Know the market & know your research

Know the industry you would like to write about the same way that you know yourself. You would be advised to keep detailed files up-to-date on the industry you want to write about where you have the information and industry knowledge to write a good quality article.

It also includes submission guidelines which you could score by signing up for a Mediabistr.com Premium membership.

Name the target market you want to break into and the name and email address of the editors who run that department. 

If they also accept pictures for their website, add the web editors to your files.

For unlimited access to your target market, sign up for texture.com account to keep track of the articles published in your industry list each headline with a sub-headline in your file and a brief description of how each article was packaged.

As each new issue launches, update your file finally, visit their websites daily or weekly, and track what they’re publishing online. 

Sure, it’s a bit cyber stalker-ish but studying your markets regularly takes the guesswork out of what you would like to pitch and who to pitch to and how to package your ideas.

But in your miles ahead of your competition, your files will become a treasure trove of information that other writers would be willing to kill for.

Getting your information

While it’s essential to subscribe to sites like science daily and Eureka alert for the latest news on studies and scientific breakthroughs, they are not the best places for new writers to find exciting stories, especially those that don’t already have a relationship with the editors.

A staff writer or a regular contributor will have written the story before you so much as decide on a lead in said visit sites like Google Scholar, Pub Med, and the Science Direct.

Search for exciting studies that haven’t hit the mainstream using keywords that best describe the topics you are most interested in writing about.

Best of all three sites let you create an alert based on your favourite keywords so you can have the latest study sent directly to your inbox on a daily or weekly basis.

Not sure if a study is worth writing about? Grab a copy of basics for evaluating medical research studies, a simple approach by Sheri Ann Strite and Michael E Stewart.

Link to my other Blog on Manuscript Formatting