An author writes for many and varied reasons, some altruistic, some selfish, some a combination. He writes to express himself, to educate, to make money (earn a living), to convince, etc. In the end, either he submits his work for publication or he locks it up in drawer. By definition, the latter can hardly be called an author, except maybe posthumously.
In any case, the author is compensated in money or some other non-monetary gratification. A publisher accepts and publishes an authors’ work for the same reasons that the author writes. He chooses and/or rejects the authors’ work based on self-serving criteria, as does the author submit his work. The criteria for publication vary from publisher to publisher.
The criteria obviously depend on the publishers’ mission statement. Nevertheless, unless the publishers’ assets are unlimited, the publishers’ overriding concern is profit, profit to continue publishing and to make a living. That is not a bad thing. It is just a fact. I have met many poor authors and I have yet to meet a poor publisher. Many poor authors have altruistic mission statements, consciously or unconsciously.
Just as a SCI-FI author would be foolish to submit his work to a home and garden publisher, so would such a publisher be foolish to accept it. The publishers’ mission statement and policy dictates what is accepted and rejected based on the publishers’ assessment of profitability.
I believe these assumptions are valid online and offline. The only difference that I see is that the online publisher delivers no hard copy to the public. The author receives no up front compensation for his work.
The publishers’ responsibilities to the author are to state, outline, or dictate his mission statement or policy. The authors’ responsibility is to determine if his work fits the publishers’ criteria. If it is mutually beneficial, then both profit. If it is not, then the publisher rejects the authors’ work or the author finds another publisher much like in the offline world.
This whole issue is complicated by the marriage between marketing and article writing. Marketing and writing are not necessarily mutually exclusive. All authors and publishers need both marketing and writing to exist. I am not referring to copywriting. To me that is another form of writing. Copywriting is advertising. It is not article writing.
So what is the emphasis and who determines the emphasis between writing and marketing? Both, the publisher and the author make that determination by choosing to participate in one another’s mission statement.
So what’s the problem? If an ezine directory sets certain policy, either I adhere to it or I find another directory. It has to be of mutual benefit to both the publisher and the author. If the directory/publisher does not fit your style of writing, just move on and find one that does.
Are your article marketing sales suffering? Learn how to write, submit, and market your articles.
