Getting Published
August 17, 2005 5:49 AM Subscribe
How does one go about getting an article published?
I wrote an article for my family and friends explaining why I was leaving teaching. Since then, I have received feedback from a number of people who have been forwarded the article saying that I should try to get it published.
If it helps, the article is a first-person account of my first and last year teaching math at an inner-city middle school in the South.
I wrote an article for my family and friends explaining why I was leaving teaching. Since then, I have received feedback from a number of people who have been forwarded the article saying that I should try to get it published.
If it helps, the article is a first-person account of my first and last year teaching math at an inner-city middle school in the South.
I feel like I heard somewhere that newspapers won't publish articles that have been published before anywhere, including the Internet. So, resist the urge to post it somewhere.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:17 AM on August 17, 2005 [1 favorite]
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:17 AM on August 17, 2005 [1 favorite]
I'd second CunningLinguist's advice for newspapers. Also, are there any papers in your area who have been covering education in depth? Anywhere nearby where the schools are having a recruiting crisis thanks to terrible conditions/bad management/awful pay/in-school violence etc.?
Basically, you need a hook on which to hang it. Find out not just who edits the Op-Ed pages, but the Education pages, and find out who your area's papers' education correspondents are, and get in touch with them. The same goes for general features editors.
And don't be surprised if you find it a hard sell. There are plenty of people out there trying to get their work accepted, and their default standard is usually pretty low to say the least, so editors tend to treat on-spec submissions with suspicion. If it's a good piece, though, you're already head and shoulders above most, so good luck!
posted by Len at 7:55 AM on August 17, 2005
Basically, you need a hook on which to hang it. Find out not just who edits the Op-Ed pages, but the Education pages, and find out who your area's papers' education correspondents are, and get in touch with them. The same goes for general features editors.
And don't be surprised if you find it a hard sell. There are plenty of people out there trying to get their work accepted, and their default standard is usually pretty low to say the least, so editors tend to treat on-spec submissions with suspicion. If it's a good piece, though, you're already head and shoulders above most, so good luck!
posted by Len at 7:55 AM on August 17, 2005
Best answer: First, make sure the question you're really asking isn't "How do I sell my article?" because there are a lot of people who will publish good writing for free or cheap and fewer who will pay you money for it. Either tack is acceptable, but don't start doing it one way and realizing you wanted to do it another way.
You can do a lot of the leg work online. Find out who would be the likely audience and figure out how to reach them. Have a cover letter that goes with the piece that explains why THEIR audience would like your piece, what your background it, why NOW is a good time to get this piece of writing out there. If your article is short [a page or two] you can include it. If your article is long [10 pages] you can include a summary of it, or pull out a few punchy paragraphs and include it in with your letter.
It's perfectly acceptable to pitch articles to people over email, you don't have to call people over the phone. Many magazines and newspapers have their writer's guidelines -- including whether they accept unsolicited manuscripts at all, how much they pay, what their style guidelines are -- on their web site. You may find that your target magazine is looking for something just a little different than what you have, and at that point you should think about whether you want to edit what you have -- maybe they want three pages and you have six, for example -- or go elsewhere. In general, it's a good idea to try to indicate that you have read and understood their writer's guidelines, it helps you get off to a good start with the editor/intern and it means that they have to do less work to get your work into publishable form.
ThePinkSuperhero is right, if you want to publish it in print, don't put it up on your website. Some places won't care, some places will. I have published articles where one of the terms of the contract was that I wouldn't put it on my site for six months after they printed it. Think a little bit about what sort of rights you'd be willing to sign away [more important if you're selling, but good to think about] and what sort of issues there might be if you got widespread exposure for writing about your job [would your job care? the people you write about? future employers?].
People have mixed ideas about simultaneous submissions [sending one article to many editors at once] and generally, though it's a hassle for you, it's not a good idea in my line of work. This may be different in the areas you are looking at, but it's something that is also good to keep in mind. If you send it out to one outlet at a time, it may be a while between when you send it and when you hear from someone -- this is why email is a good route to take, people can be speedier -- so if you like to write in general, having more than one piece to shuffle around can make the waiting less onerous.
In any case, best of luck, if I can help with other questions feel free to drop me an email.
posted by jessamyn at 8:57 AM on August 17, 2005
You can do a lot of the leg work online. Find out who would be the likely audience and figure out how to reach them. Have a cover letter that goes with the piece that explains why THEIR audience would like your piece, what your background it, why NOW is a good time to get this piece of writing out there. If your article is short [a page or two] you can include it. If your article is long [10 pages] you can include a summary of it, or pull out a few punchy paragraphs and include it in with your letter.
It's perfectly acceptable to pitch articles to people over email, you don't have to call people over the phone. Many magazines and newspapers have their writer's guidelines -- including whether they accept unsolicited manuscripts at all, how much they pay, what their style guidelines are -- on their web site. You may find that your target magazine is looking for something just a little different than what you have, and at that point you should think about whether you want to edit what you have -- maybe they want three pages and you have six, for example -- or go elsewhere. In general, it's a good idea to try to indicate that you have read and understood their writer's guidelines, it helps you get off to a good start with the editor/intern and it means that they have to do less work to get your work into publishable form.
ThePinkSuperhero is right, if you want to publish it in print, don't put it up on your website. Some places won't care, some places will. I have published articles where one of the terms of the contract was that I wouldn't put it on my site for six months after they printed it. Think a little bit about what sort of rights you'd be willing to sign away [more important if you're selling, but good to think about] and what sort of issues there might be if you got widespread exposure for writing about your job [would your job care? the people you write about? future employers?].
People have mixed ideas about simultaneous submissions [sending one article to many editors at once] and generally, though it's a hassle for you, it's not a good idea in my line of work. This may be different in the areas you are looking at, but it's something that is also good to keep in mind. If you send it out to one outlet at a time, it may be a while between when you send it and when you hear from someone -- this is why email is a good route to take, people can be speedier -- so if you like to write in general, having more than one piece to shuffle around can make the waiting less onerous.
In any case, best of luck, if I can help with other questions feel free to drop me an email.
posted by jessamyn at 8:57 AM on August 17, 2005
Maybe hook a few fellow AskMeFi-ers up with a copy? I'm very curious ;)
posted by surferboy at 9:56 AM on August 17, 2005
posted by surferboy at 9:56 AM on August 17, 2005
Response by poster: Thanks for all the great advice. The article is a little over 2,000 words. The target audience would be people in their 20s and 30s who think to themselves, "maybe I'll quit my job and become a teacher."
I would prefer to have it run in a magazine and not my local paper. I like the folks I used to work with and wouldn't want my story to turn into an expose on my old school. I don't care if I get paid or not. Thanks again for all the input.
posted by JuliaKM at 1:33 PM on August 17, 2005
I would prefer to have it run in a magazine and not my local paper. I like the folks I used to work with and wouldn't want my story to turn into an expose on my old school. I don't care if I get paid or not. Thanks again for all the input.
posted by JuliaKM at 1:33 PM on August 17, 2005
This thread is closed to new comments.
If newspaper sounds good, call the editorial page editor of the biggest state paper and ask how they handle oped submissions.
posted by CunningLinguist at 7:02 AM on August 17, 2005