First of all I would like to start by saying a very belated Happy New Year to you all!
Did you have any goals that you wanted to achieve last year? I had one in particular! Any guesses as to what it was?
My goal was to get at least one of my designs featured in a publication for a crochet magazine! With great excitement, I can tell you that this was fulfilled. My Tunisian Crochet Textured Pillow was featured in the December 2020 issue of Happily Hooked Magazine.
Some people have asked me the path I followed in order to get one of my designs featured in a magazine. Well let me tell you, its not a quick fix and a lot of work is involved but in my opinion, all the time and effort that goes into designing, completing the project and researching publications for the submission process, it’s well worth it.
There are many ways that this can be done but this is the journey I took to achieve my goal!
To start with I couldn’t decide whether to submit a sketch of my design idea first or to just complete the project, write up the pattern and then apply to magazines later in the hope that one of them would accept it. I decided to do latter and complete the project first!
With my project completed and my scribbles of my pattern on bits of paper, I went to my laptop and wrote up my pattern so it was readable to others, the others being my testers. I also included my pictorials for all of the stitches used in my pattern so I was sure that they could understand how to do the stitches and the making up of the project and everything else that they needed to know. I provided them with the required Tunisian Crochet hook and the yarn in their choice of colour so they could make a start. I wanted to set a time frame so that I knew when I would be getting the feedback from my testers about my pattern.
With the feedback received and photos from my testers showing their finished project I was now in a position to do my research on crochet magazine and their submission process. There are many magazines requesting submissions but every magazine has a different process.
I decided to try with an online magazine that gave a clear diary of what their theme was every month so I could see if my project would fit just one of them. I read carefully their submissions process, followed it exactly and sent off my submission for consideration. I crossed my fingers and toes and waited…….
Eventually I received a reply and with tears of happiness, I jumped around the room and shouted from the roof tops that my very first submission had been accepted. My hard work paid off and my design was going to be featured in a publication! I was over the moon with excitement!
The hardest part of all this was keeping my mouth shut about the actual design and completed project of which I found extremely difficult because I wanted show everyone but I couldn’t until the issue had been published.
Then the issue with my design featured in it came out and the sense of achievement and satisfaction was incredible. I now have the submission bug!
I have listed a bit of advice for anyone thinking of searching for a magazine to put forward a submission to be considered for publication. I’m not saying this is the right way but this is what I did.
- Do your research.
- Get your pattern tested.
- Read thoroughly the magazines submission process.
- Follow the guidelines exactly.
- Once you have sent you submission for consideration, do not pressure them for a reply.
- Wait for at least a month for a reply before asking whether your design has been accepted.
- Remember, some publication state that if you haven’t heard anything after a period of time, your design has not been accepted.
- If you do receive a reply stating that your design has not been accepted, you can always ask for reasons as to why. This may be of help for future submissions.
So there you are! Hopefully this will help you if your thinking of submitting one of your designs to a magazine for consideration.
I would say…….give it a go……they will either say yes or no or possibly offer a suggestion!
Happy designing!
Disclaimer – This information is based on my own opinion and experience. There are several crochet magazine wanting submissions. I have not been paid to promote any magazine in this blog post.
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