How To Get Published: Giving Editors What They Need Is Key To Success

Before approaching an editor to propose an article, you “must be familiar with the publication being targeted and should know the kinds of articles that it uses,” according to Jayne K. Lease, a senior development editor with Aspen Publishers in Manhattan. “Lawyers do not have to research months and months of back issues,” Lease adds, “but should have a feel for what the editor likes and does not like to publish.”

Editors can be reached via letter, phone or e-mail. Although different editors have different preferences, Lease appreciates phone calls from interested authors. “Letters are not likely to catch my attention, and e-mail can be too easy to ignore,” she says. When contacting an editor to pitch an article, you should be prepared to sell the article to the editor. Kevin Aschenbrenner, a senior account executive for Washington, DC-based Jaffe Associates, always has “at least one paragraph about a possible article” to explain it to an editor, with quotes from the proposed lawyer/author “regarding the tone, angle and main issues that the article will cover.” Aschenbrenner also gives the editor a short bio of his client. This combination of information means that the editor “has an idea as to what he or she is going to get from me” and how it will fit in with the balance of the publication. This method, Aschenbrenner says, “provides editors with as much information as possible so they will choose my client and make their jobs as easy as possible.”

Editorial Guidelines

Once an editor approves an idea for an article, you need to ascertain how the article should be written and submitted. Ask for a publication's editorial guidelines. These guidelines explain the minimum and maximum length of an article, the preferred tone ' such as newsy, folksy, or legalistic style ' and whether the article should be written in a first-person or third-person format.

Written guidelines also let you know whether to include citations in the texts or to use footnotes or endnotes. Carefully following these guidelines can limit the amount of editing your articles are subjected to, thus decreasing the editor's workload, shortening the lead time to publication and increasing the probability that you'll be pleased with the finished product.

Guidelines also explain how to submit an article once it's ready for publication. Typically, editors want electronic submission, although some also want a hard copy, especially if you've included charts or graphs. Hard copy submissions also help prevent errors that might occur when you create a document using one software package and it's edited using a different one. Ask the editor which software program they use. If you're submitting to someone who works with Word 97, for example, then you should use the same format if possible.

Drafts And Deadlines

You may want to send the editor a draft of the article in advance of the final version. Aschenbrenner believes this can be helpful, if you're “at all concerned that the article is outside the bounds” of what was agreed to, and what the editor expects to receive. Lease concurs: a draft article might be useful “to see if it is on-target and printable.” If you're sending a draft, do so well in advance of your final deadline. This gives the editor time to review the draft, and allows you to incorporate comments and finalize the article by the deadline. You should only send drafts to editors you know well and who have a reputation for being careful ' you wouldn't want a draft to be published in error.

Meeting agreed-upon deadlines is crucial. Editors have to fill their publications with sufficient articles to be able to retain their subscribers and satisfy their advertisers. When an author who has committed to provide an article by a certain date fails to do so, the editor may have to scramble to fill a large hole ' and may be unable to fill that hole satisfactorily in every instance. According to Aschenbrenner, meeting a deadline is “so important” that lawyers who fail to do so can jeopardize their relationship with an editor. Late submissions can harm the relationship the lawyer's firm may have with an editor and, if the lawyer is working through a publicist, can affect the publicist's relationship as well.

Rights Forms

Publication decisions can only be made after an editor reviews the final version of an article. You can expect to hear from editors when an article is accepted for publication. At this time, most editors will send authors a rights form transferring the copyright of the article to the publisher.

Aschenbrenner believes rights forms “should not deter an attorney” from writing articles. He suggests authors “recognize that there is a tradeoff” ' the copyright to the article for the opportunity to have it published. This should not be a problem, he adds, when publishers permit authors to make reprints of their published articles and to place them on their firm's Web site.

Page Proofs

At this stage, editors do what their title implies ' they edit. An editor, as Lease points out, “is a professional trying to do a job by making the article better.” Unlike an author, the editor is not personally involved with a particular article. The editor's changes are meant to conform the article to house style and to make it clearer and more understandable to readers. Having an article printed by an outside publisher is different from having an article run in a firm newsletter. Although you may have complete control over your firm newsletter, you don't have that power over a publisher. If you're unwilling to permit editing, you should seriously question whether you want to write articles for outside publishers in the first place.

Some publications permit authors to review edited page proofs of their articles prior to publication, while some do not. In Aschenbrenner's experience, you're more likely to be able to review page proofs of an article you wrote than of an interview you granted. Many editors will not even send page proofs at all. You can request them, but shouldn't be troubled if an editor declines to provide page proofs.

When page proofs are circulated to authors, time is short. This is true no matter how long the editor may already have had your article. At this point, editors may only be able to correct typos and to make changes reflecting developments in the law since the article was submitted. You're “not able to edit the page proofs back to the way the lawyer wrote the article,” Lease says. Aschenbrenner agrees that “the only things to raise flags about are things that happened in the editing process that the lawyer does not agree with. It is not the time to rewrite the piece.”

Follow-up

Finally, publication arrives. Editors typically send copies of the publication to their contributing authors. More and more often, editors also are willing to send electronic files that can be used to make reprints, either at no cost or minimal cost.

By the time your article is published, the editor has already moved on to the next issue of the publication and to other publications he or she may handle. You should be considering your next article, too. If the editor was pleased with the process and the final product, and you have begun to develop a good working relationship, you might pitch the idea for another article and begin the process again. It is easier for all the second time around.

When a lawyer writes an article, he or she has to interact with the editor of the publication in which it is going to be printed. The better the relationship between the editor and the author, the more likely the process is going to flow smoothly for both. The relationship can be improved when you ' or attorneys in your firm ' understand what editors provide, recognize that editors are paid professionals with a lot to do every day, and treat them with respect from the initial discussion through publication of the article.

First Contact

When you have an idea for a proposed article, the first step should be to contact the editor of an appropriate publication to see if there's interest. It's not a good idea to write an article first and then find a “home” for it. For one thing, an article as written might not fit what a particular publication seeks; it may be too long, or it may be written in the wrong style. It's also possible that you may write an article but then be unable to find any publication interested in publishing it; thus wasting a lot of time and effort.

Before approaching an editor to propose an article, you “must be familiar with the publication being targeted and should know the kinds of articles that it uses,” according to Jayne K. Lease, a senior development editor with Aspen Publishers in Manhattan. “Lawyers do not have to research months and months of back issues,” Lease adds, “but should have a feel for what the editor likes and does not like to publish.”

Editors can be reached via letter, phone or e-mail. Although different editors have different preferences, Lease appreciates phone calls from interested authors. “Letters are not likely to catch my attention, and e-mail can be too easy to ignore,” she says. When contacting an editor to pitch an article, you should be prepared to sell the article to the editor. Kevin Aschenbrenner, a senior account executive for Washington, DC-based Jaffe Associates, always has “at least one paragraph about a possible article” to explain it to an editor, with quotes from the proposed lawyer/author “regarding the tone, angle and main issues that the article will cover.” Aschenbrenner also gives the editor a short bio of his client. This combination of information means that the editor “has an idea as to what he or she is going to get from me” and how it will fit in with the balance of the publication. This method, Aschenbrenner says, “provides editors with as much information as possible so they will choose my client and make their jobs as easy as possible.”

Editorial Guidelines

Once an editor approves an idea for an article, you need to ascertain how the article should be written and submitted. Ask for a publication's editorial guidelines. These guidelines explain the minimum and maximum length of an article, the preferred tone ' such as newsy, folksy, or legalistic style ' and whether the article should be written in a first-person or third-person format.

Written guidelines also let you know whether to include citations in the texts or to use footnotes or endnotes. Carefully following these guidelines can limit the amount of editing your articles are subjected to, thus decreasing the editor's workload, shortening the lead time to publication and increasing the probability that you'll be pleased with the finished product.

Guidelines also explain how to submit an article once it's ready for publication. Typically, editors want electronic submission, although some also want a hard copy, especially if you've included charts or graphs. Hard copy submissions also help prevent errors that might occur when you create a document using one software package and it's edited using a different one. Ask the editor which software program they use. If you're submitting to someone who works with Word 97, for example, then you should use the same format if possible.

Drafts And Deadlines

You may want to send the editor a draft of the article in advance of the final version. Aschenbrenner believes this can be helpful, if you're “at all concerned that the article is outside the bounds” of what was agreed to, and what the editor expects to receive. Lease concurs: a draft article might be useful “to see if it is on-target and printable.” If you're sending a draft, do so well in advance of your final deadline. This gives the editor time to review the draft, and allows you to incorporate comments and finalize the article by the deadline. You should only send drafts to editors you know well and who have a reputation for being careful ' you wouldn't want a draft to be published in error.

Meeting agreed-upon deadlines is crucial. Editors have to fill their publications with sufficient articles to be able to retain their subscribers and satisfy their advertisers. When an author who has committed to provide an article by a certain date fails to do so, the editor may have to scramble to fill a large hole ' and may be unable to fill that hole satisfactorily in every instance. According to Aschenbrenner, meeting a deadline is “so important” that lawyers who fail to do so can jeopardize their relationship with an editor. Late submissions can harm the relationship the lawyer's firm may have with an editor and, if the lawyer is working through a publicist, can affect the publicist's relationship as well.

Rights Forms

Publication decisions can only be made after an editor reviews the final version of an article. You can expect to hear from editors when an article is accepted for publication. At this time, most editors will send authors a rights form transferring the copyright of the article to the publisher.

Aschenbrenner believes rights forms “should not deter an attorney” from writing articles. He suggests authors “recognize that there is a tradeoff” ' the copyright to the article for the opportunity to have it published. This should not be a problem, he adds, when publishers permit authors to make reprints of their published articles and to place them on their firm's Web site.

Page Proofs

At this stage, editors do what their title implies ' they edit. An editor, as Lease points out, “is a professional trying to do a job by making the article better.” Unlike an author, the editor is not personally involved with a particular article. The editor's changes are meant to conform the article to house style and to make it clearer and more understandable to readers. Having an article printed by an outside publisher is different from having an article run in a firm newsletter. Although you may have complete control over your firm newsletter, you don't have that power over a publisher. If you're unwilling to permit editing, you should seriously question whether you want to write articles for outside publishers in the first place.

Some publications permit authors to review edited page proofs of their articles prior to publication, while some do not. In Aschenbrenner's experience, you're more likely to be able to review page proofs of an article you wrote than of an interview you granted. Many editors will not even send page proofs at all. You can request them, but shouldn't be troubled if an editor declines to provide page proofs.

When page proofs are circulated to authors, time is short. This is true no matter how long the editor may already have had your article. At this point, editors may only be able to correct typos and to make changes reflecting developments in the law since the article was submitted. You're “not able to edit the page proofs back to the way the lawyer wrote the article,” Lease says. Aschenbrenner agrees that “the only things to raise flags about are things that happened in the editing process that the lawyer does not agree with. It is not the time to rewrite the piece.”

Follow-up

Finally, publication arrives. Editors typically send copies of the publication to their contributing authors. More and more often, editors also are willing to send electronic files that can be used to make reprints, either at no cost or minimal cost.

By the time your article is published, the editor has already moved on to the next issue of the publication and to other publications he or she may handle. You should be considering your next article, too. If the editor was pleased with the process and the final product, and you have begun to develop a good working relationship, you might pitch the idea for another article and begin the process again. It is easier for all the second time around.