Ever been published?

[DigiTan]

Every now and then I'll get an idea that I just need to put on paper or put out there on the web. Seeing as I haven't been too diligent in keeping my web page active in a while, I thought it would be interesting to try and get these ideas out to an electronics magazine or newsletter. And given the current economy, it wouldn't be a bad career move either. If figured the easiest place to start would be local tech clubs and newsletters, ham radio groups, and that sort of thing. Further down the road, I'd like to send some articles to the Spectrum, but I'm taking this one step at a time.

So for anyone who's ever submitted ideas to a magazine, newsletter, op-ed piece are did an outside submission in general how does one get started with that?

Books and manuscripts count too.

 

[RadioRon]

All magazines publish writer's guidelines that detail what they are looking for, some rules, and how to submit. For example, here's the instructions on how to write for Nuts and Volts Magazine.
Nuts and Volts

Here's another example, from QST Magazine:

https://www.arrl.org/qst-author-guide

Its really just a matter of writing the piece and sending it in. This applies to all kinds of print publications. So, you get started by writing what you want to write. The rest of it is less important as the writing part.

 

[Torben]

I was published in book form a few years back, but I didn't really come into the project the way you're talking about (submitting ideas); I was a member of an open-source writing team. We created the original PHP 3 manual online and then carried on with PHP 4. At one point, a fellow dropped me a line asking if I'd like to help author a book on the language, so we worked it out with the publisher and I came on board. Happily at the time I had a nice severance payout from the dot com I worked at in Finland so I was able to take a year off to write before looking for another job. Without that I don't think I'd have had the time.

But like I mentioned, I just kind of happened to be in the right place at the right time there, so that doesn't really help you.

I have often considered submitting to magazines and like Ron said, there are various ways to go about it. Some have information in the masthead about what they're looking for; some have a page or article entitled "Request for Papers" or similar; some have an address you can write to for a writer's packet, and so on. Oh yeah: check the website, too.

As a teen I was planning an article for a magazine and wrote in for a writer's kit. I got a manila envelope containing various stuff like an unsigned contract, a description of what they were looking for and a fairly comprehensive list of what they considered acceptable, what they'd pay for various things, and so on. Sadly I never completed the article so I can't tell you how it plays out.

My feeling is that most niche magazines welcome submissions.

As far as local groups go, find a web page or someone affiliated with the group and just walk up and ask them. With electronic publishing, just try checking out the Contacts page or emailing an admin. They may not be able to help directly, but they can probably point you in the right direction.


Good luck,

Torben

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

You just write an article, and post it in - I've had three articles published over the years, and never had one turned down!

It's a question of writing something you KNOW will be accepted.

 

[3iMaJ]

In terms of publishing a scholarly article here is how the process works:

Find the appropriate journal that your topic best fits with. Lets say you wanted to publish in the topic of signal processing. The best journal would then be the IEEE journal on signal processing. You can find their publication guidelines at IEEE Xplore - Signal Processing, IEEE Transactions on. Simply follow their publication guidelines with regards to formatting and specificity of what they are looking for.

Once your manuscript is complete submit the article for review. Then an editor will contact you saying something to the effect that 'we're finding people to review your paper to see if it meets our publication criteria.' After approximately 3-5 months the editor will get back to you with a decision. Either yes, no, or yes with modifications. At that point follow the instructions of the editor.

Approximately a year after that your article should show up in the signal processing journal.

It is important to note that there is different criteria for different publications. For instance if you wanted to publish an article at a conference you would find the appropriate conference and meet their publication guidelines. All of the major IEEE journals have one or many conferences. The advantage to publishing at a conference is the barriers to entry are much lower (you have to contribute less to the community to get published). Publishing a journal article is an very good achievement, as such its not simple to publish a journal article. It is much simpler to publish a conference paper though or publish with one of the other less revered journals.