I know a good idea when I see one. So should you. Dump those time-tested ideas you’re sending off to editors every other day, and find ideas that will get you the assignment each time, every time. How do you know whether your brilliant idea will strike a chord and get you the assignment or land your neatly crafted query in the slush pile? Use the following checklist to find out whether you have a winner or another stale idea that the editor’s been rejecting since she set foot in her editorial office. Here are some of the questions an editor will ask of each article idea: What’s new? If you’re writing for a pregnancy magazine, chances are the editor has already covered topics such as exercises and diet regulation. What are you going to say that stands apart? Can you provide a unique spin to these topics? If yes, you’re in the door. Think different. Instead of talking about diet issues, list twenty food items that are to be avoided throughout pregnancy. Be innovative. Come up with topics you’ve never seen featured before. Are there any negative feelings, unresolved issues or body changes that might not be so great that would-be mothers need to know more about? Will the reader connect? You may have the most innovative, brilliant and mind-blowing idea. Yet, it may lead to a rejection if you’re targeting the wrong market. Send an idea about getting over broken live-in relationships to a magazine in India, and don’t expect anything but a rejection. But send it over to a singles magazine in England, and you may have a chance. The first thing the editor wants to know when she lays eyes on your query is whether her readers will value your subject matter. If her readers won’t take to it, she won’t either. Will it keep my reader captivated? Picture this: I come home from a long day at work. While I relax on my couch, I could flick channels on the remote or pick up the magazine and leaf through the articles. My eyes rest on your piece. Is your piece intriguing and interesting enough to make me stay with you, or would I prefer to watch what’s on TV? It’s every editor’s fear

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