How to be successful once your writing has been published

If you’ve been successful at getting published, here’s where the real work begins...

Stay a step ahead:

In my professional life as a business consultant, I write business plans and coach professionals. Through my practice at Retail Consulting Solutions, I have found the clients who stay a step ahead are far more successful then those who scatter-shoot from day-to-day.

You can apply this to writing by staying a step-ahead of deadlines (whether for your own blog or for another publication) by writing your piece(s) a day or two before being submitted or published to your blog. Moreover, you’ll have more time to do research and be able to proofread your work before sending it on its way.

Look for trends that fit your writing style and subject matter:

Google Trends and Yahoo Buzz are a great place to find what people are searching for, but they, along with headlines found on news sites can also identify trends that fit your writing style and subject matter. If you’re writing about spousal relationships, the economy certainly plays a role in that area. Your writing ought to reflect current events and help readers to find information.

It will also keep you relevant, even though you’re writing about the same material. Publishers like to see such consistency with an up-to-date edge.

Continue to network and promote yourself:

Take a look around next time your in the checkout line at the grocery store. Magazines galore encircle the line: fashion, gossip, health, entertainment, and news and politics – they all have a website and they all need content!

Once you’ve been published by an established, heavily trafficked website or widely circulated magazine, use your credentials to land the next publishing. Don’t be afraid to use each outlet at your disposal to promote yourself and your writing.

Determine your writing’s marketability and expand your audience:

Though I had been published prior, while writing Cyclopedia Music Theory, I networked not only among my music peers but lay people as well – how better else to determine the book’s marketability? If a lay person can read and understand it, then it would be far more attractive to a publisher.

What’s more, it showed me that lay people who were turned off by the complexity of music theory would be willing to take the plunge if they were given an alternative explanation. For this reason, I wrote-in the musicology of five contemporary genres to attract even more readers.

Use past writings for future publication:

Depending on the rights you gave for your first publication, you can use past writings to sell to future potential publishers if you’re willing to update the piece and give a bit of a makeover. While you don’t want to change the overall meaning, you want the piece to appear fresh and relevant to the audience.