Do You Submit Articles to Ezines?

There is something I'd like to talk about... from the angle
of an ezine publisher.

That's "How to submit articles to an ezine, and get
published".

Put yourself in a publisher's shoes. How do you feel if,
one day, you receive an article submission email which ends
with "if you want remove from this list..."? I did not ask
to subscribe... for crying out loud...

~~ Do not add a publisher to any list ~~

If you have an article service list, ask the publisher to
subscribe. They normally would, if they like your works. If
they don't they won't publish your works anyway, why bother
adding them to your list.

If you have a large list of publishers and article
submission groups to send your articles, use a bulk mailing
software such as Groupmail. You can personalize the email.
And the free version can send to up to 100 recipients at a
time. That should be enough. Get a free download here...
http://eLaguna.neet/groupmail.htm

Now put yourself in a publisher's shoes again, how do you
feel when receive -- at your article submission address --
an email addressed to "dear publisher"? This person does
not mean to send article to us... just any publisher, right?

~~ Know the ezine you are submitting your article to ~~

No need to chit-chat with publishers. No need to go "I love
your ezine", etc. But a little of "hello what's up" is nice.
Personalize the email. Address publishers by name. You
should also send the kind of article the ezine publisher
is looking for. If you send an article against solo ads to
a publisher who sends more solos than the ezine, don't ever
expect to get published.

Some publishers accept ONLY article within a certain topic.
And they say so in the ezine. Please respect the rules.

Put yourself in my shoes again (I have several pairs), what
if you receive email from a certain author (who happens to
be a fast writer) everyday? Do you finally stop reading his
emails? I do.

~~ Do not submit too often ~~

I used to receive daily submission from an author. I thought
it was funny. There had been too many emails from him that I
did not read it anymore. Latest news... the poor author was
accused by some publishers for spamming! Worst thing was
he did not send the article to the article submission
address, but the publisher's contact address...

~~ Send it to the right place ~~

Be sure you send your article to the right address, with
the right subject line. Most people filter their email.
If your article does not make its way to the "articles
to read" (or whatever) folder, the possibility is that
it will never be read at all.

The other not-so-important-but-nice-to-do thing is
formatting. I take me more time to read and publish an
unformatted article. It might not get published by a
publisher who is busier than I am.

~~ Format your article ~~

To be safe, do it 55 characters per line (press the ENTER
button at the end of every line). I do not know any
publisher who publishes less than 55 chars/line. It is a
good idea to put summary of the article together with
word/line counts with your submission as well.

Each publisher has his/her rule about the format. You have
to follw it. Make it easy to read. Put more white spaces.
And use common language. The article should not be too
long or too short. I think 500 words is a nice length.

Last but not least...

How would you feel when you receive this message "Hey...
you... need some money? here's my article" Well, I can use
some money, but I just hate you for saying so. I normally
reply to these people with the information of how to order
a solo ad in my ezine.

~~ Make offer with respect ~~

If you are offering a profit sharing program, or any kind of
partnership to a publisher, do it with respect. Use terms
like "please consider...", "if you would like to...", or
such. Make publishers feel you are proposing a win-win
partnership. Do not write as if you were giving them a favor
because you actually are not! Do you need your article
published, by the way?

Consider these. Send your article again. This time be more
thougthful. Now the rest is up to the content of your works.

Good Luck, and Have Fun Writing