How To Get Submissions

Posted in Local Editor Resources on September 9, 2002

Angie Richardson, Spirit of 76 editor, recently posted this to the editors’ e-list. Whether you’re a new editor looking for tips on getting started, or an old editor in need of new ideas, Angie’s suggestions are sure to do the trick. Of course, Angie reminded us the number one thing that works best for getting submissions is this: “Create a fun, interesting, newsletter that looks like somebody loves it. You’ll have more submissions than you can use, especially when you let folks know you appreciate what they send.” Click ‘Read More’ below for the full text.

“When I first got into the job, nobody sent me nuthin’. I
reprinted good things from other groups’ NLs, always prominently noting
that they’d been written by other groups’ Ms. I also got permission to
reprint small bits from the Darwin Awards and A Word A Day, and I reprinted
several intriguing opinion pieces for which permission was pre-granted. One
of them hooked a response from an avid pro-self-defense member, and his
article drew answering fire (also in print) from a pro-victimization
member. Since then, no one’s been shy about submitting. One member
regularly handwrites an execrable humor column, from which I cull stuff I
haven’t seen 100 times in e-mails (he’s not online!) and run it under a
column named for him.



“Also, I have claimed one columnist when I saw how well he wrote on our
Website Bulletin Board: one of the people who posts to it asked me
privately to go check out what “that ***hole troll” was saying,
so I did. I didn’t care for what he was saying, but my lord, he said it
beautifully. I claimed him there publicly and informed him that anyone who
wrote that well needed to have an opinion column to do it regularly. He
said yes! (And he quit being an anus on the BB.)



“A moving-in member sent me an essay that I liked, and I complimented her
on it and asked for more: I now have four more essays waiting for a column
I started called “Let Us Essay” from her alone. It’s that column
to which I got two extremely opinionated responses this month — one about
the author’s stand, and one about its poor writing. (The latter writer
hastily declined to become our next Editor, but volunteered to edit any
future essays!)



“I asked for members’ favorite games in a short blurb titled, “If You
Came Out, What Would We Play?” I got one response — and the writer
suggested a new SIG.



“I’ve invited members to submit arcane trivia questions for our monthly
CultureQuest® practice column, and they have. (Next year I hope to round
up SIX teams!)



“I started a column I call “Gray Cells at Play,” which lists
members’ hobbies and or endeavors; this month I not only got a link to (and
a picture from) one M’s Hawaiian Shirt Collection URL, but he also sent me
a story about what having MS is like.



“Last month I told them (by way of explaining why Feghoot is inflatable)*
how we didn’t get nominated for even one award and told them some of the
things the winners have in their NLs — and my members, who’ve been
regularly telling me how much they like the newsletter, sent me a flood of
stuff. God love their competitive little butts!



“If I ask for something specific, I usually get it. It works even better
when I ask a certain PERSON for something specific. I do go to the
meetings, at which there’s usually an interesting speaker, and I try to
report who brought guests, any news not in other columns, what the speaker
said, and our reactions … when I have room.



“If you like any of my ideas, please feel free to use them!”


* Wondering about Feghoot the Inflatable Owl? See the editorial in the August Spirit of 76, now available in PDF format [Update: broken link removed].