I received some articles this week from someone who wants us to publish them in one of our SPAWN newsletters or at the website. Of course, they were designed to promote a book. But they were quite poorly written—needed editing. And they were off topic for SPAWN—so not appropriately targeted.
I’m sure that my regular blog followers do not make these mistakes. You make sure that your articles are polished and you submit them in the required manner and to the appropriate venue.
If not, you, too, are probably receiving those dreaded rejection letters or, worse yet, you are being ignored. (Don’t you hate when that happens—not EVEN a rejection note or email….)
Hey rejection happens. I received two rejection letters from publishers with regard to my revised edition of Over 100 Good Ideas for Promoting Your Book, just yesterday. The publishers just didn’t feel as though they could sell enough copies of a book on this topic to chance investing in it. I understand. In the meantime, another publisher asked to see the completed manuscript and is reviewing it now.
Okay, but let’s talk about those articles of yours. I suggest that you use magazine articles to promote your book. But let’s be real!
• They must be interesting/of some value to the reader.
• They must be relevant to the publication.
• They must be timely.
• They must be fresh/not be run-of-the-mill pieces.
• They must be carefully edited.
Think about it, if you needed (I mean really needed) an editor for your book manuscript, you probably need an editor for your articles. If you didn’t hire an editor for your book, maybe you don’t know what editorial problems may lurk within the pages of your memoir, novel or nonfiction book. And if your articles are continually being rejected, maybe it is because you need an editor.
Most editors (like myself) will edit articles as well as book manuscripts. I just finished working with a gentleman on an article he is going to submit to a contest. I think he is happier with it now—I know it has a much better chance of winning.
When I wrote my rejection to the author who sent those articles to SPAWN yesterday, I offered my services (at $50/hour) to edit his articles so he’ll have a better chance of getting them published.
Some writers don’t even know what an article actually consists of. They don’t give it a beginning, middle and end. They just ramble or pull something from their book and call it an article. Most book excerpts need some work in order to turn them into an article.
You’ve never thought of submitting book excerpts to magazines in order to promote your book? There are lots and lots of magazines in every category that use book excerpts. In fact, this is one of the themes for the SPAWN Market Update to be posted in the member area of the SPAWN website April 1. Join SPAWN here http://www.spawn.org
A more economical way to get your articles edited and to LEARN editing techniques for your articles is to SIGN UP for my online article-writing course. Sing up today and bring your article-writing skills up to par: http://www.matilijapress.com/course_magarticles.htm
Contact me to edit your next article. I’ll give you a discount if you’ll mention it in your email: PLFry620@yahoo.com.
Monday (March 15) is the last day that you can order Catscapades, True Cat Tales without paying shipping.
http://www.matilijapress.com/catscapades.html
One more thing—Amazon is ordering quite a few copies of The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. Thank you for placing your orders! And I’m sure that you, like so many other authors and hopeful authors, will thank me for writing it, once your project starts to take off.