Writing for Children's Markets

Want to expand your writing to include the lucrative market of children, toddler, and young adult magazines? These magazines are ripe for submissions and the profiles included will tell you most everything you need to know to get started selling your writing to children's markets.

1) American Girl, 8400 Fairway Place, Middleton, WI 53562 http://www.americangirl.com

I'm including American Girl even though it is 95% staff written. That 5% that is open does pay on acceptance and go to over 700,000 readers. They like good nonfiction works on girls interested in sports, the arts, or other hobbies. They will pay a $300 minimum for these feature pieces. They also have a couple of columns, Girls express and Giggle gang, that are around 175 word pieces. If you have a adventure, historical, humorous, or ethnic short story, under 2,300 words, they also buy fiction. These fiction pieces sell for a minimum of $500. Contact the Magazine Department Assistant for details, and the website.

2) Boys' Life, Boy Scouts of America, P.O. Box 152079, Irving, TX 75015-2079 (972)580-2366 http://www.boyslife.org

Boys' Life is a comfortable 75% freelancer written, given writers more of a chance to break in this market. They were established in 1911 and have a 1.3 million reader circulation being given out to the boy scouts and cub scouts of america. They pay on acceptance, buying one time rights. You may query them by mail and fax, and they take 2 months to reply to that query. For nonfiction they have a broad range of genres, for fiction they prefer adventure and mystery. Nonfiction ranges 500-1,500 words and pays $400-$1500. Fiction is around 1,000-1,500 words and it pays a minimum of $750.

3) Ladybug, The magazine for young children, Carus Publishing, P.O. box 300, Peru, IL 61354-0300 (815)224-5803 http://www.cricketmag.com