Is your article salable?

A few days back I was asked, in response to an earlier post "When do you write travel in first person?", to elaborate on how one can use the deductive method to see if your article is salable, and where. (The writer first saw this concept in my book, The Travel Writer's Guide, where I recommended the Readers Guide to Periodical Literature in the library as the first place to find out which paying publications used similar articles.)

Alas, his library no longer subscribed to the RGPL! So what's next, if you want to see who else wants copy about your topic, on the assumption that if they were interested once, they and other magazines that appeal to the same general audience will look fondly on something similar, but better, updated, a new slant, new revealed research, a new combination with another topic also of interes to that readership.

Three ways I now try to find potentially eager and generous buyers.

The first is still the RGPL, which may be in another, nearby library. Or it is far more likely to be in your own library's digital periodicals review--hiding in the computer bank they now subscribe to. Just ask the librarian how you can find articles in major magazines. Then list the publications where those about your topic appear, then hit the current Writer's Market to see other publications listed in the same category. (Use the earlier RGPLs, bound and around for probably 100 years, to see what was written about the topic in, say, 1956 or 1909.) The library's digital periodical guide may only go back five or ten years.

Our good friend Google.com has largely replaced the RGPL to find out what's currently available about almost anything. Hiding inside its references are clues to where your topic is best or most often reported. Find the publications cited there and you have a second way of seeing who is buying (and, one hopes, paying) for that topic.

But there's a hidden world out there usually revealed with one question to the reference librarian: What resource tools not here can I access through your library? Bingo. You usually have several, sometimes 20-30 places where topic digging is faster and better, like Nexus-Lexus or other places that make data, text, and references immediately accessible. I can do this through my Marin County system, and if that weren't available, I could do it through three of the four universities I attended (when we wrote with quills). They give me magic numbers and codes and the whole world opens up--free!

Incidentally, I seldom actually go to the library itself other than to take out a thriller-killer or pick up a book delivered there by interlibrary loan. I can use their catalog from my office. More magic numbers and codes! 

There's much more about the feasibility study in my book, and it's a critical set of steps in my seminars (which can be heard in my audio CD "How to Sell 75% of Your Travel Writing"). I also have a report that's available digitally called "Finding Topics for General and Travel Articles." It is more of a case study that explores the deductive process with an actual example. 

I hope this answers the reader's much appreciated question.

Gordon Burgett

   

 

Comments

[Susan]

Hi, Gordon:

"...I could do it through three of the four universities I attended."

I'm a graduate of two U.S. colleges with good libraries. Are you saying ... I'm eligible to tap into their databases from my home computer? Wow.

I live overseas. Luckily, I live near one of the best colleges in the country, so I can pay an entrance fee and use the catalog system to find articles in academic journals that the library doesn't subscribe to in print form. But I doubt very much that this library subscribes to Lexis-Nexis or Ebsco. I'd happily pay a fee for such a service.

I have a feeling I'm the last person in the world to know about this.

[Gordon Burgett]

It's as easy as contacting the libraries, Susan, plus your home library too. Not all have subscriptions (I think that's how it works) with Lexus-Nexus, but some do, particularly universities. Sounds like you're well positioned there with a nearby library too. The advantage of that is that the reference librarian is accessible: the saints of the stacks! Thanks for writing.

Gordon