Learn to Read Before You Write

It's no secret. Getting published isn't a chance game and requires research and planning. Editors get thousands of queries a day and don't have time to read every thing they receive. Often, they look for repeated submissions or someone who has studied their publication; they want to know that you do intent to write for them, have researched all about their publication and have tailored your piece to that particular publication.

So the best tip on getting published is to start reading.

Whether you are trying to pitch to the features editor of a newspaper or submitting a novel manuscript to a publisher, it pays to know exactly what they are looking for. Read recent back issues of magazines and newspapers can help you determine what sort of stories the publication is looking for. Construct a checklist of your own so you can go through them individually, and they can include:

1. What topic areas of interest are featured? Adventure travel stories or luxury travel stories? Does it have to involve a car, for example?
2. What sort of stories appear in this publication? Hard news stories? Human interest stories or 'how-to' pieces?
3. Are the stories written in first, second or third persons? Is there are pattern to follow among all the articles in the publication?
4. What is the style of writing? Is it formal and serious or informal and casual? Does it have a biased point of view?
5. How long are each piece and to what length does the contents go into detail? Are there any breakout fact boxes with extra information?
6. Does it have any regular features that appear to take more freelance articles than others?

Once you have your checklist, read through as many back issues of the publication as possible, noting down anything related to your checklist and then base your article on these points. If the publisher has submission guidelines, make sure to go back to the guidelines when you have finished, check that you have included all the basic requirements.