The Article Writing Process
What is a Typical Article Like?
There really is no "typical" in the sense that our articles all fit into the same mold, but there are some general standards that we like to follow. First, most of our articles are between 1000 and 2000 words in length (that's about 2 - 3 average pages in Microsoft Word, figures not included). We've found that when articles get much longer than that, our readers lose interest, probably because it's a bit more difficult to read online. Plus, readers' attention span is shorter online than with traditional books.
Figures and screen shots are encouraged, but not required. If they effectively illustrate a point being made in the text, they can be helpful. If they simply fill space by showing each dialog box in a simple installation process, it's best to skip over them.
The article "type" should be clear at the beginning. Is it a tutorial that will walk readers through a step-by-step process for learning a skill? Is it an overview of a new technology meant to serve as a reference? Most articles will fit into one of these article types, and some will even mix the two types together (for instance, it's not uncommon for an informational article to also include some step-by-step instructions). The important thing to remember is that the type of article should be determined in advance to keep the writing focused and organized.
We do not require the use of a specific word processor or require our authors to follow strict formatting standards. You can use the tools you are most familiar with to do your writing, and we will work with you within reason. Most of our authors use Microsoft Word, but we do a lot of work with Open Office, HTML, and occasionally even text editors. We prefer Word because of its editing and revision features, but we do not require it. Screen shots should be JPG, PNG, or TIF files. No GIFs will be accepted. All screen shots must be submitted separately from the article document (i.e. do no embed the figures into Word), and they all must be clearly named (fig01, fig02, etc). The article itself should have callouts noting where the figures should be placed.
What is the Writing Process Like?
The first step in writing an article is to come up with an idea. What is your topic? What do you want to show or teach readers? Why do they need to know this, and can they get this information anywhere else? Write this up in a brief (a few paragraphs) proposal. An outline of the specific points you plan on addressing is helpful for the acquisitions editor to determine if you are going to cover all of the "important" points, and it is also helpful in organizing your thoughts before you start writing.
When the acquisitions editor has approved the topic, a contract will be drawn up covering due dates, payment, and assignment of rights (among other things). Then the fun (the actual writing) begins! Your InformIT editor will be your main point of contact throughout the writing process, so feel free to call or email them with questions along the way.
When complete, you will send the article to your InformIT editor. The acquisitions editor will read over it to make sure it is acceptable. If not, it will be sent back for further work. If it meets expectations, it will be sent to another editor who will develop it (suggest adjustments to improve organization, "flow," and overall readability), copy edit it (correct spelling and grammar mistakes), and return it to you for review. This author review period gives you a chance to review all of the editor's changes to make sure they don't affect the meaning of any sections or otherwise negatively affect your voice. We prefer to leave the author's voice in tact instead of forcing everyone into a standard voice for all of our articles, so usually the changes in editing are minor and can be reviewed and approved in a very short amount of time.
Once author review is complete and you have returned the article to the editor, you are basically finished! The editor will then clean up the document, format it to our standards, and send it back to us for conversion and posting. We will submit an invoice for payment and notify you when the article has posted (so you can tell all of your friends and send the URL to your mom).
When Will My Article Post on InformIT?
Once the editor returns the article to us, we will submit it to our conversion team. When it has been converted to HTML, it will be loaded into our database. Your InformIT editor will then do a quick QA check to make sure the conversion process went smoothly.
Typically it takes 3-4 weeks from the time an article is submitted until it "goes live." We feel the editing and QA steps ensure that your article is presented professionally and meets higher quality standards than competing publications. Time to post may be longer than average if there are other articles ahead of yours in our queue. However, we can speed the process along in order to post content that is particularly newsworthy or only has a small window of opportunity to be matched with an event or product release. Please let your InformIT editor know if your article needs to be on a special schedule. We are a website, after all, and it is possible to post content within 24 hours of receiving it if needed.
What Else Do You Need?
There are a few other very important items we'll need you to send us along with your article:
- —A short biography (one or two paragraphs is usually adequate)
- —A photo (personalize your article by letting readers know you're a real person!)
- —An introduction (a short description of the article used to promote the article on InformIT and our partner sites)