More Search Options

Instructional Media Center

Researching Your Way to Success in the Magazine Market

(Minnesota Society of Children's Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Spring Conference, May 2005)

Researching the Market

Guides

Children’s Writer’s and Illustrator’s Market
Magazine Markets for Children’s Writers
Christian Writers’ Market Guide

Kid Magazine Writers: http://www.kidmagwriters.com

Lost of market information under "Editors Speak," "Special Reports," Inside Markets." Specific magazine's writer's guidelines and submission instruction are available by using the drop-down "Market Guide" menu.

Message boards

Verla Kay's Website for Children's Writers & Illustrators: http://www.verlakay.com/boards/index.php
Write4Kids: http://write4kids.com/cgibin/discus/discus.cgi
Children’s Writers (CW) listserv

Highlights for Children: http://www.highlightskids.com/OLIndex/h8guestKidsIndex.asp

Search their index for past articles.

Cobblestone Magazines: http://www.cobblestonepub.com/pages/magmain.htm

Writer's guidelines include deadlines and topics.

Free Online Research Resources

Check with your local library. Most states subscribe to databases you can access from your home.

In Minnesota: http://elm4you.org

Find your public library on the list and login to access the resources (you'll need your library card). Use the EBSCO and ProQuest databases for reseach on your subject and for full-text articles from magazines like Publishers Weekly, The Horn Book, and School Library Journal. Check out the Gale databases to see full-text issues of children's magazines to find out what topics have been published recently or browse to get a sense of the tone of the magazine.
EBSCO
Over 10,950 publications, over 60% with full text. Find broad coverage of topics ranging from biology, chemistry, education, engineering, humanities, physics, psychology, religion and theology, sociology, and all disciplines of business. The EBSCO resources also include reference books, biographies, photos, maps, and flags.
Gale
Comprehensive, information-rich reference and magazine resources for the K-12 audience. Updated daily, they contain thousands of full-text articles with maps, images, biographies, timelines, overview essays, and more.
ProQuest Newsstand Complete
An accessible and thorough Web-based database with citations and abstracts from over 350 newspapers, over 250 of which provide full-text.

In Wisconsin: http://www.badgerlink.net

EBSCO
- Academic Search Elite
  Offers full text for nearly 2,050 scholarly journals, including nearly 1,500 peer-reviewed titles. This multi-disciplinary database covers virtually every area of academic study.
- ERIC
  ERIC, the Educational Resource Information Center, contains more than 2,200 digests along with references for additional information and citations and abstracts from over 980 educational and education-related journals.
- MasterFILE Premier
  This database provides full text for more than 2,000 general reference publications and includes nearly 450 full-text reference books, 84,074 biographies, 86,135 primary source documents, and an image collection of 107,135 photos, maps and flags.
- Middle Search Plus
  Middle Search Plus provides full text for nearly 150 popular magazines for middle and jr. high school research.
- Primary Search
  Primary Search provides full text for more than 60 popular, magazines for elementary school research.
ProQuest Newsstand
An accessible and thorough Web-based database with citations and abstracts from over 350 newspapers, over 250 of which provide full-text.
TeachingBooks
Original, in-studio movies of authors and illustrators, audio excerpts of professional book readings, reading guides to thousands of titles, and a wealth of multimedia resources on children's and young adult literature.

Other Online Research Materials

University libraries: These libraries are for research and will have many more specialty databases and resources. Most public university libraries have free community access available in their library.

My example: Associations Unlimited, a database of international, national, and regional organizations, and a great source for finding an expert on your topic.

State Historical Societies: (local primary sources)
American Memory Project: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem (national primary sources)
Internet Public Library: http://www.ipl.org
Educator's Reference Desk: http://www.eduref.org
AASL Web Guides: http://www.ala.org/aaslTemplate.cfm?Section=resourceguides
Education Standards: Each state has its own, but most publishers look to certain big states (NY, TX, FL, and CA) when looking to align their books to K-12 curriculum. That's because these states drive the textbook industry.

Other Tips

Find a great bibliography and track down its sources.
Google: http://www.google.com
- When doing preliminary searching on Google, use quotation marks around phrases or names so that Google is looking for those words next to each other. Build a very specific search by linking these quotation marked phrases with "AND".
  My example: "cochlear implants" AND kids
- When using the Internet for research, the first thing to look for is who created the site. For more information, check out the guide that we use frequently with our students at UW-Eau Claire: "The 10 C's for Evaluating Internet Sites," or one from UW-Madison: " Checklist for Evaluating Web Sites."
- Use Google Images (Click on "images" above the search box) to get a visual resource for your research. The same evaluation criteria for good Internet sources still apply. Also, remember to cite the site in your bibliography.
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com