So yesterday, I sent a email to MR about writing a track plan article. I got a reply from Jeff Reich saying I should ask Hal Miller. I sent a email to him, and haven't got a reply. What are you all's experience in writing for them. This is the first time I am trying to write for them.
Thanks,
Harrison
Homeschooler living In upstate NY a.k.a Northern NY.
Modeling the D&H in 1978.
Route of the famous "Montreal Limited"
My YouTube
I can answer general questions about the process. (I'm not the one who makes the decisions, but I'm the one who reads the Forums.)
--Steven Otte, Model Railroader senior associate editorsotte@kalmbach.com
No idea, I only once got a letter to the editor (email) publish once. Actually, it was a forum reply, and Andy Sperandeo asked if they could use it as a letter to the editor. I'm still as anonymous as I've always been.
I was once published in a computer magazine back when I was about 14, but I never even knew it until more than 30 years later when I came across a digitized copy of the magazine and read through all the issues. Big surpsie, there was my article! I was never notified it was going to be published, nor did I ever receive any payment (for the size of it, based on the rates they advertised, it might have been a whole $5.). It was just scans, not OCR, so any web seraches for my name will not turn it up, so again I remain a complete unknown.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I've emailed the Editor three times, the last two were about my 75ft 150 ton KCS coal Gondola kitbash, never got a response, I've emailed other members of the MR editorial staff, all of them direct me back to Jeff Reich, who apparently doesn't check his email? Or we all get sent to spam? Perhaps Mr. Otte would be so kind as to forward our inquiry to Mr. Reich?
My KCS coal gon kitbash is a PROTOTYPE kitbash so it might be a good fit?
Steve
If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough!
Getting published is a lot harder than you might imagine.
.
I have written six articles for model railroad magazines, and none of them were published. Two for MR, two for N Scale, one for RMC, and one for Mainline Modeler.
With all of these articles, the magazines approached me and suggested an article. I have never submitted an article cold.
Even though I have done six projects that were article worthy, written the articles, created the images/photographs, and submitted them for publication, but even them nothing came of any of them.
I did get a letter published in Student Fare in Model Railroader back in the mid 1980s about a photography contest I won.
I would love to be a recognized contributor to Model Railroader, but it does not seem to be part of my destiny. The STRATTON & GILLETTE seems destined for relative obscurity.
I will continue to document my projects, take photographs, and write about them. Maybe someday...
It takes a lot more than just building a model to get published. I am sure the editorial staff talkes great pains to be sure their monthly product brings satisfaction to as many people as possible.
I will keep working at it... we shall see what happens.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
You sent your first email Thursday and you're sor already complaining about not having a response one business day later?
If you haven't had a response in a WEEK, send another Email.
Disclaimer: This post may contain humor, sarcasm, and/or flatulence.
Michael Mornard
Bringing the North Woods to South Dakota!
NWP SWP I've emailed the Editor three times, the last two were about my 75ft 150 ton KCS coal Gondola kitbash, never got a response, I've emailed other members of the MR editorial staff, all of them direct me back to Jeff Reich, who apparently doesn't check his email? Or we all get sent to spam? Perhaps Mr. Otte would be so kind as to forward our inquiry to Mr. Reich? My KCS coal gon kitbash is a PROTOTYPE kitbash so it might be a good fit?
Could be because you have never shown a finished product?
Chuck - Modeling in HO scale and anything narrow gauge
Instead of submitting an entire article, why not provide a rough outline? This avoids wasting their (and your) time with a long manuscript. I've done that and found it work for both parties.
What happened to the advice section of MR where people can submit ideas and get paid for doing that? I've got some things I learned and would love to share with the masses. Even rookies can contribute!
Finished product as in my kitbash? Or I should waste my time writing an article that MR isn't even interested in.
My hunch - and it is only that - is that the best way to generate interest in a proposed article for MR is to accompany the inquiry with at least a brief write up of what you'd say but also with one or two genuinely publishable quality photographs. More than one MR editor has written that more potential articles die on the vine due to the lack of publishable photos. If the photos are publishable but the writing is weak they can deal with that: they know you are capable of the quality of photos they need, should they want more, and they can help with the writing itself. If the writing is superb but there is nothing that can be done with the photos - things end there.
If it isn't the type of article that MR wants, but the article and photos are otherwise publishable, try the NMRA magazine. Or the magazine for the historical society that the project relates to.
Dave Nelson
I can tell all of you three things for sure about the article submission process here at MR (which is not much different from every other publication I've ever worked for).
1) The editor is the one who makes the decision to purchase or not purchase an article. You're wasting everyone's time, including your own, corresponding with anyone else. It may be easier to get a response if you contact someone else, but since it's not his job to act as your personal communication go-between, you still aren't going to get the answer you're looking for out of him. Go through channels.
2) The only way you're going to get a "yes" to your submission is to submit a complete article. If you just submit a proposal or an outline, the best answer you can hope for is still only going to be "maybe." Unless you're a known quantity who has written for us before, so we already know the quality of your work, the only way we can judge your work is to see your work. Submit a complete story package, and even if we say "no," you can always take it to another publication.
2a) The exception to the above is layout visit articles. We do like to see proposals with photos and track plans for those beforehand. Send a photo or three in to Trackside Photos to see if your modeling and photography is up to snuff first.
3) Put your best foot forward. Part of this is to submit your absolutely best work. That old quote "If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull" does not apply. Don't submit 100 photos if there are only 10 good ones in the batch, hoping that we'll spin the gold from your dross. More likely we'll look at the first 10 photos, see only one good one, and say "no." Likewise, don't submit a project where you aren't 100 percent satisfied with your own work, thinking "Maybe they won't notice this" or "Maybe they'll go easy on me because I'm a new contributor." We won't. Look at the quality of projects and track plans and layouts we publish and ask yourself honestly if your work is up to that level.
Steven OtteI can tell all of you three things for sure about the article submission process here at MR
I think that was the best response anyone could hope for.
I can't imagine anyone having more questions about the general process than that.
SteveO: Thank you for taking the time for that reponse.
Steven Otte 2a) The exception to the above is layout visit articles. We do like to see proposals with photos and track plans for those beforehand. Send a photo or three in to Trackside Photos to see if your modeling and photography is up to snuff first.
Rich
Alton Junction
richhotrain Steven Otte 2a) The exception to the above is layout visit articles. We do like to see proposals with photos and track plans for those beforehand. Send a photo or three in to Trackside Photos to see if your modeling and photography is up to snuff first. Steven, can you define "up to snuff" in a bit of detail, especially regarding the modeling aspect? Rich
Steven, can you define "up to snuff" in a bit of detail, especially regarding the modeling aspect?
Are your photos in focus? Do they have a long depth of field, that is, most of the photo being in focus rather than having a blurry foreground and background? Are they shot close to track height, not "helicopter shots"? Is there a clear center of interest in the photo? Is there a train in the scene, or at least a train car that looks like it belongs there? Is the front or back of the locomotive not awkwardly cut off by the edge of the photo? Is the photo well lit and well exposed, not too dark, and without harsh shadows? Is the resolution high enough to print at a decent size (at least 3000 pixels across)? Are there no ceiling joists, windows, railroadiana on the walls, people, or other full-sized distractions in the background?
Are all your rolling stock's wheels actually on the rails? Is it free of cobwebs, dust, and oversized fingerprints? Is it realistically weathered? Are the handrails all in place and not warped? Is all your rail ballasted? Are your structures realistically painted and weathered, not just shiny plastic? Do they look fixed to the ground, not just sitting on the surface with gaps under the foundations? Is your ground covered with realistic ground cover, not just plain ground foam, green paint, or bare plywood? Does your terrain look like natural terrain, not like stacks of foam board, draped paper towels, or plaster gauze mesh? Are your trees and shrubs realistic looking, not just clumps of lichen? Is your rockwork realistic, or are there impossible sheer cliffs and random outcroppings everywhere? Does the overall arrangement of track, structures, roads, and terrain look like something we might see in the real world, as opposed to a toy layout with as much track wedged in as possible?
If you can answer "yes" to every one of those questions, that's what we're looking for in a photo.
Thanks, Steven, that is a very comprehensive answer to my question. I appreciate the response.
Steven OtteIf you can answer "yes" to every one of those questions, that's what we're looking for in a photo.
That was certainly a comprehensive checklist!
I'd just hazard a guess, but anyone who has read cover to cover many issues of Model Railroader magazine would have a pretty good idea what they are after simply by paying close attention to the many past articles. Really the majority of what Mr. Otte enumerated seemed like common sense to those who have been around the block for a few years and read many issues of the magazine.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
One would be surprised.
i'm curious to know what kind of response to expect if MR is serious about publishing an article.
Do they say "Yes, we're interested in your articles" and either "but we have some editorial comments or questions we thing readers will have" or no comments. And "We're thinking of publishing within the next N months"?
i thought I had read on the forums that someone submitted an articles, may have heard it was accepted, but didn't see it in print until several years later.
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading
gregc i'm curious to know what kind of response to expect if MR is serious about publishing an article. Do they say "Yes, we're interested in your articles" and either "but we have some editorial comments or questions we thing readers will have" or no comments. And "We're thinking of publishing within the next N months"? i thought I had read on the forums that someone submitted an articles, may have heard it was accepted, but didn't see it in print until several years later.
We pay upon acceptance, since we have a very large file of already purchased manuscripts, so it can be in some cases a good long time before an article appears in print, and we don't want our authors to have to wait to be paid.
How soon after acceptance an article is published depends mostly on how many other articles like it we have in the drawer and how long it's been since we've published one like it. Articles we don't get many of, like locomotive kitbashing or "Railroad You Can Model" articles, will run relatively soon, possibly as few as 6 months. (Our article lineup is usually planned out 6 months to a year in advance, so it can't really be sooner than that.) Articles we get a ton of, like layout visits, can linger for quite a while, especially if the layout looks like a lot of others we've published recently.
(How much an article looks like others we already have in the drawer can also have a big influence on our decision to purchase the article or not. If we already have four articles on detailing a second-generation Geep, we don't need another, no matter how good it looks.)
If an article is interesting to us, but has problems, an editor will usually get back to the author fairly quickly with instructions on what we feel is missing to make it a complete submission. If it's acceptable as-is, we'll simply buy the article, and any minor questions about it ("What's the elevation of the tracks where they cross near Newtown?" or "Who manufactured the Mikado in photo 3?") will come when the article is assigned to an editor to be prepared for publication.
thanks, that was very informative
May I suggest that the two responses, about article prep and photos, be combined and put up as a 'sticky'? They deserve to be, and are as valuable as similar advice by Larry Niven years ago for 'how to be publishable' in SF.
OvermodMay I suggest that the two responses, about article prep and photos, be combined and put up as a 'sticky'?
I second the suggestion. I would cause some to step up their game and others, who weren't ever going to be in the game, to not waste your time.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
steve
how long should you wait for a response before sending a follow-up email or assuming an article is not accepted and can be submitted to a different magazine?
We try to respond within 30-60 days.
Would you send a reply by e-mail or snail mail?
Makes the LION want to write an article.
Not Many on NYCT, eh?
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Steven OtteWe try to respond within 30-60 days.
will/should there be an acknowledgement that it is received and being considered?
gregc will/should there be an acknowledgement that it is received and being considered?
Greg, your questions are specific and persistent enough to make me think you're asking about a submission you've already sent in. I can't speak to a specific case. Why don't you call the editor?
Hi all,
The article I sent in was a track plan based on the Delaware & Hudson Champlain Division. You can see the track plan here. What do you think? Does that sound interesting?