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Do you want to get your latest creative project featured on a prominent magazine or blog? It all begins with the submission process. You need to know if your work will fit, and how to get the editor’s attention. So before we get into which websites and magazines are looking for artwork, here are a few tips on preparing your submissions.

Know Your Audience

Before you start submitting photos to a magazine or website, you should get to know the publication you’ll be pitching to. Is there a specific genre they focus on? Does there content follow a certain style? What seem to be the most popular posts? To help you get familiar with the type of content they feature, take a look at their social media and hit that “follow” button.

This doesn’t mean you have to send work that’s exactly like another featured artist. In fact, you should try to make sure your submission stands out and offers something different than what they’ve published in the past. But you should also tailor your submission to suit the website—you probably don’t want to send your documentary photography to a fine art website.

Taking the time to do a little research is an important step in how to get your photos published. If you don’t put in the effort to learn a little about the publication, making a submission will likely be a waste of time. Also, make sure you pay close attention to any submission guidelines.

Prepare the Pitch

Next, it’s time to prepare your pitch. One of the most important things to do is keep it short and to the point. Use bullet points if necessary. Remember that editors typically have to sift through tons of submissions, so it’s best if your email can quickly identify what makes your work stand out. Focus on what are the most interesting, unusual or unique details about your submission.

One way you can make this process faster and easier is to create a pitch template. The template can include all the information that won’t change from submission to submission, such as your contact info, link to your website, and a short paragraph introducing yourself and listing your experience. Then, when you’re ready to submit photos to a magazine, you can make additions and adjustments to your template to suit the target audience. Besides speeding up the process, making a template also ensures you include all the necessary info in each submission.

To make it easy for editors to check out your work, make sure your portfolio and social media are linked in your email. If you want to keep your gallery private and for the editor’s eyes only, you can add a password to Format portfolio pages. Just make sure you don’t send big bulky download files that an editor won’t want to download. Again, this is someone who gets hundreds of submissions a day, so you need to make it easy for them to see your great work.

Another tip is to avoid submitting the same work to multiple places at the same time. For one, when a publication accepts your submission, they often want exclusivity rights. So if your work gets accepted by multiple websites at once, you may find you have to turn some of them down. That means editors who have taken the time to consider your submission may feel you’ve wasted their time. But even if you manage to get the same work published on several websites, it’s a big missed opportunity. It’s much better to get a variety of your work out there so potential clients can see you have a diverse portfolio.

Where to Submit Your Work

We’ve rounded up a list of widely-read, international blogs and magazines that are all dedicated to showcasing new creative work and are currently accepting submissions. Even if you’re not ready to sell photos to magazines yet, you might discover a website to add your bookmarks.

From general art mags to illustration-focused blogs to photography and design websites, these are the best places for emerging artists to submit work now.

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