While I was editor of a national pet magazine, my desk was swamped with "personal experience" articles -- accounts of some funny, moving, or tragic event in the author's life. And every day, the vast majority of those articles went straight to the rejection pile.
It wasn't because they were poorly written. Many were quite good, and every bit as funny or moving as they claimed to be. We simply could not use them.
Editors everywhere face the same difficulty. Personal experience articles often make up 75% or more of a typical magazine's unsolicited submissions (and often are the reason why magazines stop accepting such submissions altogether). Yet they are the least likely to be accepted.
The reason is that typical personal experience pieces are articles about the author. What editors are looking for, however, is articles about the reader.
Look at the table of contents of any information-oriented magazine, and you'll see what I mean. Note how many titles include phrases like "how to" or "how you can." Editors are in search of articles hat will help readers improve their lives, relationships, skills, or knowledge. For most magazines, such "service" pieces make up 80% to 90% of the editorial content.
That can create some pretty tough odds. For example, if an editor could purchase ten articles per month out of 100 submissions, a personal experience piece might have a 1-in-75 chance of acceptance -- while a service article's chances could be as high as 9-in-25. (Of course, the reality is far worse: Editors receive far more than 100 articles per month, and may purchase fewer than 10.)
But you can beat those odds. You can lift your personal experience article out of the slush pile by offering an editor the best of both worlds: A personalized service piece. To do this, you must ask yourself how your experience relates to the reader. For example:
Is this an experience the reader might wish to share or enjoy?
Is this an experience from which the reader can learn or benefit?
Is this an experience the reader might wish to avoid?
Is this an experience that will help the reader cope with difficulty?