Earn Money from Hard-copy Publications

How to Earn Extra Income as a Writer

If you are a writer, then you are a writer...

Personally I divide my time writing copy for on-line, eBooks and physical print books. Physical print books are great because you get an advance, but they can also create real headaches as your manuscript can be lying on an editor's desk (or in their inbox) for months before they get around to it. And even then you may get rejected. My worst so far has been 13 months' wait.

Whilst you are waiting, you are not earning. This means that you need to earn money some other way. Earning on-line is always good, but sometimes you can hardly get more than $10 for an article or a blog post. There are also on-line job boards where you can go for job offers (see my article on 15 quality job boards for freelance writers to see a list of these).


But remember that the good-old print publishing industry is still out there. There are still thousands of magazines of all kinds that need new and fresh content on a regular basis. You can write for them as well.

Most have an on-line version of the magazine with contact details. Typically you will need to buy a few back copies of the magazine to see the style of articles they require and what topics they cover. This way you can gauge what type of content they publish and properly target your submission by writing on topics they like and use the house style.

Always check a few back copies to determine what they publish and make sure you know the current editor's name (this way you send your material to the right person). You can also make certain that they actually do accept unsolicited material for publication. There is no point sending an article to a magazine that will not accept it, or which only use in-house authors.

Below are links to comprehensive lists of magazines from the US, UK and Canada:

UK magazine listing

US magazine listing

Canadian magazine listing


This way you have plenty of material to research where you can submit your articles to. There will be familiar names in there, as well as newer publications that you may never have heard of, but which are well worth checking out.