines in the body of the email, and attach your submission(s) as word documents. Check back within a week or two. Do not submit to more than one publication at a time- editors get very upset if they accept your work and you say, "Oh, sorry, it was just accepted by a different magazine."
Hatzlachah rabah!

amother

↑ OP ↓

Yesterday at 6:19 pm

Thank you for the responses.

I wrote the article already and would like to submit it

Some questions:
Which magazines are likely to accept a submission from a brand new writer?
Do these magazines pay for submissions that are printed?
Approximately how many words should an essay/personal story be?
If I want it printed under a pen name, should I share my real name? When do I share the pen name?
What can I expect after sending it in?

Any info and/or advice appreciated!

amother

Gray

Yesterday at 7:12 pm

I had one story published in binah a few years ago, this was my experience

Emailed them submitting it, got a response 5 months later that they were interested in publishing it. I wanted to keep the rights to it and know how much I would get paid and kept emailing to ask and then kept saying they had to ask higher ups and they didn’t know etc etc.

Eventually they did give me information about the rights to it (I can send you what they told me if you want) but still never told me a rate.

A month later after they printed it I just ended up sending them an invoice for 15 cents a word which I thought was reasonable. They then responded with who had a spoken to about this because they pay 10 cents a word. I said that I had reached out numerous times to discuss and no one would answer my question so they said they would honor the 15 cents.

I emailed them using my real name but made it clear that I wanted to use a pen name which they did.

All in all I made about 470$ from the story.
This was in 2021 so things could have changed.

amother

Eggshell ↓

Today at 12:28 pm

amother OP wrote:

I have had about 2 dozen articles published by Mishpacha, Ami and Binah.
I haven't found that one is more likely to accept than others.
I have submitted to Ami, gotten rejected and then gotten the same piece accepted by Mishpacha, and vice versa.
I have submitted 2 to Binah and they were both accepted, but had been previously rejected by the other 2.
I never paid attention to word count, but you can email them and ask them.
Yes they pay. About 10-12 cents per word.

If you are using a pen name, write the title and then write the pen name underneath. You don't have to give your real name except I assume to the billowing department.

amother

↑ OP

Today at 12:30 pm

amother Eggshell wrote:

I have had about 2 dozen articles published by Mishpacha, Ami and Binah.
I haven't found that one is more likely to accept than others.
I have submitted to Ami, gotten rejected and then gotten the same piece accepted by Mishpacha and vice versa.
I have submitted 2 to Binah and they were both accepted, but had been previously rejected byt the other 2.
I never paid attention to word count, but you can email them and ask them.
Yes they pay. About 10-12 cents per word.

If you are using a pen name write the title and then write the pen name underneath. You don't have to give your real name except I assume to the billowing department.

Thank you very very much!

amother

↑ Eggshell ↓

Today at 1:40 pm

amother OP wrote:

Thank you very very much!

Regarding payment..
After your first piece gets accepted, you need to wait until it's actually printed.
That could be weeks or even months after it was accepted.
After it's printed, you need to reach out to accounts and send then the info they need. I think with Mishpacha I had to fill out a form. With Ami I just sent them the info they asked, such as social security number etc.
I received a check pretty soon after. After that, if you get anything else printed, they will send you the payment automatically, within the month of it being printed. You don't have to ask for it.

Most of my articles were printed in 2017-2108, so things may have changed since then. At the time, all three magazines were paying 10 cents per word. I did have one piece printed about a year or Two ago and they went up to maybe 12 cents a word. I'm not sure.

The last time I had something printed in Ami, I asked them to pay me via zelle and they did.

amother

↑ Eggshell

Today at 1:49 pm

amother Gray wrote:

Just want to comment on your experience.
It's great that you billed them for what you wanted per word. That never occured to me. I just assumed they have a set rate and took what they gave me.

I also found the Binah to be super slow in responding. I waited about 2 months before I got a positive response.
The Ami was the fastest. I got responses as fast as 2 hours after submission. The longest I ever waited was about a week. Again, this was back in 2018, so things could have changed.

The Mishpacha takes about 4-6 weeks to respond if they are accepting the piece or not. But they are very communicative with other questions.

OP, according to Mishpacha, less than 20% of cold submissions get accepted. So, as someone else said, you need to grow a thick skin.

Many people have told me that they sent in numerous pieces and they were always rejected.
I was super lucky that my first piece I ever submitted got accepted because I think I would have given up immediately if it hadn't. Getting it accepted gave me the push to continue writing, and as I said, I had about 25 pieces accepted over the next two years.

But they weren't all accepted immediately, so it's important to keep trying.