TO GET BIG ARTICLES PUBLISHED, DON'T START BY WRITING IT!

By JournalistPR (www.journalistpr.com)*

Want to arrange major articles or interviews in major media? To start with: Don't write it. What you don't want is to labor over a manuscript and then find yourself trying wildly to find someone to publish it.

Fact is, you can't write for the major media. They'll do their own reporting and writing. So how do you go about it?

Here's advice from a group which has netted 16 cover stories this year alone:

• First, study what they're publishing.
• Second, match the tone of what they're publishing with your own story proposal. Write a nugget of about three lines with your article or interview suggestion -- in the same tone and format as what they are publishing.
• Then telephone and find a reporter or editor who works on subjects like yours. You can find this target person by studying the publication. Now, ask the reporter or editor, "Got three minutes for a story idea?" Almost always the answer will be yes.
• Now, say your nugget. You can read it if you must, and this has the virtue of keeping you brief and on target. If you do read it, try to make it sound ad libbed. But keep it brief.
• Having communicated your nugget -- your story idea -- ask if he or she would like to do the story.

You'll need to make several calls. Two out of three editors or writers will tell you it doesn't fit just now, or they aren't interested, or the angle doesn't fit them. But notice what this says: that if you make three calls, you're likely to find one magical person who will go for your story.

Then follow up endlessly. Don't give up. We've had cover stories require four months of reminders, of tweaking the proposal, of jogging the editor or writer in the friendliest possible way.

It truly works!

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*JournalistPR is the only agency employing only newsroom-trained people (they've worked for The New York Times, United Press International, The San Francisco Examiner, Cleveland Plain Dealer, and others). The group is expert at arranging major articles and interviews for its clients. Its mantra is: To get major publicity steadily, be sure you have journalists talking to journalists!