Accessory - Dragon Magazine #226, MAGAZINES, Dragon Magazine
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Breaking into print
One of the questions we receive most often is some variation
on How do I get to be a writer for TSR?
Writing for D
RAGON
® Magazine is a good start.
The first thing you need is knowledge of the magazine, of our
audience, and of the game system you plan to write about.
(Dont write an article on
F
ORGOTTEN
R
EALMS
®
lore that includes
defilers.)
You also have to know the mechanics the how of writing
for a magazine. For D
RAGON
Magazine and D
UNGEON®
Adventures,
the basics are in our writers guidelines, which you should
request by sending us a note and a self-addressed, stamped
envelope (SASE). Specify which set of guidelines you want.
There are other submission guidelines that are fairly standard
in the publishing industry. These include having your name, the
article title, and a page number on every page; double spacing
your manuscripts; and using a font such as Courier in a legible
size. The standard is 12-point type. The reason for this standard
is twofold: legibility, and that each page is approximately 250
words in length, and we can get an idea of word count by look-
ing at the manuscript. Small, single-spaced, proportional fonts
like Times or Helvetica hurts our eyes, and tends to make us pre-
disposed to dislike a submission. You can get more information
from books and magazines on writing such as Writers Digest and
The Writer.
Now for the hard part. We return manuscripts full of basic
grammatical or syntactical errors. For instance, know the differ-
ence between their, theyre, and there. Punctuate your sentences
properly. Know the difference between passive voice (the ball
was thrown) and active (I threw the ball), and why we prefer
the latter.
If your cover letter is riddled with typos and misspellings, we
cant take your work seriously. Thats not being cruel; thats being
realistic. We get dozens of queries and submissions every week,
and we can spend only so much time on them. We have to know
which ones to look at and which ones not to waste time on.
Okay, you have all this down. Good. Youre
ahead of the pack. The next step is to send
lines. Submissions without that form are returned unread. (You
did remember the SASE, didnt you?) Remember to spell out what
you plan to write. Dont just say Ive got 15 new magic spells or
There are five new magical swords. That doesnt tell us any-
thing. What are the spells? What do they do? What kind of
swords, and why do we need them? Thats what creates interest.
Think of yourself as a salesman. Be convincing.
In your cover letter, tell us why you should write this article. If
you are submitting something on Ancient Egyptian PC kits, for
example, Wed be more impressed if you had a small library of
on Egypt, studied the history, or even took classes in Middle
Egyptian at U.C. Berkeley a few years ago. This tells me that you
know your material and arent likely to make whopping great
mistakes.
We prefer queries to whole articles because we may not be
interested. If we are, well ask for the article. We may give you a
deadline if a particular issue is coming up that suits your idea.
I generally discourage e-mail queries for D
RAGON
Magazine (its
hard to put your best foot forward when youre used to the infor-
mality of online banter), but if you are on an online service and
we are interested in an article, we may ask you to e-mail it to us.
Enough of the bad news.
If you want to break into print, an easy place is the depart-
ments. Bazaar of the Bizaare, Dragons Bestiary, Arcane Lore, and
the like are always popular.
Im not trying to discourage anyone from submitting material.
In fact, I actively encourage submissions from new writers. So
why do some names pop up over and over in our pages?
Because they do it right, and they do it well. If you have an orig-
inal idea that is really good, and you can present it well and
clearly, you may find your name in the magazine one day as
well.
For an editor, few things are as exciting as opening an enve-
lope from a new writer and finding a piece that is just what we
need. Will your submission be the next one?
us a query letter. Dont forget the disclo-
sure form thats attached to our guid-
Publisher
Associate Publisher
Editor-in-Chief
Pierce Watters
Editor
Anthony J. Bryant
Art director
Larry W. Smith
TSR, Inc.
Brian Thomsen
Associate editor
Associate editor
Subscriptions
Janet L. Winters
U.S. advertising
Cindy Rick
U.K. correspondent/advertising
Carolyn Wildman
Dave Gross
Michelle Vuckovich
Printed in the USA
DRAGON #226
3
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