Get Paid for Articles in Children's Magazines

It's official. I'm now a paid freelance writer. My first check for my writing comes from Focus on the Family for "It's a Dog's Job But Somebody's Gotta Do It" to be published in Clubhouse Jr. magazine. Pretty exciting! Although I started on this path hoping to publish a picture book—that will happen—I learned at last year's Mount Hermon Writers Conference that writing articles is a good place to start. And... let's be honest here. Will my picture book sell 65,000 copies? I wish! That's the circulation of Clubhouse Jr.

For those who write for children, I've listed the top magazine publishers. Click on the magazine name to see the writer's guidelines. Finding the guidelines for each magazine is a challenging exercise—they don't make it simple. All of these publications accept unsolicited freelance submissions, some up to 80%. The magazines marked with an asterisk (*) are Christian themed.

American Girl Girls 8 - 12, Circ. 600,000

Boys' Life Boys 8 - 18, Circ. 11 million (whoa!)

Boys' Quest Boys 5 - 14

Clubhouse* 8 - 12, Circ. 90,000

Clubhouse Jr* 4 - 8, Circ. 65,000

Cricket 9 - 14, Circ. 55,000

Fun For Kidz 5 - 14

Highlights 6 - 12, Circ. 2 million

Hopscotch Girls 5 - 14, Circ. 14,000

Jack And Jill 7 - 10, Circ. 360,000

Ladybug 3 - 6, Circ. 130,000

New Moon Girls 8 - 14, Circ. 30,000

Pockets* 6 - 11, Circ. 67,000

Shine Brightly* Girls 9 - 14, Circ. 13,000

Sparkle* Girls 6 - 9, Circ. 5,000

Spider 6 - 9, Circ. 70,000

I hope this makes it helpful for you to submit articles for magazines. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment.