asapm Publishing Process
By Rose Johnston, ContentMatters®

1. Proposing An Article this page
a. Why You Should Publish an Article
b. Audience and Content for Articles
c. Proposing an Article
2. Writing Your Article: Authoring Resources
3. Editing Checklist for Articles
4. Ready, Aim, Publish: Naming and Sending Files

a. Why You Should Publish an Article

We want to invite, coax, tempt, and prod you to write an article for asapm’s web zine!

One reason for an association like ours to exist is that it provides a forum that people can use to further their professional growth. One of the easiest ways to further your own growth is to write about your experiences and ideas because doing so forces you to clarify your thinking so that others can benefit from your insights. That kind of effective communication is also a key in successfully managing projects and being a successful team member.

Ok—that was the “…do it for the greater good…” pitch. If that didn’t convince you, maybe this will:  do it for a more self-serving interest such as being able to say “I’m published!” and proudly handing out the web address to prove it.

Now, stop and reflect for a moment: maybe you already have an idea, had an idea at one time, or just need an idea on something to write about. To help you focus, we’ll give you a quick start by narrowing the audience and providing suggestions for content.

b. Audience and Content for Articles

In broad terms, the audience for your article consists of people like you: those who practice project management or who otherwise have a role in project success. They are interested in articles about project management in general, as well as articles that may be germane to managing projects for a specific type of association, organization, or industry.

Given the audience’s interest, there are many types of articles related to project management that you could write, such as any of the following:

• White papers, research, or contributions to theory on project management areas. These types of articles would include specific suggestions for applying the results or ideas presented.
• Primers or tutorials on how to respond to or apply laws, standards, requirements, methods, tools, or technologies that impact the practice of project management.
• Historical, actual in-progress, or hypothetical case studies that describe project management problems and solutions. You could present your own ideas for solutions or ask readers to contribute their ideas.
• Lessons Learned examine situations that occurred in your real-life projects to determine why the situation failed or succeeded, and your role in it. Tell your story by sharing your project adventure, hazard, or land mine. Then perform the analysis yourself or solicit it from others.
• Reviews of project management books, magazines, web sites, training, or tools.
• Humorous articles about project management topics.
• Reprints or excerpts of articles that were previously written by you (with permission of the publisher).

If you have an idea for an article that would fit one of the above categories or a new category, then don’t be shy about contacting us—send us your proposal!

c. Proposing an Article

Regardless of the stage your article is in (“jelling,” completed, being updated, or previously published), your first step is to send us a proposal about it. That will help us respond to you faster, and save you time in case someone else has proposed a similar article.

Start by writing your proposal, using up to 150 words to cover the following points:

• The type of article you have in mind
• The purpose of the article
• Who your intended audience is
• Why that audience will be interested
• The general topics you plan to cover
• Your estimate of the finished length of the article

Hint: If you’re struggling with imagining the audience for your article, then pretend it’s yourself. You’ll know you have a good idea when you’ve convinced yourself about why you’d be interested in your article.

If you do a good job thinking through the above areas, you’ve already completed one of the most difficult aspects of writing: getting started!

When your proposal is ready, give it a final check for spelling and grammar, then send it by email to our Webmaster and mention Propose an Article. We’ll respond with a confirmation and proposal registration number. You can send your proposal in ASCII, as a Microsoft Word document, or as an RTF file from another type of text processor.

Ready to write? The next section lists some relevant resources.

2. Writing Your Article: Authoring Resources

Writing Your Article

Congratulations, in this step your proposal for an article is accepted and now you can be published on the asapm web site!

That means that, in addition to providing great content, you’ll need to follow some authoring guidelines that will make it easier for your readers to access, view, and print your article from the web.  By following these guidelines, your article will also be published faster because you caught the editorial defects before we did. Even if you are a published author, you will probably benefit from reviewing our checklists. Click here to go to our Authoring Resources.

3. Editing Checklist for Articles

Before you send your article to us, use this checklist to be sure that your article is ready. In fact, we suggest that you review the checklist before you begin writing: an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure!

See Section 3, containing a printable Editing Checklist for your Article.

4. Ready, Aim, Publish! Naming and Sending Files

Naming Files  

Name your files with the following convention: First 3 digits are your initials; next 2 digits are sequence numbers for text and for graphics files. If your operating system permits it, add enough information following those first 5 digits so the purpose of the file is apparent. Example: RMJ01PublishProcess.doc.

Before Sending Files

Important! Before sending your files, do two things:

• Evaluate your article using our editing checklist
  3. Editing Checklist for Articles.
• Scan all files to be sure there are no viruses.

Methods for Sending Files

You can send properly named and formatted files to the editor using one of these methods:

• in an email with a link to the site where the file can be downloaded
• as attachments to one or more emails
• on disk or CD by snail mail

Due to potential incompatibilities between your authoring environment and ours, do not send compressed files.

Editor Information

Notifications

When you submit a proposal for an article, we will notify you by email that your idea has been received.  We will also notify you by email of other events pertinent to your article, such as when your article has been accepted, and the date you are scheduled to make an author’s appearance at your local bookstore (ok, just kidding about the bookstore—maybe).