Now that you understand the broader universe of magazines, you may be tempted to think that you can write for every magazine that covers a subject you find interesting. For instance, if you are interested in boating but have no expertise in professional boatbuilding, you may decide that you want to write for the consumer titles Power & Motoryacht, Yachting, Boating, and Motorboating, but forgo pitching your articles to technical titles such as Professional BoatBuilder.

In reality, though, you likely would not succeed — because magazines within certain segments of the industry are constantly competing with one another for subscribers and advertisers. Power & Motoryacht competes with Yachting just the same way that Motorboating competes with Boating. The salespeople from these magazines tell their advertisers that they have the “best writers in the business,” which means that if you're writing for one of these monthly titles, you aren't likely to be welcomed into the fold by its competitors.

Who Competes with Whom

The issue of competing titles affects all different kinds of magazines, and in some circles it is more pronounced than others. Many weekly magazines, for instance, will buy stories from writers who work for their competitors — simply because they have to produce far more stories than do monthly magazines, and as such they need all the good article ideas they can get. Technical and academic titles, too, will often allow you to write for competing magazines because there are so few experts who know some subjects well enough to satisfy those readers. Even some consumer magazines won't mind if you write for their competition, though it depends on the magazine and the editors in every specific case.

What Competition Means to You

In general, you need to be aware of which titles compete with which other titles — especially in the consumer magazine segment — because once you end up getting a few bylines in one magazine, you may be shutting yourself out of writing for another. Your query to Gourmet, for instance, may be met with a response along the lines of, “Great idea, but we see you write all the time for Bon Appetit. If you will end your relationship with that magazine, we may consider giving you a chance at writing for ours.”

This certainly will not happen in every case, but it's an element of the magazine-writing business that you need to take seriously because it will affect your chances of getting published and, in the end, reaching your writing business goals.