[epub] Re: Bad Articles

[Ross Hall <ross.hall@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

OK....

Remaining happy ;-))) I decided to put together an article for this 
month's Garol Business Review on getting published. 
(http://www.garol.com/businessreview)

So here it is. Feel free to send it on to those who add you to mailing 
lists, or who ignore the submission guidelines or whatever. Just use it 
as is, please!!!


GETTING YOUR ARTICLE PUBLISHED

by Ross Hall
editor, Garol Business Review
http://www.garol.com/businessreview


In recent months there has been a massive upsurge in people trying to 
get published in these pages. Unfortunately the vast majority of these 
submissions have been completely inappropriate.

Yet being published can help improve your credibility in your chosen 
market and bring more potential customers to your door. What you need 
to remember is that first you need to sell your article to the editor, 
the person who acts as the gatekeeper of the audience you want to reach.

The editor is a busy person. As amazing as this can seem to some people 
the editor has more to do than just read submissions. In fact this is 
can be one of the least important tasks the editor has to undertake. 
Unfortunately many would-be contributors continue to hassle the editor 
with poorly though out and inappropriate submissions that get ignored 
at best.

There are no hard and fast rules to break through this barrier, but if 
you at least try these 5 tips you should start to see an improvement:


1. Research.

Many of the unsolicited articles I receive come from people who start 
their message with a compliment. Within the first couple of lines 
they're telling me how wonderful my eZine is and how much they enjoy 
it. Five seconds later I know they're not subscribers and as the Garol 
Business Review is not archived or publicly available I know I have a 
liar on my hands. Is lying a good way to start a business relationship? 
I think not.

False compliments are not going to hide a lack of research. Before you 
approach anyone you should make sure your work will fit in to their 
publication and they accept outside submissions. That means doing a 
little bit more than just looking at the homepage of a website. Really 
explore it and discover what it is they do. Subscribe for a couple of 
issues before sending anything in to make sure you're getting a good 
feel for what they publish. And read and absorb the submission 
guidelines as these will be critical to you later.


2. Query First.

Imagine calling a prospective customer and rattling down the phone at 
them the full 1 hour pitch. It wouldn't work. You wouldn't get past the 
first few seconds before people were slamming down the phone. Yet the 
would-be writers who send out their entire text on the first contact 
are doing just this.

Give me a reason to publish your article. Tell me what it is about and 
why my readers are going to want to read it. Do it quickly as well 
because I am busy, and I don't want to have to read through 1,000 words 
of pitch to make a decision about a 1,000 word article.

What you need is a query. A query is the publishing world's version of 
the sales letter. Forget the pleasantries, although "Dear Ross" might 
be an appropriate way to start, the first sentence should start to sell 
me your idea. No more than three or four short paragraphs later I 
should know what your article is about and why my readers are going to 
want to read it.


3. Baby Bio.

A 25 word tag line might appear at the bottom of a published article, 
but as an editor does it really help me? I want to know why you have 
the authority and credibility to write about your subject. Give me 
three or four sentences that make it clear you know what you are 
talking about. If you've been published before, say so. If you sit on a 
committee, say so.

Make sure the bio focuses on you as a person. A big company is a big 
place to hide, so I am going to want to know about what you have done 
as a human being, not what the company has got up to as late. Sure, put 
a line in for them, but don't expect to sell your article off the back 
of who you work for.


4. Follow The Rules.

I used to have a specific form for would-be contributors to complete. 
It asked for their bio, a brief synopsis and an indication of where 
else the article had been placed. The instructions were clear, the type 
of content I was looking for was clear.

In spite of these requirements (stress requirements) I continued to 
receive full articles, meaningless tag lines and even "eMail this 
address to receive my latest article" messages. In other words, 
potential authors were losing out because they could not read, let 
alone write.

If there are specific submission instructions follow them. Don't think 
you can engage in some smart marketing and bypass the publication's 
processes. They are there for a reason - to help the editor make 
decisions about the quality of his publication. Anything else, like it 
or not, is likely to be labelled spam.


5. DIY.

There are companies out there who will submit your article to hundreds 
of different editors all at once. Forget them. A friend of mine 
subscribed to one such service and found their articles being submitted 
to the publication they wrote a regular column for!

It takes time and effort to discover the contact details and submission 
guidelines for the publications that matter to you. But it will be 
worth it. Taking that time means you are going to deliver the content 
people want in the way they want it. And that will increase your 
chances of being published much more effectively than blasting out 
badly formatted, inappropriate messages.


The bottom line is this. When you try and sell an insurance policy or a 
consultancy service you don't sell the whole thing in one go. You sell 
the opportunity to offer a quote or see the prospect first and from 
there sell the rest of the package. The same applies with getting your 
articles published. Sell the editor the idea first, then sell them the 
article.

(c)2003 Ross Hall. All Rights Reserved.


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