How to Get Your Article Published

No doubt, you have an idea for a great article. It could be an opinion piece, or it could be about your life, your business or lessons you've learned. You could be bursting to share your news with the world, or maybe someone has told you that you have to get some articles published to raise your profile and attract customers or followers. Whatever the reason or the topic, you need to follow a few simple rules so that the publication you're targeting (electronic or traditional print) will want to publish your article.

I was reminded of following the rules a few weeks ago when one of my clients told me that he had interested a publication in a topic for an article. He sent me links to the publication and then a draft of his article. Immediately, I could see that though the content was excellent, it did not follow the style of the publication. He agreed that I should edit and rewrite the piece to conform to the e-publication's style. But he warned me not to change the meaning of what he was trying to convey.

During the process, I had to get him to clarify several points, and by doing this, I got deeper, more meaningful things the article could convey to its readers. I also learned what the main point was that my client wanted to make.

He sent the piece in, and it was just published.

You can achieve the same result by following these five rules:

1. Have a single point you want to make, and then add meat to the point and use examples to make the point come alive. 
2. Study the possible publications that you could target. What do they publish? Does your idea for an article fit what they look for?
3. Ask yourself if the article will truly be interesting and useful for the publication's readers.
4.  If the publication has guidelines, ask for them, read them, and follow them. If not, study the publication and follow its style and word count.
5. Have someone else you trust read and edit your piece. Make sure it's all correctly written so that the editor doesn't have to work hard.

Good luck.

Oh, and here's a link to my client's article.  http://www.executiveforums.com/resource.php?rID=966&rType=A&osCsid=kcsje537jt3oq6j6akehtiq1k6