ABSTRACT
Behind much of this chapter is the assumption that a writer is not going to submit unsolicited, completed articles. Editors do, just occasionally, read these but mostly they don’t. Unless a magazine makes it clear on the editorial pages that it welcomes uncommissioned contributions the best advice is not to waste your time by sending them. About the only exception that might be worth a try would be to write sample material if, say, you were trying to interest a publication in taking a regular column from you. Here you would not be expecting what you send in to be used but would be aiming to give the editor a flavour of what you might be able to write on your chosen topic in a given month or week.
