Getting published is tricky. Sometimes getting a publishers approval seems like a lost cause. Why are publishers so picky? Simple. They have to be picky about the content they publish to be successful. The publisher's job is to attract readers and keep them happy. Your job as a writer is to give publishers what they want to attract readers and keep them coming back.

What Are Publishers so Picky about?

You don't have to get inside the head of the public to see what they are picky about. A lot of things publishers look for are common sense. Articles that require excess editing are likely to be kicked back to the writer.

Misspelled words, grammatical errors and poor sentence structure will not get you published. Likewise, an article that is over or under the recommended word count will not be accepted for publication.

Web publishers and e-zines are picky about word count for good reason. Online readers are looking for quick blurbs of information. People turn to the Internet to get bits of news and facts. Writers must convey information in a clear, concise way that is easy for the online reader to glance over and pick up the main parts.

Why Publishers Are Picky about Content and Keywords

Publishers are also picky about content. Each article you write must provide new information or a twist on a topic that has already been covered. Publishers are extremely picky about plagiarism. Your article will not be published if it is too similar to other articles available on the Internet. It is not enough to change a word here and there within the article. It is important to publishers to have unique content.

In addition to being unique, your articles must be search engine optimized (SEO). Your article will get noticed on the Internet if you write copy with carefully placed keywords. Publishers are picky about keyword placement and the overall percentage of the keyword in your article. Keyword placement and percentages are important for an article to be picked up by search engines.

An article that is loaded with keywords from start to finish is likely to be seen as spam by search engines. An article with too few keywords, on the other hand, is not likely to be picked up by the search engines at all. Carefully place a keyword in your title, first paragraph, and last paragraph as well as throughout the article whenever it sounds natural. This is the best way to get noticed by search engines. Publishers know this and look for it when approving articles.

Article Marketing and Article Distribution

Let's say you've decided to use article marketing to promote your website. You've written an article that is closely related to the information on your site and you are ready to submit the article. The best way to distribute the article is to submit it to an article distribution site. A quality distributor will have a system in place to make sure your article meets the needs of many publishers.

Once the article distribution site accepts your article, it is up for grabs to hundreds or thousands of publishers. This is an ideal way for you to promote your website because for every publisher that picks up your article, your link will be provided to their readers. The key is to be able to give the publishers what they want. If your article isn't long enough, isn't unique or doesn't have the feel they are looking for, publishers won't choose your article for their site.

The reason why publishers are so picky is because your articles will represent them on the Internet. Your content and writing skills reflect back on the publisher. It's not unreasonable for publishers to want the highest quality content for their sites.