©Bryan Fenstermacher. All Rights Reserved

Three months ago I walked into a news agent and saw a new landscape magazine that I found interesting. I bought the magazine and later decided to send in a few images. Two weeks later I received the images back in the post with a nice letter stating that they have used one of the images and that they would like to see regular submissions from me. They also included a cheque for the image used.

Seeing your images published in a magazine for the first time is special. The feeling of excitement and honour is hard to describe, it will give you an extra lease of life and give you that extra drive to become more successful.

To be successful at getting published you first must need to understand everything that is required.

The best images are not always the ones that are chosen. Magazines editors will pick an image that will suit their current story line and they will pick images that will help the reader understand the topic being discussed. Magazines normally publish bright colourful images that tell a story, or help to describe or sell a certain product.

If your photography capability is up to par – there is no reason why you can’t start sending your images to photo editors straight away. First, go to your nearest newsagent and select a few magazines that you are interested in submitting to. Study each image that has been used by the publisher and then compare the images in the magazine to your own.

©Mikey G Ottawa. All Rights Reserved

This is were you need to be honest and also be your own hardest critic. If you think your images are good enough create a portfolio of your best shots and get it in the post as soon as possible. If they’re not, you have to accept that; if you send in images that don’t meet the standard they will be returned. You will end up wasting your own time along with the time of the publisher.

If your images are chosen, don’t submit the same images to a different company straight away. Wait a few months before using them again. If a magazine finds out that images they used are in a different magazine at the same time, they won’t use your photography again.

Most magazines have standard prices that they pay to photographers, and will not go over this. Don’t be afraid to ask for a price list before submitting images. Some of the smaller companies won’t pay you too much and it may not be worth it. If you are unsure about a publisher, send an e-mail to the company letting them know that you are interested in submitting images and would like to get their guidelines for photographers.

Editors of magazines are always looking for new material, and up and coming new photographers. I now get my photography published every month in this magazine and receive a regular payment from this publishing company. If you have got enough images there is no reason why you can’t supply five or six magazines every month.

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