Are you a pizza connoisseur? An expert cookie maker? Maybe you’ve visited a winery, know the best diners in 10 states, or your town hosts the world’s largest strawberry festival. Even if the extent of your food expertise lies only in your grandmother’s recipe box, you have an angle for an article. You just need to know where to sell it.
Besides specific foodie magazines like Cooking Light, Vegetarian Times, and Gourmet, hundreds of publications accept food pieces. Some prefer a laundry list of recipes, some are prone to essays, and still others might focus on restaurant profiles or new trends in food. The angles are endless but the trick is to decide if the publication accepts freelancers and, if they do, determine what slant would best fit the market.
Many popular women’s magazines like Woman’s Day and Family Circle have loads of recipes in every issue. But who writes those recipes? A brief look at the masthead, cross-referenced with the writer’s name will tell you that those are all written in-house. Okay so they’re out, but what about your local newspaper? Every Wednesday, my local, the Chicago Tribune, features a Good Eating section. Scanning the bylines, I can see that many pieces are staff-written. But wait a minute. Here is one that’s labeled “Special to the Tribune”. Yep – that might be a freelancer.
You can also send your food-related ideas to travel, health, fitness, home, garden, sports and bridal magazines. Check the contents table. Do you see any sections titled “food”, “recipes”, “eating”, “health”, “cooking” or any variation thereof? No? Dig a little deeper. My AAA Living magazine has a section titled “Forward Gear” with a subsection called “Best Bites”. Last month’s piece was on Irish soda bread and it was produced by a freelancer.
Food is a daily part of your life. You don’t have to be a five-star chef to break into a new market with a food piece. Just use your imagination, your experience and your creativity to craft the right pitch and your mouth-watering articles will see print in no time.
Paying Food Markets
Alive Magazine
Pays $0.25 per word (CDN)
Boston Magazine
Pays $1 per word
Central PA
Pays $50 to $200
The Front Porch
Pays $25 to $75
Good Old Days
Pays $20 to $100
The Herb Companion
Pays $.20 to $.40 per word
Natural Home & Garden
Pays $.33 to $.50 per word
Tidings, Canada’s Food & Wine Magazine
Pays $0.08-$0.13 (CDN) per word
Travel + Leisure
Pays $.80 to $1.20
Twin Cities Taste
Pays $0.50 per word
Yoga Journal
Pays $25 to $2000
You can find even more paying food markets by searching under “markets and jobs” for the words “food”, “recipes” and other similar terms at: https://search.writersweekly.com/
Barbra Annino is a freelance writer who writes about food and drink in Illinois. Her latest challenge is a Bed and Breakfast, which she is in the process of acquiring in Galena, Illinois, to be called “Huckleberry Inn”. Visit her at https://www.barbraannino.com.