Follow these guidelines to ensure your articles see light of the day

We’ve often discussed the rules of good writing to ensure that your contributions are published. PHOTO | FABIAN IRSARA | UNSPLASH

What you need to know:

  • Some readers, I must add, gloat over the fact that the articles they also send to other newspapers are published there but rejected by the Nation.

  • What they forget is that the Nation has higher publication standards, is more influential and receives, by far, more contributions.

We’ve often discussed the rules of good writing to ensure that your contributions are published. These have been mainly on ensuring your writing is clear, interesting and on-topic.

There are other rules that are about good ethical behaviour, professionalism and honesty. I want to talk about two of them as my end-of-the-year tips on how to get your contributions, including letters to the Editor and press releases, favourably considered for publication.

UNDUE INFLUENCE

First tip: Avoid employing undue influence to get your articles published – that is, using a staff member to influence the editorial decision. The staffer could be in adverting, administration or editorial departments.

Some contributors use such staffers to channel their articles to the editor. The staffer may or may not add sweet-talk or wheedling words to get it published but it’s still unethical. It might work for a while but boomerang on you; professional editors resent such methods.

Not so long ago, an editor sent a general warning to staffers who act as such agents for contributors. And a few days ago, another took exception to having a contributor send his article through the advertising department. “Please note that you have contacted the print advertising department. If you wish to have it as an article, kindly contact our editorial department,” the editor said, hardly hiding her resentment.

OFFICIAL CHANNELS

The object lesson here is, send your articles through the official channels. Using undue influence is not acceptable or sustainable; only good writing is. Do not send your contribution through proxies.

There are, of course, exceptions, but there is no need for me to discuss them here.

Second tip: Do not send multiple copies of your contributions “as that causes confusion and even reduces the chances of their being published”, according to the Daily Nation Opinion Editor Mwiti Marete. Nor does the Nation “repeat publication of articles”, he says in reference to a reader who had sent the same letter that had been published.

Mr Marete also advises readers not to send copies of their letters to other media as the Nation does not knowingly publish letters that have run elsewhere. Letters waiting to be published are rejected if they appear in other newspapers.

MORE INFLUENTIAL

Some readers, I must add, gloat over the fact that the articles they also send to other newspapers are published there but rejected by the Nation. What they forget is that the Nation has higher publication standards, is more influential and receives, by far, more contributions. The editor is forced to reject some contributions for lack of space.

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