Black Belt Magazine

[Kempojujutsu]

Recent Magazines the main topic has been realistic martial arts/self defense. Have they ran their course with this tournament crap martial arts coverage, and have decided to get into the mainstream? I am enjoying the articles a little more. But they still have too many ads and not enuff martial arts material.
Bob :asian:

[arnisador]

It's funny you mention, because I too have been thinking it's been slightly more useful lately. Overall it's still pretty poor.

[Bob Hubbard]

Thats the problem with those glossy pages...just not absorbent enough.... :D

[tarabos]

haven't they been touting the "reality" martial arts for quite a while now as the big thing?

[The 14th Style]

Originally posted by Kaith Rustaz
Thats the problem with those glossy pages...just not absorbent enough.... :D

First I would just like to say, Ick.:(

Second, I had kind of given up on Black Belt magazine. Most of the Martial Art Magazines out there seem to be just one big ad anyway. Are there any out there that aren't?
The 14th Style

[John Bishop]

Over the last 15 years I have been lucky enough to have over 65 articles published. I have written for Black Belt, Inside Kung Fu, Inside Karate, Inside Kung Fu Presents, Inside Karate's Master Series, Martial Arts Professional, Centuron Negro (Spain), Kick (Germany), and am presently a staff correspondant for Martial Arts Success.
So after working with all the major magazines and editors, I've gotten a good understanding of the Martial Arts media business.
The truth of the matter is that martial arts magazines are no differant than any other magazine or newspaper. They are published to make money. Very few of their full time editorial staff are actually martial artists.
They mainly make money from advertizing sales. Very little money is made from the actual sales of the magazines. The sales numbers of the magazines help boost their advertizing prices, but don't really make them much money.
For the most part they follow trends, "what's hot and what's not", and contraversy. Those of us who have been in the arts long have seen these trends:
1950's Judo
1960s Karate
1970's Kung Fu
1980's Ninjitsu
1990's Brazilian Jujitsu, No Holds Barred

Lesser Trends:
1980s Aikido
1990s Filipino Arts

Just look at it this way. Everybody has their day in the sun. The arts like Karate and Kung Fu have always been popular, and have lasted the test of time. Ninjitsu and Judo are still popular with a small loyal following. The Filipino arts and jujitsu will have to prove their ability to go the distance. They already have a strong following as arts to cross train in.
So, if you have a favorite area of the arts that you like, it will be back in the magazines when the editors feel enough people what to read about it.

One thing to remember, 80-90% of magazine articles are written by freelance writers, so if you don't see something in the magazines you like, write some articles yourself. That's what got me started.

[Kempojujutsu]

Do they paid for your articles or is it just to get your name out there in the public's eye. Just wondering.
Bob :asian:

[John Bishop]

The going rate depending on the magazine is $150.00 - $250.00 per article. Most writers who write a monthly column do it free to get publicity for their school/business etc.

[Kempojujutsu]

John,

Thanks for the info.
Bob:asian:

[phlux]

Originally posted by John Bishop

One thing to remember, 80-90% of magazine articles are written by freelance writers, so if you don't see something in the magazines you like, write some articles yourself. That's what got me started.

That is one of the best posts I have read all week. Thank you.

Can you please inform us on how to submit articles that we may write? Do you have any publishing tips or resources for us to follow - or look to if we are interested in getting something published?

Thanks

[Bob Hubbard]

Something to keep in mind too, is that MartialTalk Magazine is also looking for writers. Always good to get the most exposure as you can. :)

[TallAdam85]

I realy hate black belt magazine it is pricy and also they have not much karate info mostly judo and adds

[DAC..florida]

Originally posted by TallAdam85
I realy hate black belt magazine it is pricy and also they have not much karate info mostly judo and adds


:rofl: :rofl: Adam why dont you tell us how you really feel! LOL


:rofl:

[John Bishop]

Phlux:

All the magazines have "writers guidelines" that they will mail or email to you.

Try and pick a subject that is timely or unique. Avoid personality profiles, unless they ask for someone specifically.

Pictures really help sell a article, so get some very good ones.

Be persistant, if you get a rejection notice from one magazine, just send your article to another, and another, until you find the one that is interested in it. My first article was rejected by 2 magazines. When I sent it to the 3rd magazine (Inside Kung Fu) the editor called me at work to get my permission to use it right away because he needed another article to finish off the special "Kenpo" edition he was working on. Since then I have sold every article I have written.

Once you get published, stay with that magazine/editor for a while. You'll find once they know your work it will be easier to sell them more articles. Plus, if they really like your writing style they'll start assigning articles to you. After you've got several articles published you will have a good enough resume to start spreading your articles out to the other magazines.

Also, when you sell a magazine a article they own the "English" language rights to that article for the month of publication. This means that the same article can also be sold to a foreign language magazine at the same time, or resold to another English language magazine after the month of publication.

Lastly, be your own editor. After your done with your article, let it sit a day or two. Then look at it again and see if anything needs to be expanded on, or deleted.

Read all you can from good writers, and learn from them.

[arnisador]

Thanks for the inside info. Mr. Bishop!

[old_sempai]

Last time I wrote freelance I was paid for it, and paid a great deal more than these MA mags pay. But then who wants to read about amoured auxiliary equipment used by combat engineers.... still the money came in handy...

as for the MA rags... as previously noted they're out there to sell mags. and ads.... not unlike the trade magazines I see in my job..... dozens of glossy pages full of ads.... and the hell with everything else.............

[MJS]

I subscribe to the magazine. As for the price, its really not that bad considering that some people pay twice the subscription rate for their cable TV. Anyway, yeah, it seems to me, that the magazine keeps up with the current trend. I have seen articles in there about Aikido and some other traditional arts. Of course, there are other mags. out there that specialize in one specific thing. You have Grappling, which focuses strictly on grappling and NHB.

As for the ads. Well, it seems to me that half the mag. is articles and the other half is ads. Too bad they couldnt condense some of the ads and put more articles in.

Mike

[arnisador]

Those willing to write for free should consider MartialTalk Magazine and The Martialist:
http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9046

[John Bishop]

old_sempai:

Your right, pay is relative to the size of the magazine. Some magazines have a circulation in the millions or hundreds of thousands. Most martial arts magazines have a circulation of 25,000 - 50,000.
You will make twice as much selling Readers Digest 1 paragraph for "Humor in Uniform" or "Laughter is the best Medicine", then you would selling "Black Belt" a full feature cover story.

[stickarts]

Many years ago i never missed a issue. Then it just seemed to get less interesting, and even the advertising didn't seem to bring me as many inquiries for my seminars. I haven't read it in ages now.

[Shadow Hunter]

More realistic? Is this a joke?

The latest issue I read had an article on dealing with stalkers by several martial artists. Excuse me, what made a black belt an automatic authority on stalking? Psycologists, Law Enforcement types... these are the folks I would pay attention to. But some bimbo that has starred in some chop socky flic?

Puh-lease.........

[arnisador]

The current (Oct. 2003) issue of Black Belt features an ad from Jim Wagner that has a box saying "Endorsed by Black Belt (magazine)" and a testimonial by a Black Belt editor.

The same high journalistic standards of the NY Times!

[pknox]

Originally posted by The 14th Style
First I would just like to say, Ick.:(

Second, I had kind of given up on Black Belt magazine. Most of the Martial Art Magazines out there seem to be just one big ad anyway. Are there any out there that aren't?
The 14th Style

Well, there's a few...

Furyu, put out by Wayne Muromoto, is a high quality publication that focuses on traditional Japanese/Okinawan arts, and seems to have a much smaller amount of ads than the big mags.

It also seems to me that the Journal of Asian Martial Arts and Aikido Today Magazine tend to have less ads than the others, as well as generally higher quality articles. Granted, ATM is usually much smaller in page size. But my guess is when you take the ads out of the "big" mags, it's comparable. Classical Fighting Arts (formerly Dragon Times) does have lots of ads, but the articles seem to be of a higher quality.

These all focus on traditional, usually Japanese or Okinawan arts, though JAMA does run articles about other arts a bit. I'm not sure what is out there for the more modern arts (other than of course the wonderful Martial Talk and The Martialist mags), but I wouldn't be surprised if a google search turned up some nice webzines.

[pknox]

Originally posted by stickarts
Many years ago i never missed a issue. Then it just seemed to get less interesting, and even the advertising didn't seem to bring me as many inquiries for my seminars. I haven't read it in ages now.

Same here. I tell you the one I really miss is MA Training magazine. I have a few old issues that I take out every once in a while. I've found quite a few of the training articles useful to this day.

[arnisador]

I agree with pknox about the good magazines he mentioned. I wish my local store carried Classical Fighting Arts. I don't subscribe to any of them any more, but buy the occasional issue.

[pknox]

Originally posted by arnisador
I agree with pknox about the good magazines he mentioned. I wish my local store carried Classical Fighting Arts. I don't subscribe to any of them any more, but buy the occasional issue.

arnisador -

Do you have a Borders by you? Supposedly all of them carry it.

[arnisador]

The closest is an hour away, but I was at one a couple of weeks back and did see it.