5 Dynamite Ways to Generate Ideas for
Parenting Articles
BY TERRI PILCHER
The key to selling reprints to
parenting publications is the creation of dynamite ideas followed
through with professional writing. Here, I'm focusing only on finding
those lucrative topics.
Most topics in regional parenting
publications are straightforward: finance, parenting tips, health,
sports, and education. The trick is to twist them in an unusual way.
1. If you're a parent, what do you wish
you knew about a topic? Write down questions that you have as you go
through the day. When I was driving the other day, I complained to
myself about bad teenage drivers. Then I wondered, "What can parents do
to encourage good driving?" If you already know the answer to the
question, it won't make a good article unless you're an expert on the
subject.
2. Take a generic topic and make it
seasonal. Choose a season about four months away, because the lead-time
for parenting publications is 2 to 6 months. Four months from now is
April. What happens in April (or would be published in April) that I can
combine with a topic like health? In April, parenting publications start
printing their summer guides to camps. What can parents do to make sure
their children stay healthy at camp? What are the traits of a safe camp?
Change to camping plus another topic like education or finance to create
unique articles.
3. Who do you know who has an unusual
or remarkable story - something that affected children? What did the
parents learn? Write an article using the anecdote as an introduction to
the information you want to give. A great anecdote can sell a story.
4. Visit online parenting forums and
read the questions people ask. Use some of these as a basis for your
article ideas.
5. When you research a piece and talk
to experts, look for what you don't know. "Joe says insurance is
important for families," won't make an article interesting. Too many
people know that insurance is important. But a quote like, "Joe says
disability insurance is the most neglected area of insurance, but it
protects young families from the biggest threat to their security," will
make parents keep reading.
If you give editors timely articles
that readers will want to read, you'll sell your work over and over
again.
Terri Pilcher edits a free weekly
ezine for writers, Writer's Guidelines Magazine, that provides 10
fresh, editor-approved, writer's guidelines and useful marketing
information. She recently published MONEY Markets 2005: 101
Publishers That Pay in 6 Weeks or Less. Her website,
PowerPen Market Search, contains the writer's guidelines for almost
200 parenting publications.
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