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10 Steps to First Getting Published
by Desiree Goris

You spend your days jotting down story ideas on napkins and snippets of paper while at night you dream of seeing your name in print.  You have all these great ideas but you have no publishing credits.  It is frustrating to read submission guidelines and see the dreaded: “Please include at least 3 clips.”  Clips?  You mean pieces that have been published?  How are you supposed to get published if you are supposed to already be published?  Here are 10 steps that will get you published.

Step 1: Find your Inspiration

The easiest stories and articles to write are the ones about something that already interests you.  Are you a die-hard baseball fan?  You could write any number of articles about teams, players, stadiums, the history of the sport, etc.  Did you take a trip to NY to visit Yankee stadium?  You could write a travel article about NY.  Did you make friends with a cab driver?  You could write an article about the secret lives of cabbies.  You are only limited by your imagination.  Carry a notebook around for spontaneous ideas.  Then later on when you need an idea or find an outlet for one of your stories you can go back to your notebook.  Make it a habit of once a week or once a month writing down any and all ideas.  Brainstorm for an hour and jot down everything no matter how obscure or how far on a tangent you get.  You would be surprised how many spontaneous ideas later develop into great articles or stories.  Take what you like and what you know and make it into something great. 

Step 2: Research

So you now have a notebook full of ideas.  Which do you develop?  Star with the stories that need very little extra research.  A travel article about NY, for example would need just a few concrete facts about the city on top of the things discovered there on vacation.  This is where the Internet is a wonderful resource.  There are literally thousands of viable websites about New York.  Your local library is also a great resource.  Adding a few facts fleshes out an article or a fiction story and makes it more marketable and believable.  Outline a few articles and short stories to come back to later.

Step 3: Search for Markets

You have your ideas and you’ve developed several into outlines.  So where do you begin trying to submit your ideas?  Overall it is easier to be accepted for publication in an E-zine or website.  Many are very open to new writers and some even encourage first time submitters.  Go on an Internet search engine such as Google and search for travel e-zines for the NY article.  Or try starting out with a writing website such as writing-world.com or writergazette.com that has links to numerous helpful resources.  You’ll quickly find that one site leads to another.  Print out submission guidelines for any and all possible places to submit to.  There are sites for flash fiction, poetry, how-to guides, articles, etc.  Find the ones that seem most likely to accept one of your pieces or the ones most open to new writers. 

Step 4:  Create and Prepare

You now have a few potential places to submit your work.  The next step is creating the basic documents that will take you through the submission process. You need a brief bio and a generic query letter that you can use as a template.  Many places will require this information before they will look at your article or story.  This also saves you time.  You can query for an article that you just jotted some ideas down for without taking the time to complete the article. You can also query numerous places for the same article and see which one is interested.  Then when you complete the article you can adjust it to suit the publication.  Again the Internet is a great resource for help on writing your bio and query letters. 

Step 5: Submit, submit, submit.

On average it takes about 2 months for a response to your submission.  So if you are continually submitting you’ll be continually getting responses and hopefully numerous acceptances.  Before you know it you’ll have several publishing credits to your name.  The key is to keep submitting.  Try different markets and different subjects.  Not only will this be sharpening your skills with all the practice, it will get you in the habit of submitting.  Then when you do get those rejection letters, which you will, you will still have so many other projects under consideration.  It is not like you were counting on that one piece, you will have several out there.  Get out your notebook and keep trying. 

Step 6:  Be prepared for rejection

You will get rejected.  Everyone does on a continual basis.  Something that your mom thought was fabulous might not work for a particular magazine.  Sometimes all it takes is to try a different magazine or website.  What does not work for one could fit perfectly with another.  It also helps to do the research.  If a magazine does not accept fictional anecdotes for example, don’t send them an article about the time you cracked your tooth.  Review the submission guidelines carefully.  Some places receive so many submissions that they will just delete any that don’t follow their format.  You do not want a rejection letter because you didn’t stick to the word length requirement or you used 10 pt font instead of 12.  Most importantly, don’t let the rejections discourage you from writing.  They are just a part of it.  Laugh them off, burn them, and learn from them.

Step 7:  Join a writing group

You have written, you’ve prepared, you’ve submitted.  Now you are waiting, writing more, and submitting again.  In the meantime it doesn’t hurt to be honing your craft.  Writing groups are a great way to do this with specialized feedback.  It gives you a place to share your work and make it better.  This also gives you a great place to make contacts.  Sometimes writing groups contain editors and published authors.  Someone could refer you to just the right person or send your work on to a key individual.  If nothing else, writing groups are a great way to boost your ego with positive reinforcement.  It’s nice to hear people tell you how great your work is.  Try searching for groups in your area on local websites and on Yahoo groups.

Step 8: Promote yourself

You do not have a fairy godmother that will waive her wand and magically make you an accomplished and published writer.  You have to promote yourself and impress the people who are interested in your work.  So you don’t have anything published yet.  Instead of attaching unpublished clips to a submission you could send a link to your website.  Several websites will host your personal site for free including Yahoo geocities and thefreewebhosting.com.  You can easily set up a professional site with links to samples of your work.  This also gives you a place to show off your published work later. 

Step 9: Write, write, write

If you’ve chosen to be a writer you’re not doing it for the money but because you love it.  It’s easy to get caught up in the process with research, submissions, rejections, etc.  It’s important to remember that you’re doing it for pleasure too.  You can never write enough.  You could use an article years later when you find it ties into something else.  The best chances for getting published are to submit a lot and this means writing a lot.  Carry around paper or put note pads in places where ideas seem to strike the most.  The more you write and submit, the more chances of getting published. 

Step 10: Enjoy your successes

You’ve done it!  You have heard back from one of the places you submitted to and they want to publish your article. Congratulations!  Celebrate your success and relish the accomplishment.  If you could do it once, you can do it again.  Put a link to your published piece on your website.  Update your resume to reflect your new status as a published author.  Turn this one success into many.  See if the same place would be interested in more of your work.  It’s a long journey but with the right tools and following these steps you will get published.

Copyright 2005 Desiree Goris. All Rights Reserved.

Desiree Goris is a resident of Las Vegas where she graduated from UNLV in 2002 with her BA in English.  She spends her days in the financial world while pursuing her dream of writing at night.  When she is not desk-bound she enjoys exploring Vegas with her boyfriend and mischievous dog, Luke.  See more of her work and drop her a line by visiting her website at www.geocities.com/desireegoris