Plot Your Way To Publication!

By Author: Lynette Rees
Total Articles: 3
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If you were about to set out on a journey to a new destination, chances are you would give some thought to how you would get there. Right?

Most probably you would get hold of a map and plot out the easiest route to take to get from A to B. So why not apply that principle with regards to your own writing?

To plot your way to publication you are going to need to remember the importance of the 3 P's: Planning, Preparation and Persistance!

1. PLANNING

This is the stage before you have even begun to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard. You need to ask yourself the following questions [remembering the 5 open ended ones]: Who? Where? What? Why? And How?

* Who?

Who are your intended audience? In other words, who is it you would like this information to reach? Is it your own peer group? Young Adults? Children? Men? Women? Romance/Crime/Horror/Sci Fi readers? Or would you like your work to be read by a wider audience?

* Where?

So where could you get it published? Would it be in a specialist magazine like those that cater for parents ...
... or dog lovers? Or a women's or men's magazine for the over 40's? An online market? A local newspaper?

* What is it you want to say?

You might have experience of something that has been personal to you but might help others. For example, I suffer from SAD [Seasonal Affective Disorder] so I was able to pitch my ideas to a health magazine. I knew the kind of treatments and strategies that worked best for me, so thought maybe they could help others. I thought it would be best not to make it too narrow a focus, so I sent out questionnaires to other sufferers to see what helped them too. Then I used their quotes in my article backed up by some professional quotes from experts in the field.

* Why do you want to write the article?

Is it because you have something new to say? That's probably a little unlikely unless you have uncovered some new research or something along those lines. Could it be that you have a novel way of saying something that others haven't thought of? For example, I've had an article published several times over: `Seven Great Things About Rejection'. Now this article obviously deals with rejection which has been done to death by thousands of writers who deal with the `Getting Over Rejection', `How to Cope with Rejection' element. But my article was slightly different in that it was saying how rejection could actually be good for a writer!

* How will you write it?

What tone are you going to take? How long will the article be? You are going to need to study the market. It's no good submitting an article with a chatty tone if a particular magazine uses a more formal one and vice versa. If you have never written an article before then you are going to need to study published articles online and in print. How do those writers compose theirs? Is there a difference between online articles and magazine ones? What sort of titles do they use? Is their tone formal or informal? Most articles have some sort of an introduction, like this one, a body and an ending. I often use bullet points or number the points I want to make. Like in this article I have used the 3 P's: 1. Planning. 2. Preparation. 3. Persistence. A great book I can recommend on this topic is `How to Publish Your Articles' by Shirley Kawa-Jump:

Available from Amazon Books [UK] see here: http://tinyurl.com/aec9n

Or:

Amazon Books [US] see here: http://tinyurl.com/8yvza

2. PREPARATION

So you have your article idea and your intended readership, etc. Now you have to prepare. To do this you will need to undertake a little research.

* Read up on your chosen topic. Find out the latest research on it if possible. See if you can obtain any quotes from experts, at least two if possible. If you don't know anyone in your chosen field, then try: http://profnet3.prnewswire.com/enter/index.jsp

* Get a large sheet of paper or open a file on your computer and brainstorm all your ideas.

* I usually prepare a skeleton draft of an article initially. Putting in the main points and adding the bulk later.

* See if you can send questionnaires to people who have an interest in your topic. For example, I have sent questionnaires to mothers who have breast fed their babies for longer than most would consider the norm for an article on extended breast feeding; also to women who regularly read romance books for an article on romance readers, etc. It didn't cost me a penny as I did it all via Yahoo groups and e-mail.

3. PERSISTENCE

This is a very important word in writing circles. It is THE WORD that can mean the difference between publication and non publication. Imagine if J. K. Rowling had given up at the first hurdle? You have got to get your work out there. It's got to be in it to win it! If you are rejected--don't give up. I have seen some of my articles and stories go around a few times before the promise of acceptance. One editor's meat is another editor's poison.

So now you have the 3 P's in mind, what's stopping you from plotting your way to publication?
About the Author Lynette Rees has had numerous articles and stories published both in print magazines and online. Lynette likes to help and inspire other writers and is the editor of THE CRAFTY WRITER NEWSLETTER.

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