~~ Send it to right place ~~

Be sure you send your article to right address, with right subject line. Most people filter their email. If your article does not make its way to "articles to read" (or whatever) folder, possibility is that it will never be read at all.

The other not-so-important-but-nice-to-do thing is formatting. I take me more time to read and publish an unformatted article. It might not get published by a publisher who is busier than I am.

~~ Format your article ~~

To be safe, do it 55 characters per line (press ENTER button at end of every line). I do not know any publisher who publishes less than 55 chars/line. It is a good idea to put summary of article together with word/line counts with your submission as well.

Each publisher has his/her rule about format. You have to follw it. Make it easy to read. Put more white spaces. And use common language. The article should not be too long or too short. I think 500 words is a nice length.

Last but not least...

How would you feel when you receive this message "Hey... you... need some money? here's my article" Well, I can use some money, but I just hate you for saying so. I normally reply to these people with information of how to order a solo ad in my ezine.

~~ Make offer with respect ~~

If you are offering a profit sharing program, or any kind of partnership to a publisher, do it with respect. Use terms like "please consider...", "if you would like to...", or such. Make publishers feel you are proposing a win-win partnership. Do not write as if you were giving them a favor because you actually are not! Do you need your article published, by way?

Consider these. Send your article again. This time be more thougthful. Now rest is up to content of your works.

Good Luck, and Have Fun Writing

It is jarring to a reader to encounter tense changes such ones in this paragraph:

"We started our business in 1995. We sold and serviced vacuum cleaners. My brother and I do everything ourselves."

The sentence would be better if written like this:

"We started our business in 1995. We sold and serviced vacuum cleaners. My brother and I did everything ourselves."

Use Consistent Spellings and Punctuation

Certain words or terms can be written correctly in more than one way. For example, "ecommerce" and "e-commerce" are both correct. The key is to pick one spelling and use it consistently throughout document.

Similarly, Jane Doe, MD and Jane Doe, M.D. are both correct. Again, you want to pick one usage and use it consistently.

If you're using numbers, decide whether to use number signs or to spell out word. It's a common practice to spell out numbers under ten and to use numerical signs for numbers over ten. i.e. We have eight employees." Or "We have 28 employees."

Limit use of Adverbs and Adjectives

Business writing is improved when adverbs and adjectives are removed or used sparingly.

For example, "Our new facility is very, very spacious" is better written as, "Our new facility is spacious."

"Our spacious, new facility really meets our needs," is better written as, "Our spacious facility meets our needs."

And, most importantly of all:

Strive for Clarity

Be clear about your message. Identify main point you want to make for entire document, then condense that point into one sentence. You might use that one sentence, or you might not. But you MUST decide what it is. If you have not formulated this one point in your own mind, your writing will not portray most important thing you want to communicate.

For example, what is one main message I want to communicate with this article? It is sentence #1.

"You can contribute significantly to your business' success by developing your writing skills."