Writing Articles That Sell

• Above: The lovely Scarlett ..... or is it Scarlet? Maybe Scarrlet? Skarlett?

Here are five basic tips that will help you get your article accepted for publication.

1. Think of good title: This is especially important for the print media. Even if the constraints of writing headlines mean that your title is eventually changed, the purpose is to grab the attention of the editor. It's probably not so important for internet articles for this time the constraints are all to do with "keywords" and "search engine optimisation".
2. Write a killer intro (the first paragraph): Which of these is more likely to get an editor to read on? "At a meeting of Toytown Borough Council, chairman Martin Smith welcomed all the members of the public who attended," or "Free toys will be given to every child in the county as part of a Merry Christmas campaign." No matter that the first intro led into the same story, most of your readers' eyes will have glazed over by the time they read to the end of the paragraph. Take a look at a pile of magazines and read every first paragraph. What is it about them that makes you want to read on? Do they tease you? Do they include a startling piece of information? Are they bright and snappy? Well written and literary? There will be something about them that makes you want to continue reading.
3. Check your facts: Don't rely on just one article on the internet for research. How does this actress spell her name? Is it Scarlet Johanson? Scarlett Johanson? Scarlett Johannson? Scarlet Johansson? If you type any of those into a search engine, you will be directed to articles that spell her name in that way. Sometimes a piece of misinformation is published on the internet and repeated again and again. Rely on official websites, websites you can trust and trustworthy encyclopedia. If an editor spots an error of fact, it's likely that your article will come winging back to you. Incidentally, it's SCARLETT JOHANSSON!
4. Think of an original angle: Editors may receive dozens of articles on the same subject. No matter how well written and researched yours is, it won't be accepted if the subject has been done to death before. You need a twist. You may, for example, have a fine article about holidays. Trouble is, so have a lots of other people. So what can you do to make yours stand out? One solution by writer Lynn Arditi in an article I was reading recently was to start with a quiz. Her article began: "What holiday celebrates evil, death and rebirth? What is the holiday Americans feel most ambivalent about? On what holiday do the celebrants cast bread and fish into the river? Answers at the end of this report." I just had to read on!
5. Target your audience: I recently went into more detail about this in Study The Market and Hit the Target but basically, you need to ask yourself what your article aims to do. What and who are you writing for? Who is going to read it? This is important because the writing style and angle needs to be geared towards your audience.