Hi guys, not comedy again.
As ever I'm trying to expand my writing and earn money from it. I've written a 1000 word article that I would like to try to sell to a newspaper.
The article is on a subject I know well, obesity and is about the Ryanair "Fat Tax".
What is the best way of trying to sell it? Email it off to a load of papers and say hi, I'm writer, do you want to buy this?
Thanks a lot.
I certainly wouldn't send the article without emailing first.
I'd avoid local newspapers. There's no freelance budget to speak of these days. You might have more joy with the nationals, but they would expect you to have a track record.
I suggest you knock it down to about 500-600 words and try the weekly women's magazines like Take A Break. And email them first.
You should let them know who you are. If they know your background they might want to run a feature with you.
Depends on the tone and content about whom to approach. I wouldn't bother with Take A Break, etc - there's a high possiblilty you'll be stitched up and they turn anyone's story into a freak show.
Email or call the editor or features editor first and explain your article and see if they're interested and go from there. Look at online publications too. Don't send the article first. Good luck.
Thanks everyone!
What is the concern about sending the article with the enquiry? Will they nick it? - Assuming its any good of course.
Everyone seems to be mentioning magazines, I thought that as it was a "news" story, the best place might be a newspaper?
I can't think of newspapers using unknown freelancers, but I dunno...maybe worth ringing up. My own personal freelance writing experience is with mags.
I wouldn't send the article because they'll probably not need it or want to read it; enquire first if it's the kind of thing they need and then who many words and what they pay.
What kind of angle is it?
It looks at the implications of the "fat tax" - how in reality it might be applied, and how the obese don't need further humiliation but help.
So, it's quite serious? You might want to just write a really good letter to a really good national newspaper (no money though) or choose a serious but less successful publication, like a decent local paper, maybe. Sorry, I'm not much help on selling non-trivial articles!
Yes, quite serious, although with a touch of humour!
I'll get out me Yearbook and start bombarding people!
Metro used to accept sort of 'viewpoint' articles if you sent them in. I'm not sure if they still do it, but you could email them and ask -- features@ukmetro.co.uk
http://www.metro.co.uk/contact
No idea if they pay or not (probably not much if any) but it's a credit if they do and you might get read of millions of City-goers too tight to buy a paper 
Dan
Cheers Dan, I'll try that.
No probs. Let us know how you get on.
I was going to send them an article once. It was about sandwiches...
I was young and naive...
Dan
I've had some moderate success in the past sending out articles. My most recent work was a article on new found evidence about the shrinking of the Titanic. It was approx 300 verses wide which I believe is the standard width for an article of "that sort".
The article basically reviewed evidence which suggests the Titanic actually shrunk to the size of a baby tiger, as oppossed to a panther which untill recently had been universally agreed as the size to the which the vessel shrunk.
I generally specialise in articles which uncover new evidence and shed light on possible historical inaccuracies. e.g I'm currently working on new evidence which suggests King Henry VIII* may have been a lesbian. I've been looking into various incriminating aspects e.g general love of women, interest in sports etc. It's also been insinuated that he had facial hair further possible proof of his true sexual orientation.
Generally though it can be a difficult and sometimes an expensive living sending out articles (I insist on only using gold plated printing paper and I always send my emails business class). It can be tough aswell in my specific line of work as new evidence is always coming to light and disproving past theories. For example last year I had to abandon a whole years' research trying to prove that Leonardo Da Vinci was infact only 1 inch tall and 4 ft 3 inches wide.
However I wish all you best with your venture and hope you suceed better than me. Yikes!!!!! xox
xxo
oxo cube
*He probably would have suffered at the cruel hands of Ryanair's "fat tax"
If you're an expert on whatever you're writing about - and if you write well - you should be able to get articles published. Always helps to get a scoop, a celeb interview/angle or some amazing new insight too (such as Nitram Skir's piece on the Titanic shrinking to the size of a lesbian squirrel).
But yeah, never submit an unsolicited article straight off the bat to any paper/magazine. Get in touch with them first, ask if they're interested and how many words they might want. There's no big bucks in it until you start doing regular work - or doing thinly veiled advertorial reviews in return for various junkets.