Article Writing Basics

by Linda Gilden @LindaGilden

As a fulltime freelance writer, people are often surprised when I say I love to write articles. “Articles?” they say. “How did you learn to do that? Why do you want to write articles?”

When I hear that I am amazed. I cut my writing teeth on articles. They were shorter therefore my research took less time. I could write on many different subjects and learn about things I never knew existed. In fact, when I started out the idea of writing an entire book was overwhelming.

If you are not writing articles, maybe you should.

1. Articles expand the reach of your material. You can research and recycle that research from many different angles for different and non-competing publications. I have heard it said that most magazine articles are read seven times. If you pitch to a publication with a million circulation, then your article would be read seven million times. Most books today only sell between a few hundred and a couple of thousand books—a far cry from reaching millions.

2. If you are researching a book, you can write articles using your research as you are writing. This establishes you as an expert in your field and people will be looking for the release of your book.

Articles are a great way to create additional income.

3. Articles are a great way to create additional income from your material. There are thousands of publications and websites out there looking for material. Why not create a new stream of income from your research? For many people, the pay per word for articles exceeds the pay per word of a book.

4. Once you have a book published, articles are a great marketing tool. However, don’t write articles encouraging people to buy your book. Don’t summarize your entire book. Pick one story or issue from your book. Write an article about that. You don’t need to mention your book in the article. In your bio, mention you are the author of the soon to be released book, NAME of BOOK.

5. Also include your website where they can go learn more about you and your book. Writing articles will give you a solid way to build “clips” that will help you create your portfolio. This will give you a good sampling of your work that you can share with new editors as they explore whether or not your writing is a good fit for their publication.

Articles connect you to many different sources. As you build a following, you are building readership. Each publication has a different set of readers who also have friends. If each publication’s readership looks for your book in a bookstore, you will create quite a buzz.

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Linda Gilden is a wife, mother, and grandmother. She loves to take one subject and create multiple articles from that information. Linda finds great joy (and lots of writing material) in time spend with her family. Her favorite activity is floating in a pool with a good book surrounded by splashing children!

To find out more about Linda, her writing, and her ministry, visit www.LindaGilden.com. You can also connect with her on Twitter and Facebook.