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Subject:RE: Writing for the Open Source Community From:"Gilger.John" <JGilger -at- acresgaming -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 20 Feb 2003 11:36:41 -0800
Tom Green piped up with:
Having just opened this subject, I haven't read the old posts but I believe Eric has asked a very good question here. Hey, I too am very interested in new technologies and the right approach to making money on open-source documentation. Better yet, you can call me anything you want. So, if someone can offer workable approaches to acquiring expertise and a paycheck in Open Sourcing, let us know.
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Bruce mentioned his paid experience writing for Linux magazines as one option. Having a clip of a published article is good for the portfolio :)
To get published in a magazine, newsletter, or website (any of them, on any topic), the general procedure is:
1. Conduct preliminary research on desired topic. Is there enough info to produce a good article?
2. Write a query letter to the editor(s) of the magazine(s) to whom you are interested in selling your article. Basically, this means write a good headline and lead paragraph to "hook" the reader and askt the editor if s/he is interested in buying the article.
3. When you get a go-ahead, write a tight, concise, interesting article. Deliver it on time. Don't exceed the requested word count. Do include a blurb/bio that includes your e-mail address so the readers can contact you for more stellar writing :)
Publishing a book is similar except you must produce a good outline of about a dozen chapters (varies) and the first chapter. You can also use an agent to market your book project to potential publishers.
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