Six tips for getting columns published, from a very new writer...
If I learned anything at Harvard Business School, it was that your talent means nothing if no one knows about it[i]. I’m brutally learning this lesson again as a writer.
I say this not to humble-brag about my writing abilities, but to highlight that being able to write is not a sufficient condition for getting published and read. Supportive friends compliment me on my pieces, and their encouragement even led to a job interview to write for the Economist. Yet my publishing in the wider world since I started writing daily over two months ago has been limited to three Letters in the FT and the Economist, and a piece with Infrastructure Investor, an industry publication.
My efforts have been admittedly lacklustre – I have been more excited to write than about the admin of writing, and self-promotion makes me uneasy. Yet through my conversations with friends and writers, I’ve already learned of techniques to get my work out there and need to practice them more. For those who are interested in writing and getting published, today I’m sharing my lessons learned so far.
Pitch your work. Relentlessly, yet efficiently – like investors, writers are in the business of generating ideas, and editors need ideas to bring to their editorial meetings each day. They are also busy people. You make their life easier by giving them the headline and three points for why they should run the piece, especially if they receive it in the morning before ~10am. They usually don’t want to receive complete pieces so that they can shape the idea, thus investing time in writing the piece first is unhelpful. You can also highlight why you are best placed to write the piece by using your professional history for credibility, but there’s no need to overdo it. Your specialist knowledge should come through in the points you are making rather than providing extra details of your CV.
Get on Twitter/X – all the big editors and writers are on here. Tweeting your views to them or getting in touch via that platform is more effective than LinkedIn in the writing world.
Start with smaller publications – if the big hitter news outlets are not interested in your work because of your low profile, getting published elsewhere first can raise it and give you credibility as a writer.
If promoting on LinkedIn/Twitter, lead with your ideas – I had been posting links to my articles on LinkedIn expecting them to be read, but my posts were all wrong. A friend advised me today to lead with an exciting fact, your key arguments, and only then provide the article link. Don’t forget the hashtags, which help you show up on feeds for particular topics. And don’t post in the evening or on the weekends when no-one is online - the best time of day is before 11am from Tuesday to Thursday.
Send your work to people you want to read it – even though I know many infrastructure investors who focus on the UK, I sent my article on Great British Energy to approximately zero of them. I assumed they would read it as part of their subscription to the publication, or see it on my LinkedIn – but I was wrong. A friend reminded me that sending out articles is a great opener to rekindle old conversations, remind someone that you know what you’re talking about, and may actually be useful to them, not just a shameless plug.
Write regularly and often – I can’t say enough that committing to write every day or week is powerful for developing your skill and generating ideas. For those that want to write, you simply need to start. Accountability among friends or respected peers also helps for receiving feedback on your style and grammatical knowledge[ii], or even just to remind yourself that your work must be of a certain quality to reach even that small audience.
If you have any advice for me or resources to consult as I continue on the writer’s journey, or if you just want to talk about writing, please do reach out!
[i] This is not 100% true if you believe talent has intrinsic value, but for the sake of argument, humour me.
[ii] Thank you to my reader who reminded me of the difference between using ‘that’ and ‘which’, I think of this often.
Can you share the difference you mentioned between the use of that and which?
Might be a stretch / not applicable to your objectives, but Benjamin Franklin - a prolific writer - resorted to the use of pseudonyms throughout his career and especially at his early days to get the Stuff Ben Wrote published. The success came from really embodying the characters he created with excruciating detail, such that the editors and readers truly felt the psyche of such characters in the way he wrote.