A guy finds his way into a top women's magazine
Published:
September 26, 2011 Men, I think, traditionally tend to write for men’s publications and
women for women’s publications. It’s probably in our DNA. But what
happens when a guy has the desire, the sensibility, and (one hopes) the
skill to break out beyond his gender and into the massive (and
potentially lucrative) world of women’s magazines? Basically, you need
an “in.”
Breakthrough
As a writer and cartoonist I’ve gained a lot of publishing experience through a variety of male-oriented outlets like The Hockey News, Urban Male Magazine
and CBC Sports online. It’s been my ability to creatively and
humorously express “guy things” to guys that has earned me a respectable
living as a freelancer.
Still, my interests and aspirations
extend well beyond my requisite knowledge base of sports and women and
cars and beer. Quite simply, I’ve always wanted to write for women, too.
Of
course, this is much easier said than done, and impressing the editor
of a women’s magazine is made that much more difficult when your
portfolio includes a myriad of clips like interviews with Playboy
models. You can’t, however, dwell on what you don’t have, and you need
to concentrate on—and use—what you do. For me, that was two key personal
connections.
I live in the very small town of Haliburton,
Ontario, the kind of place where everyone knows everyone else. One of
the people I know is the father of Matt Duchene, a budding hockey star
who was about to be drafted into the National Hockey League (big news
since the NHL is to Canada what the NFL is to the U.S.). This got me
thinking: Wouldn’t it be intriguing to read about what it’s like growing
up with a sports star, firsthand from his family?
Another person I know is the editor of The Hockey News,
the pre-eminent publication in the sport. For him, another story about
another hockey star probably held little interest, but because Canadian Living,
a leading women’s magazine in Canada, is under the same corporate
umbrella as his magazine, maybe it would be open to the pitch. The trick
was to use the existing relationship with my editor to connect with the
editor of Canadian Living. Incredibly, after a forwarded email through my hockey editor, my pitch was accepted in one hour! |
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