Over in the middle column you'll see some links that don't seem to belong in a blog about books. But in many cases, articles make excellent steppingstones to full-length books.
First of all, they're cost-effective: It doesn't take too long to write an article of perhaps 1200 words. Even in a tough economy, magazines, newspapers, trade journals, and online media still need content. If you're writing within your field of expertise, trade and specialist periodicals will be happy to publish you.
Even if they pay little or nothing, it's still cost-effective: You're reaching readers who are potential customers for your book. With luck you could become a regular contributor, building a readership that looks forward to your next article.
Second, your articles demonstrate something to potential publishers: You can write about something that people want to read about. When you pitch them with your book idea, you can cite your articles as part of your writing background.
Your articles may be on some technical subject, but they don't have to be. If you're writing a family memoir, and the local community paper runs some excerpts about your grandparents in the 1930s, those articles could interest a publisher specializing in local and regional history.
Third, if you write enough articles, and the structure of your book permits it, writing the book itself is largely a matter of dragging the articles out of your Freelancing folder into your Chapters folder. You may need to update some items, and cut or expand, but it's a lot faster and easier than writing the book from scratch.
So my book's going to include some fairly practical advice on writing and publishing articles that you can convert into chapters.
Recent Comments