It’s Almost a Given!

If you’re currently taking or graduated from the ICL children’s magazine writing course you’ve probably submitted to Hopscotch, Fun For Kidz or Boys’ Quest at least once, if not many! I know I have. Published by Bluffton News Publishing and Printing Co. they seek fiction, nonfiction, poems, riddles, puzzles, cartoons and more. The three award winning magazines are sometimes referred to as the Bluffton Group and always use themes which are repeated every few years.

My First Sale to Hopscotch

Years ago I sold my story, “My Diary,” to Hopscotch for their February/March 2006 issue. It was a good fit with their Diaries & Journals themed issue and I had to wait over four years to see it published! To this day it’s one of my favorites. In the March/April 2006 issue of Fun For Kidz, themed Riddles and Rhymes, my brain teaser was published. This article described a specialty box of baseball cards my brother bought. The box promised a 35% chance of a special card inside. There was, a very valuable Willie Mays! My riddle questioned what percentage of profit my brother earned on the sale of this card in contrast to what it cost. Next I sold a poem, “Our Office Mouse,” which compared a computer mouse to a real mouse. This was published in Hopscotch in the October/November 2006 issue for the Mice Are Nice theme. Followed by a sale with a coin article about collecting state quarters, a joke and a vanishing coin trick to Fun For Kidz themed issue, Fun with Hobbies, in January/February 2007.

I Wanted a Triple Play

My next challenge was to get an acceptance from Boys’ Quest so I could boast sales to all three magazines. It never happened. However, one fall day I received a pleasant surprise! I opened my mailbox and found a copy of the October/November 2007 issue of Boys’ Quest. I was amazed because I knew I hadn’t sold to them and didn’t have a subscription to the magazine. The theme of this issue was Computers. The cover showed a grinning boy wearing a shirt that read "I Love My Computer," holding an A+ report card and the computer screen next to him read "I Love My Boy." Slowly leafing through the magazine I came to the next to the last page and there was my poem, “Our Office Mouse,” with the exact illustration used the first time it was published. I received a check and letter stating that once a writer’s material is purchased they can use it in any of their three magazines. I was thrilled. I had my triple play!

A Second Mailbox Surprise

Another surprise arrived on a similar fall day in 2009. A copy of Hopscotch, the October/November issue, was in my mailbox. The theme was Dollars & Cents. Again I slowly leafed through the magazine; again I was almost to the last page. There was my coin collecting article, joke and vanishing coin trick repeated. The color graphics were a little different but everything else exactly the same.

Your Chances Are Good

When you consider all the themes in three different magazines it’s very possible your work will be published in other issues if you’ve already sold to them. It might take a few years but certainly possible. A coin collecting article can be placed under Fun with Hobbies or Dollars & Cents. I never realized this until it happened to me so I wanted to share this fact with new writers. It’s ironic that a magazine that usually has years’ long waiting lists can also arrive completely by surprise. You will receive a letter explaining that your work is going to be published again with another check but in both of my cases I got the magazine first!

Another Chance

On yet another fall day my article, “Wake up Foot,” detailing what actually happens when your foot goes to sleep and a joke will be published in the October/November 2011 issue of Hopscotch, themed Foot Fun. Hopefully, down the line this article will have a chance at being republished too!

A Final Helpful Hint

Even though this group of magazines always uses themes they are also open to random submissions. For example I just happened to send my mouse poem with two other poems. I didn’t know about the Mice Are Nice theme. Poems are a good way to break into this market as they are usually short and fit many themes. They always need cute and clever recipes, well written and illustrated crafts, riddles, jokes, ticklers and teasers as they like to call them. Although most of their issues are planned years into the future they do leave space for a page or two to be added at the last minute which I happily know is true. Let the next lucky writer that gets on that page be you!