How Do You Get Your First Article Published? My Experience

• July 3, 2018

Having articles published is a definite boost to a career. Getting your first article published stimulates your writing efforts and establishes more credibility with your clients.

My first article published after graduate school

I always enjoyed reading books and creative writing classes I took in high school. When I was in graduate school, I took a course that involved interviewing people with various psychological disturbances. One of the people who came in was a battered wife who had been paralyzed by her spouse. I was intrigued by why she stayed in that relationship and decided to do my paper for the course on domestic violence.

My nursing professor said to me, “This is a great paper. You ought to turn it into an article.” I said, “How do I do that?” The professor explained a little bit of the process: Find a journal in my field, look at the writing style, review the requirements for submitting an article for publication, and send it in to the journal.

Unrecognizable article

After I sent in my article and it was accepted, someone copyedited it to the point that I couldn’t find a single sentence that I had written. I was surprised and found out later that was the style of that particular journal, although, not a universal practice. The journal published my article in 1980. The experience of having my first article published encouraged me to keep writing.

Additional articles

The second article that I wrote flowed from a paper that I presented at the American Diabetes Association Annual Conference on pregnancy and diabetes which was based on work I did in graduate school. The Association’s editor asked me to take the abstract and turn it into an article for the journal.

Next, I poured my heart into a third article about my experiences having a premature baby. I explained the circumstances of my first son’s birth and included advice to parents who were going through a similar experience. I also provided advice to nurses who were taking care of such patients, and that article was accepted for publication. I have continued to write ever since.

People in the C Suite are in an ideal situation to write articles. Today, we can all be publishers of our thoughts and share expertise in blogs, either our own or as a guest blogger.

What can you write about?

What are the innovations making a difference in your business? What can you share that positions yourself as a thought leader? How can you influence your industry by what you’ve learned to be true?

Think strategically and creatively and then start writing.

Pat Iyer is a ghostwriter and editor. Reach her through editingmybook.com.