Freelance writers must study their target publication before starting work on a short story or article.

It’s essential to find out the following as an absolute minimum:

• Are freelance contributions accepted? Look at the bylines, list of contributors etc.
• What’s the word count for the slot in the magazine you are aiming at?
• What’s the tone/style/age range of the publication?
• What topics have been covered recently? Potential writers will have to come up with something different.
• What’s the name and email address of the feature editor? This will allow an idea to be pitched in advance before writing up the whole article.

It’s difficult to discover the above without reading several copies of a magazine. If you’re aiming to write for several different publications, buying all the magazines can become very expensive.

I’ve just discovered the joy of Readly. For a monthly subscription of £7.99 Readly gives access to a wide range of magazines plus a couple of newspapers as well. You can read as many publications as you want across up to 5 devices including laptop, tablet and phone. Perfect for a writer to study the wide magazine market.

The Readly website currently offers a one month free trial but it’s sometimes possible to get a longer trial elsewhere. I found a two month trial via Money Saving Expert but unfortunately that’s finished.

However, electronic reading doesn’t beat curling up with a proper, paper copy of your favourite magazine. Use Readly for market research but please continue to buy your favourite magazines on the high street – otherwise there’ll be no markets left for us to write for!