Seattle Small Press Magazines and Newspapers

I just searched for Small Publications in Seattle and was pretty disappointed to find that none of my fellow writers had compiled this. If they did, they weren’t on page 1 and the only useful thing on page 1 was Wikipedia. So I’m writing it. If you want a list of small newspapers in Seattle or small magazines in Seattle, this is what I came up with.

I’ve been biting my tongue trying not to argue with Carol Tice in my head about Content Mills. Her premise is that Content Mills are horrible and nobody should be writing for them. I might be oversimplifying. She did a survey and found that the majority of people responding were making around $5 an hour. I’m pretty sure that if you’re only making $5 an hour, then maybe writing isn’t for you. Maybe that’s just as harsh as her stance, I should kick it down a notch. In the 10+ years that I’ve been writing web content, I don’t think I’ve ever made as little as $5 an hour. My range is anywhere from $20-$80. With kids at home, however, an hour of work can take me 2-3 hours depending on the interruption ratio.

Anyway- So I took advantage of a holiday sale at UsefulWritingCourses.com because I know Carol coaches people into submitting to print publications and contracting their own clients. Since there isn’t a lot of authoritative content in this area, I’m taking the Escape the Content Mills course as well as the 4 Week Journalism School course. At this moment, I might be the only person I know who has secured outside clients for a web content business, so I need to hear from someone more experienced than I am.

So far I’m about halfway done with the course and I haven’t heard anything new. And shame on me because if I already know this stuff, then why am I not acting on it? I keep bouncing back and forth between scared-to-ignore-fast-cash (on the grounds that I don’t want to be broke) and promising-myself-I-will-ONLY-focus-on-fiction.

So, recognizing that I have this mental flip-flopping weakness, I think my current “happy spot” is devoting my first few hours of work to fiction and then moving on to the nonfiction. As my business grow, like it did before, I can always hire other writers and bring my agency back to life.

When this site was first started, it was the result of a conversation between myself and other work-from-home content mill writers. We met on a message board back in 2003 (I think). Our concept, at that time, was to submit a query a day to a real, live print publication.

In addition to securing more local clients, I’m also querying small magazines and newspapers in Seattle. Here’s the list of Seattle small press publications, in case you’re interested too.

48 Degrees North

Ballard News Tribune

Beyond (Alaska Airlines)

El Siete Dias (Spanish language)

Encore Arts Seattle

Gray Magazine

Grist