How to Break Into the Military History Market

History is a subject widely covered by print magazines and websites. There are many aspects of human history, but military history is perhaps the most significant and ultimately tragic. Numerous blockbuster war films such as Braveheart, Saving Private Ryan, Pearl Harbor, Platoon, Dunkirk, and others have increased demand for military history article content in print and digital media. Thus, military history is a big potential market for freelance writers to break into, as discussed below.

What’s the Military History Market All About?

Military history articles cover wars from ancient times up to the 21st century. Such articles are typically historical accounts of the most significant land, naval, and air battles or operations that determined the outcomes of their wars. War articles cover historic battles and operations from a broad range of angles and perspectives.

However, not all military history articles are specifically about battles and operations. Some articles cover old war planes, ships, tanks, and weaponry used in past wars. Military history news articles tell readers about anniversary celebrations, battle re-enactments, and discoveries from past wars, typically in the form of wrecks, artifacts, or documented evidence. Many historical magazines and websites also include review articles for military history museums.

You don’t need to be a professional historian to write war history articles for magazines or websites. I’m not a professional historian, but several magazines have published my military history articles. However, careful research and a reasonably good knowledge of the military history you’re covering in articles are required. Few, if any, magazines or websites will likely include historical articles with many obvious inaccurate details their fact-checkers detect.

Finding Military History Magazines for Article Submissions

There are plenty of U.S. and U.K. military history magazine publications, and many (but not necessarily all) are open to freelance article submissions. However, identifying which ones are open to freelance article submissions isn’t so clear-cut. Military history magazines don’t usually include much, if any, information about submitting articles to them within their printed pages at least.

Have a good look through the military history publications on the magazine stands of newsagents and supermarkets with a pen and notepad at hand. Note down the titles, editorial email addresses, and website URLs of the military history magazines you’re interested in contributing to. Then check out the websites for the magazines you’re interested in to see if they include any submission guideline pages confirming they’re open to freelance contributions.

If you can’t find any such information on the magazines’ websites, try sending emails to their editorials. Send emails to ask the editors if their military history magazines are open to freelance contributors. Also, ask if they can provide submission guidelines and remuneration details.

Note that not all the magazines necessarily need to be strictly military history publications. For example, some naval magazines that cover all aspects of maritime history include articles about military and civilian ships. Some flight (aviation) magazines might also be interested in including articles about old military planes from the World War eras. So, flick through a variety of magazines to identify those with military history articles.

To make your magazine search easier, I’ll tell you about some of the print publications I can confirm to be open to freelance article submissions for military history articles. These are military history magazines I have contributed to or found article submission guidelines for on their websites:

Aviation HistoryAgainst the OddsArtillerymanWorld War Two MagazineNaval HistoryShips Monthly (military ships)Strategy & Tactics Military History MattersBritain at War

Pitching Your Article Title Ideas

When you’ve found some suitable magazines for military history article submissions, you can start pitching article titles to them. First, review the submission guidelines you have for a military history magazine. Those guidelines will likely provide details for what kind of historical articles a publication is looking for. Some submission guidelines might also provide specific pitching instructions to follow.

There isn’t any golden formula for pitching articles to magazines. However, include the editor’s name in your pitches when you can do so. Make sure you specify exact titles for your articles within the pitches. Try to keep your pitches reasonably concise (three paragraphs is usually sufficient length). It’s also a good idea to include links for some planned sources when pitching military history articles. Don’t forget to proofread your pitches much the same as you would for completed articles.

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What About Submitting Military History Articles to Websites?

Although plenty of websites cover military history, they are generally less prevalent than software, technology, and gaming sites on the internet. Rarely have I found military history sites advertising freelance writing vacancies on recruitment websites. So, it’s harder to find military history website markets in that respect.

However, I have still found some websites open to military history article submissions. Listverse is a big general content site that covers history and other topics with list-style articles. So, you could try submitting list-style military history articles to Listverse (no pitching is required there). That website includes a submission form for articles and detailed guidelines you can read on this Listverse page.

Obscure Histories is a historical site that includes a War History section. That website is also clearly open to submissions from outside contributors and offers $300-$350 for articles included. This OH page includes submission guidelines for that site.

You can try finding more online military history markets by browsing the internet. First, search for and find websites that cover military history. Then, look for submission guideline pages on those sites that confirm they’re open to freelance contributors, like the Listverse page linked above.

Do I Need Article Samples?

You don’t always need to show samples of your articles when pitching military history magazines or websites. However, some magazines might ask to see some samples of your articles after accepting your initial pitches. So, it’s good to have some military history articles to show if asked to present samples.

The Medium online publishing platform is a good place to add some military history article samples to show to magazines and websites when required. You can freely submit articles to that publishing platform by clicking Sign in on this Medium page to log in with a Google account. The story editor for Medium includes options for formatting text and adding images to articles.

There’s also a Medium Partner Program with a $50 annual membership fee (currently discounted from $60) that you can subscribe to. Subscribing to that program enables you to submit articles to the Medium paywall. Paywall articles generate revenue for authors primarily based on article reads, page views, and audience followers. Thus, Medium can be an online market for military history articles, albeit one that charges for membership access.

Military history is an intriguing freelance writing market to explore for print or online article content creation. Printed magazines are generally the better market option to break into for military history articles in terms of remuneration offered. However, online military history writing can also potentially be a solid market niche, even though historical sites open to freelance article submissions are harder to find.