Writing for nursing publications can be daunting, just getting past the submission process seems overwhelming.
So to help you have the best possible chance of not getting your article rejected, especially if you are new to the submission process, here are 3 common mistakes nurses make when submitting their article to a nursing journal, magazine, website or book publisher and how to avoid them.
- Not enough words or too many words. Word count is important because publishers know how much space they need to fill in the publication or an online page so know what the word count is and stick to it. Writing more is not going to get your article approved.
- The topic you have written about does not fit the publication. Know the audience the publication is written for. Read the publication or website you want to write for and know who their target market is. If you want to write an article for Home Healthcare Nursing you don’t want to talk about how procedures are done in a hospital setting. It would be more appropriate to talk about procedures and policies in a home care setting, right?
- Your article or manuscript is not formatted according to the publication guidelines. This may not seem like a problem for you but it is a Hugh problem for the publisher. Make sure your margins, spacing, numbering, photos, charts and tables are correct. Also be such to include those photos, graphs and charts and have permission to use these items.
Save yourself time and energy by reading and sometimes re reading the publication guidelines. It can be as simple as forgetting to include a cover letter or your contact information that gets you a rejection letter.
Nursing publications guidelines can be found on their website or inside the nursing publication.
If after following the guidelines and you still get rejected (it’s happened to me) don’t take it personally, keep moving forward and learn from it. See where you can improve and submit to the next publication, magazine or website, there’s 100’s out there.
Tina