If you’re interested in writing for the Jewish religious market then make a note to attend next year’s Annual Jerusalem Writers’ Seminar.
In one day we heard from book publishers, magazine and newspaper editors and a myriad of women successful in various writing- related professions that suit religious women writers.
BOOK PUBLISHING
Representatives from the main religious publishing houses spoke about their needs and the type of manuscripts they are looking for. Some topics are always popular e.g. cookbooks / inspiration / short stories/ humor but all the editors said they would happy to look at manuscripts that were ‘out of the box’ and are always on the look out for new ideas.
Click on the names below to reach the publishers’ websites. Browse around and look at the kind of titles they publish to get a feel for what they are interested in. Some have author's guidelines on the site- if there aren't any, request some by email.
Jewish E-books (Hebrew site) English site should be running soon
MAGAZINES
There is an ever increasing number of high quality, weekly magazines for the orthodox reader:
One editor described her publication as a voracious animal desperate to be fed week after week, and she was always extremely happy to get pitches, fiction and essays from writers. Although they may have a small stable of regular writers, all the editors agreed that there is a constant need for material and they welcome high quality work from all writers whether experienced or newcomers.
Pitches for articles and stories related to the Chagim (Festivals) should be sent 3 months in advance.
Mishpacha has three sections every week:
A family magazine, a women’s section (Family First) and a children’s paper. Pitches, essays and fiction for Mishpacha should be sent to submissions@Mishpacha.com and for Family First to the editor; Bassi@Mishpacha.com.
At Pesach and Sukkot there are numerous extra supplements for teens / fiction/ literary etc which provide a wonderful opportunity for fiction writers.
Ami magazine is the newest pub. having started out only just over 6 months ago. It also consists of three sections every week : The general family magazine, women's section and teenagers' magazine.
.At the moment, it is only distributed in the USA so many potential writers have never seen a copy. It seems to be very similar to Mishpacha and the editor encourages writers to submit pitches, essays and stories to Submissions@amimagazine.org
Binah is a weekly women’s magazine with a separate section for children and numerous extra supplements for Pesach and Sukkot.
They have no website but pitches and essays should be sent to submissions@binahmagazine.com.
Hamodia newspaper has a weekend edition with multiple sections including a weekend magazine with sections for women and children.
Hamodia and Binah work closely together and if an article, essay or children’s piece is unsuitable for one, the editor will probably pass it over to the other publication, so check before resending it yourself.
Queries for Hamodia to submissions@Hamodia.com or chaviernster@yahoo.com.
Queries for Hamodia to submissions@Hamodia.com or chaviernster@yahoo.com.
You don’t have to be religious to write for the religious market – but it does help if you have some idea of the needs and limitations of the market.
Manuscripts, both book and magazine, are always approved by a Rabbinical advisory board and although editors will always help a good writer iron out the wrinkles, if there are too many it won’t be worth the effort as nothing of substance will be left.
The religious market is a rapidly growing section of the publishing world and there’s no longer any need for a writer who only writes for religious publications to feel there’s no market for her work.
