Do you want to know a secret? Kate never actually wanted to be a copywriter. Her dream was to be a magazine writer. In fact, she was voted “Girl Most Likely To Write For Smash Hits” when she was at school. But there's more. She was also a feature editor for her uni newspaper interviewing Blur and Bob Monkhouse. She interned at several sexy music mags in London. And she was accepted onto a prestigious magazine journalism course. Whaaaat? But she couldn’t afford it. So she didn’t go. So she spent the next 10 years wandering in the wilderness of digital production... until she found copywriting. But Kate still yearns to be a REAL Writer. (And we're all nodding here, right?) Today we’re talking about writing for magazines and more specifically how to pitch them and we have a very special guest to give us the lowdown. Tune in to learn: Where to start with magazine writing A peek behind-the-scenes with Rachel Emailing the perfect pitch Whether you should write an article or pitch the idea first The first point of contact when pitching articles How to hear back from potential writing jobs Pay rates in the world of magazine-writing Kill fees - what they are and how to obtain them Handling rejection as a writer. Share the pod love If you like what you’re hearing on Hot Copy, the best way to support the show is to take just a few seconds to leave a rating and/or comment over on iTunes, Spotify, or Stitcher. Thanks! Oh and please leave us a review and we'll read it out on the show! About Rachel Rachel Smith is a freelance journalist and copywriter with over 20 years' experience (most of that in isolation by choice, ha). She writes for magazines, websites, and corporate clients and has been published in the Sydney Morning Herald, Good Health, Woman’s Day, CHOICE, Foxtel Mag, TV Week, Inside Out, and many others. Rachel is also the founder of Rachel's List, a jobs board and community for writers – and she co-hosts The Content Byte podcast with fellow journo Lynne Testoni. Connect with Rachel Rachel’s site Rachel’s List Content Byte Google doc of Aussie publications still commissioning