Many good writers are unable to get published because they do not know how to go about in this business of getting published. Their articles are interesting, the subjects are relevant, and any publication would be proud to print this kind of material, but still they remain unpublished. The problem is that they did not market their product properly.

A few centuries ago when the number of periodicals was small it was easy to find one that fulfilled one's requirements, but with the thousands of publications around, it is difficult today for the beginner to get to the appropriate publication. Further, many are so ignorant about market realities that they want their articles and other writings to be published in the commonly available commercial publications immediately. They do not realize that these are professionally produced publications, and a writer can get published in them only after gaining considerable experience and expertise in specific fields. A beginner should not overestimate his size, but should rather find a publication that is more suitable for his standard and send for publication there.

There are at least five things that you should know about getting your writings published:

1-Choose the right publication
2-Send the carefully prepared manuscript with a covering letter
3-Do send query letters
4-Expect rejection
5-Advance as you gain experience

Let me explain each of the above points in greater detail:

Choose The Right Publication: Most countries today have a wide range of publications. Our country has several thousand English periodicals plus a higher number of periodicals in other languages. The total number exceeds 30,000 ! These contain an unbelievable range of publications right from the most primitive to the most advanced.

In this crowd you will find from general to highly subject-oriented publications. One publishes on a wide variety of subjects while the other publishes only on the different aspects of one subject. You will find that they have a diversity of levels. Some publish almost any articles written by the beginner while the other publishes even the articles of the expert with great caution. Some will accept articles submitted by outside writers, but others publish only articles written by their editorial staff, while still others publish only invited articles.

What is important to understand is that in this crowd somewhere there is a publication that suits your level. In fact there is a possibility that there are dozens of publications that publish submissions from the beginner. It is your responsibility to search the market thoroughly to discover several magazines that accept submissions from the beginner. Make a list of these publications. You will be deleting as well adding to this list throughout your writing career.

The easiest place to get published is the Letters To The Editor column. Unfortunately many writers do not recognize the power and the impact of this column. They feel that after all a letter is only a letter. While a letter is surely a letter, this need not always be so. Letters published in these columns can become a powerful medium for speaking to the people of your society. Researches and surveys have found that Letters To The Editor column is one of the most read columns in periodicals. Somehow people have a strong attraction to what others like them have to say on different issues. Therefore what gets published in this column is sure to be read by a lot of people. Think of the impact that you can create by publishing letters regularly in this column. What's more, most editors will publish letters on any subject without editing or altering them even if the letter is critical of the publication and its stand.

Many publications publish submissions only if they agree with the policy of the periodical, but this does not usually apply to the Letters column. This gives a lot of liberty to the writer of the letter. This means that even if the subjects of your interest are such that they do not find a regular place in any publication, you can still place them in front of thousands of readers through the Letters column.

For example, suppose you read horrifying reports of ragging in professional colleges and feel disgusted at how tens of thousands of innocent young people are subjected to humiliation and torture every year, you can start a national campaign through the Letters column of newspapers. You can stir thousands of people, bringing this primitive, brutal, and beastly practice to and end.

As a beginner you should try to use the Letters column of the local newspaper and other available publications both for gaining writing experience as well as to get your name established among the readership.


Send The Carefully Prepared Manuscript Along With A Covering Letter: Except for the Letters to the Editor column, you should send all your manuscripts to the editor with a good covering letter. It is not sufficient to send the article alone because it does not bring you in proper contact and rapport with the editor. You must realize all editors are human beings and only a personal touch will gain proper attention from them. This is becoming more and more true in this generation where the number of writings that call for the attention of the editors is increasing at an explosive rate.

The covering letter must be a brief and polite one that calls the attention of the editor to your writing. If this is your first ever submission to him, then introduce yourself briefly in this letter. Give some information about your background and also any publications that you already have. Also, if you have been reading his publication for some time, include some helpful and honest comments and observations about that publication. A typical letter might look something like the following:


I have not shown the date and return address on the sample letter above, but you must include them too. Including the Stamped Self Addressed Envelope or SASE is necessary because most publications do not return the rejected manuscript unless you enclose SASE with each submission.

NEVER send the same manuscript at the same time to more than one publisher. If more than one editor decides to accept it, you will be faced with several unpleasant possibilities. The first is to inform one publisher that you are withdrawing this writing from his publication even though he wants to publish it. He might accept your request for withdrawal, but never expect him to show interest in your writings in future. After all, who would want to waste time on something about which he is not sure whether he will get it or not.

The second possibility is even more damaging. If two or more publications accept the writing and publish it without first informing you (and this happens many a times), you will run into a messy copyright problem. What's worse, you loose your credibility with all those publications. Never play with these things. You have to remain in the field of writing for a long period.

If you were commissioned to write on a topic, then always include a copy of that letter with your manuscript and covering letter. Busy editors can always forget that they had commissioned someone to write, and it is not always easy for them to locate the copy of the letter that they wrote to you. Further, in a large publication your submission need not always go to the person who originally commissioned you to write it. A copy of the original letter will, however, place your writing in its proper perspective.


Do Send Query Letters: A query letter is a letter that you send to an editor before you decide to write for that publication. A query is useful in many ways. For example, they might recently have published an article on the topic on which you want to write and it might be unacceptable to them. Even the careful reader is not always able to remember all what the publication has carried in the past months or years. Further, is not possible for a writer to read all issues of all the publications for which he might want to write. In such situations the guidance of the editor becomes important.

Further, since an editor receives hundreds of submissions every month, he might already have received an article on this topic so that another submission on the subject is worthless. On the other hand, if the topic is quite important, it is possible that he has already assigned someone else to write on that subject.

In all the situations mentioned above, the periodical is bound to reject your submission. Your efforts go waste, and you will be forced to look for another publisher. On the other hand, if you send a query letter before writing out the article, you are spared a lot of wear and tear if the editor informs you that such an article is not needed in the near future.

Rejection of long and well researched articles can be quite traumatic and wasteful. Many writers will even become too upset to write anything for quite some time. But they will be spared all this pain if they practice the habit of querying.

A query letter will help not only the writer but also the editor. It will help both the parties to mutually agree upon the format, contents, and depth of the article before it is written. This will ensure that the article satisfies the editor, will be geared towards the needs of the magazine, and will help the writer from wandering off into directions that are not needed.

Once a topic is agreed upon, you should submit it within the time allotted to you. Do keep the time, otherwise you will loose the editor's trust and good will. Imagine the dilemma of an editor who does not get the manuscript after he makes a commitment about publishing based on your assignment. The magazine or the periodical cannot be delayed for you, but at the same time the space allotted for you is not filled. The situation can be quite frustrating even to the most resourceful editor.

When you submit the completed assignment, be sure to enclose a covering letter and also a copy of the letter in which the editor gave you the assignment. The reasons have already been explained.

So far we have been discussing the query letter that you send before writing an article. There is another type of query also -- sent some time after an article is submitted.

Most periodicals will inform you the status of your writing within one month of submission. Some require as much as two to three months. You must send a query letter to inquire about the status of the submitted writing if you do not hear from them within a reasonable period of time. As a writer and as the legal owner of that piece of writing you have every right to make such an inquiry. However, you must make the query sufficiently clearly and specifically to make things convenient for the editor.

Do not just shoot a letter asking "whatever happened to my writing", etc. The editor is a busy person and he does not have time to hunt the files for a person who does not have the courtesy to include more information about his submission. Further, you should not forget that an average editor receives hundreds of pieces of mail every month. Newspaper editors receive hundreds of letters every day. It is just not possible for them to remember about every submission and every author. You must give all the details of your manuscript clearly. Do not expect courtesy from a busy editor if you are not willing to be considerate as well as courteous to him.

Your query letter should contain full information about your submission, including the title and the approximate date when you mailed it. This will help the editor to look into appropriate files or records.


Expect Some Rejection: Many writers have a feeling that editors are some kind of monsters who sit with a bunch of rejection slips, to be sent by next mail to every author who ever submits anything. This is a false and short sighted viewpoint.

Rejection slips are sheets of paper that contain a very polite message to inform you that your submission has not been accepted. It is not a delight to send such slips, and nor do they do it out of habit or compulsion. How are they going to bring out their publication if all what they do is to send these slips to everyone who sends them a manuscript.

Most successful editors are human beings like you and me, and they are there in the office to receive and review manuscripts. Most of them will give serious consideration to every submission that looks premising. However, you must realize that not all submissions are good, promising, or useful. Consequently, he has to reject what is not suitable for his publication. Therefore every writer should expect some of his submissions to be rejected. You should neither be depressed, nor be upset by rejection. EVEN THE MOST EXPERIENCED WRITERS GET REJECTION SLIPS, and in comparison to them you are only a new player in this field.

There are several reasons why submissions are rejected, and if you are willing to look honestly at the reasons for rejection, each rejection will offer you another opportunity to perfect your writing. Some of the most common reasons for rejection are explained below.

All writings, whether technical or creative, are a work of art -- the art of writing. No work of art is ever spotlessly perfect. On the contrary, the works of art created by a beginner are bound to contain a lot of imperfections. Most of the times editors return writings submitted to them because they are imperfect. On receiving a rejection slip, do consider whether your submission has been rejected because of its imperfection. If you discover that to be the case, then you should see how the article could be revised to make it more suitable for publication.

Every writer new to this profession should cultivate the habit of listening to criticisms objectively, and should make the necessary corrections in his style of writing. Some writers, on the other hand, feel that whatever they give for publication should be published without any modification whatsoever. Others shudder and revolt at the thought of revision. They cannot stand the thought of revision by themselves or by the editor. This is not only foolishness, but also betrays pride. You will have to abandon this attitude if you want to become a successful writer.

If the article returned to you is technical in nature, then it might not be sufficiently accurate, authoritative, broad, or deep. Or else, the subject might not be suitable for the publication to which you submitted it. It is also possible that your language is too technical or difficult for the average reader to understand. You should reread the article with these things in mind, discover the problem and then rewrite the article.

As mentioned before, another reason why your article was returned could be because it might have already been published. Or, the editor might have already assigned someone else to write on this topic. If so, it is your mistake that you did not send a query before writing it.

It is always advisable to read several issues of the publication for which you want to write. This will give you a "feel" for the style, aims, needs, and readership of that publication. Some standard publications will even give you printed information related to these things. It is a good idea to write and request such information from the publication in which you are interested.

If your writing comes under "creative writing" and if it is rejected by the editor, there could be many reasons for it. For example, your writing might be lacking what the editor is looking for. A new writer might not have sufficient originality, movement of the story, charm, suspense, or even a suitable climax in his creative writing. The best thing is to politely ask the editor to help you out. Editors are very busy people, and they cannot go about helping every person aspiring to be a creative writer, but some of them will be able to help a few of the writers who submit to them.

If you are unable to locate a friendly editor, then the next best is to find a friend who will sympathetically read and offer comments and suggestions. It will be good if he has some writing experience. Even people who have no writing experience but who read a lot will be able sometimes to help in unusual ways.

Creative writers, who write fiction, must be very careful about their subconscious mind. Many a times the stories or other such fiction read by one remains in the subconscious mind even if one is not able to recollect it consciously. This hidden memory can influence your writing to such a degree that your original writing might have too much of a similarity with the work of another person. This will cause an immediate rejection by the editor.

Another reasons why a good piece of writing is rejected is because it was sent into a wrong publication. For example, even if one sends the best story in the world to a publication that does not publish fiction, the manuscript is bound to come back. The mistake is yours. You must always make sure that you are submitting your writings to the correct type of publication.

If an article is returned to you, then you should realize another thing. The article might look very important to you, but that need not be the opinion of the others including the editor who rejected it. In fact most writers consider all their writings very important, but they are mistaken. Not all articles can claim such a distinction even if the most learned writer writes them. Therefore you should learn to look objectively at your writings and their importance.

HOW MUCH REJECTION TO EXPECT: if you are a beginner in this field, you should not be surprised if cent percent of your submissions are rejected for some time. Keep trying, and the results will start improving. Eventually a stage might come when less than 20% are rejected. At that stage you can rejoice that you have reached the middle level of achievement. Rejections less than this can be achieved only with great patience and practice. Also, occasionally one might be able to find a field where the experts are so few that an article submitted by an authority is not easily rejected. But this is possible only if you are an authority in some special field.

WHAT TO DO WITH THE REJECTED MANUSCRIPT: do not throw away the rejected manuscript. As I explained in the foregoing paragraphs, many a times even perfect writings are returned because of other reasons. Further, even if a submission is returned because of imperfections, it might be possible to make it better with a little effort. After all polishing a previously existing writing is easier than writing one from scratch.

IF REJECTIONS CONTINUE: You must keep submitting the rejected manuscripts to other publications, and should not accept defeat quickly. However, if a certain piece of writing is rejected more than five times, it is time for you to reevaluate that piece of writing.

No writer should be surprised if an article, story, or poem is rejected by a single publication. However, if the same piece of writing is rejected by five or more publishers then you should realize that something is seriously wrong with that piece of writing. When several people judge the writing to be unfit for publication, there might be something seriously wrong with what you have produced. First of all you must evaluate this writing to see if what you have produced has sufficient quality and merit for publication. Also, you should evaluate whether you have been submitting it to the right kind of publications. Also check whether your manuscript quality (paper, typing, etc.) are of acceptable quality. This comprehensive evaluation will surely tell you the reason for non publication.

If even this extensive evaluation does not reveal the problem to you, then obtain the help of another writer. He might be able to discover the problem and give timely advice about how you might be able to improve the work.

If even this approach shows nothing wrong with your writing, you could be the victim of circumstances. Else, your writing might be out of place or too advanced for its time. The best thing to do is to bury it in your files for few years. Once you become famous, or once that subject becomes popular, you might find a ready market for it. DO NOT ever destroy an article, story, poem, or any piece of writing that you have not been able to publish.

Even for the novice, it is foolish to destroy the product of one's labour. Further, you must always keep in mind that most of the world-famous writers had to face the same problem -- that of repeated rejection. But many of them preserved these unpublished writings in their files, and once they became famous, or once they passed away, these found a ready market. Since nobody knows what he will be tomorrow, it is best not to destroy this kind of unpublished writings.


Advance As You Gain Experience: None in his right mind expects a newborn baby to run the Marathon the next day. Yet there are writers who desire to get their first piece of writing published in the Reader's Digest. It is not only a stupid wish, but also a self defeating idea.

Whatever the field, every person has to begin from the level that is appropriate for his abilities and from there he has to work his way up to the level that he dreams of. Artists, doctors, lawyers, sportsmen, actors, and even student have to go through this process. Writers are therefore no exception. They have to begin publishing in magazines and periodicals that are appropriate for their level, and have then got to advance to higher levels as their experience increases.

Do not forget that success is not achieved in a day. It takes both time as well as experience. Aim at the level that is not too high for you and work your way up from there. The correct approach for most writers will be to start from the ground level and then work their way up to the top. This approach will ensure that you do not get unnecessary rejection slips.

The less the rejection slips that you get, the higher will be your morale. Even though you will still get several rejection slips, the few manuscripts that are accepted will boost your spirits, motivating you to write more.

What gets published at this stage will help you to evaluate your level of achievement. If more than 80% of the submissions are accepted at the first attempt itself, it is time for you now to aim higher. Focus higher, sharpen your skills, and submit to a publication with higher demands. Build up yourself with each success, and do not stop till you reach your ultimate goal.

LOCAL PUBLICATIONS: the first place for anyone to start publishing is the local newspaper, school or college magazines, handwritten magazines, souvenirs, and magazines that are run by smaller organizations. The competition here is with people of your own level, not with professionals, and therefore your chances of getting published are relatively high. There are even some "co-operative" publications where you will have to pay a small fees to get your articles, stories, or poems published. It is not too bad an idea for a beginner to contribute one or two writings to such publications.

LETTERS TO EDITORS: I mentioned before that the letters column of most newspapers and magazines is a very good place to get published. Since newspapers are published daily, you have thirty opportunities every month compared to a single opportunity per month in magazines.

Do not underestimate the letters columns. Many famous writers and crusaders started their writing career from these columns. What's more, if you are motivated to write on a controversial subject, this is the only place where you can ever hope to get published at least till you become famous.

If you are able to write brief and sensible letters regularly on important issues, try to get them published as letters in any local newspaper. Your name will soon be embedded in everyone's memory -- and this includes the memory of the editors, publishers, and the readers. This in turn will help you to publish longer articles in the same publication. Since your name is already known to them, you will get quick attention from the editor who will not easily reject your submission. The greatest benefit will be the attention you get from readers because they are already familiar with your name.

It is seen that most readers give a lot of attention to writers whose name is already known to them. This is a part of human nature. Everyone prefers talking to the familiar person in a crowd rather than striking a conversation with a total stranger. The same is the case with published material. People unconsciously read the known writer first and the rest only after that. Just as a courteous "hello" turns eventually into lifelong friendship, this approach can make you a well known and well demanded writer in few years. Further, once these readers start writing to the editor about your articles, stories, or poems, (most of them will be appreciations), your position with that publication will become more firm.

Even in the matter of writing letters to the editor, you should begin with your local newspaper rather than attempting with larger national dailies. The larger papers, obviously, receive a larger number of letters every day. Moreover, many who write to these publications are people with a mature insight into things of national importance. It is not wise to compete with them from the beginning itself.

A beginner in the field should always start with smaller publications, preferably local newspapers and then work his way up to the Letters column of larger publications.

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Original article contributed by Dr. Johnson C. Philip. Revised by:

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