How To Get Published in a Fitness Magazine

Hey beautiful, thanks for stopping by! I just wanted to share my story of how I got started with writing for Scottsdale Health Magazine! My work has been published by the magazine over 13 times and counting since being featured in a two page spread in their January 2018 article! 

The journey to being a published fitness influencer has been a long, exciting one! I wanted to share what I did to get published in the first place, and how you can get published, too, if that’s your goal! 

How I Got Published in Scottsdale Health Magazine

It all started January 1^st, 2017. I kid you not. It was day one of 2017 and I had just gotten finished reading 10X Rule by Grant Cardone. I was super fired up about writing my goals out, and for some reason I wrote down “I will be published in a magazine this year.” I had never really thought about this goal until then, but I thought it sounded cool and would make me seem more legit to my clients. I wrote this goal down every single day the entire year. 

Early in 2017, I heard about this fitness conference for “fitness entrepreneurs” called Fitposium, so I purchased my ticket and attended the conference in October of 2017. While at the conference, they had a free photo shoot for attendees, and they announced that they would select winners from the shoot to be published in a few magazines. I had my eyes set on Scottsdale Health Magazine over any other magazine because it was local and I knew all of my clients would get to see it. I wanted it REALLY bad, so during the photo shoot I gave it my all and focused on the goal I had been literally writing out for ten months. 

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On the last day of the conference, they announced winners of the shoot who were to be published in magazines. I was extremely nervous and wanted to hear my name so bad. They finally got to Scottsdale Health Magazine, and I was one of two winners who got to be published in a two-page spread! I was called up on stage, with my now really good friend Bella Hibbs, and we had both won our own two-page spreads in the magazine. It was really surreal and I am extremely thankful for the opportunity to this day.

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At the conference I also got to meet Chris and Heidi Powell, and at the time I did not know I’d be in the same Scottsdale Health issue that he was on the cover of for January 2018! After the conference, I shot my two page spread photos in December of 2017, and my first article was published in the January 2018 issue of Scottsdale Health. Since then, I have written over 13 more articles for Scottsdale Health Magazine!

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How To Get Published in a Fitness Magazine

If you want to be published in a magazine, here are some steps you can take to get your work published:

• If you’re local to AZ or can fly in, attending the Fitposium Conference puts you in front of real life publishers from Strong Fitness Magazine, Women’s Health, and Scottsdale Health. If you want to attend, use my affiliate link here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2019-fitposium-international-conference-tickets-50703119395?aff=JessHutchens&afu=208455073217
• Submit articles to publishers. Put yourself out there! Usually the publisher’s information is in the magazine itself, but if not, you can usually Google the magazine and search for the contact email.
• When submitting an article, your pitch needs to be genuine! Publishers hate being used and abused, so start the email off with some sort of welcome and connection to that specific magazine. 
• Make sure your pitch is detailed enough so that they get the idea of what you’re wanting to write about, but not too long. Do not send the entire article. You have to “pitch” first and then if they approve it that’s when you can send the entire article. 
• If you pitch one time and do not hear back, do not keep emailing them! Publishers are usually very busy and sometimes do not respond at all. I’ve heard directly from them that they have either “saved” or starred it in their email, so constantly replying back to the pitch if you have not heard back is annoying. I have personally had editors not respond for a month and then reply later saying they want to use the pitch. Be patient. 
• If you never hear back, send a new pitch every couple months. Let them get to be familiar with your name. It could take up to ten submissions for them to finally respond and use your pitch. Be patient (as stated above, haha).

If I Can Do It, You Can Too!

These are just some tips and tricks I’ve learned throughout the years with how to be published! If you have any other questions or comments, please ask them below and I will do my best to get back to you! Thanks for reading, and I hope you are reaching all the goals you’ve set out to achieve!

— Jess