I had the pleasure of attending an talk given by Sharon Jaffe Dan, Editor in Chief, Home & Design Magazine on "How to Get Published" at the open house of Best Tile in Lorton, VA. A beautiful newly redesigned showroom and fabulous hors d'oeuvres and drinks were complimented by area designers, architects and contractors. It was great to meet more designers in my area.
Home & Design is a gorgeous magazine on architecture and fine interiors for Washington, VA and MD.
In a nutshell, these were Sharon's bullet points:
In a further conversation with Sharon, she emphasized that it is ok to put new work on your website or portfolio or a tiny peek of a project on a blog, and that magazines don't expect you to hold everything back necessarily. Their targeted readership is probably not going to find your website or blog most likely. She did recommend using HOUZZ as a source for designers and prospective customers. If you pitch a project to a magazine wait til you hear back from them before contacting another. H&D takes about a month to decide if they can use your work in an upcoming issue and if they say no, then you can pitch it to another magazine. She said they are looking for whole house photos but sometimes can use images of one room when they do a specialty issue, i.e, like bathrooms or kitchens. But do your homework and find the right person to send your work to; that is key.
Thank you Best Tile and Home & Design for a fun, informative meeting and great swag bags!
I hope this helps those of you who are contemplating the subject of getting published.
Have a great week!
