How did you get your article published?

2019-09-16T23:16:10-04:00

Something never taught to me in my enlisted career is how to publish an article in a military magazine. I believe doing as much can:
1) be a great way to get bullet points in your OER/NCOER
2) communicate professionalism with superiors and develop subordinates
3) be an opportunity to contribute your voice to conversations that can seriously effect our military.

Google comes up with a few results and there's a website for Army magazine. Any insight that can expound upon the topic would be appreciated.

How have you managed to do it, is it as simple as writing a magazine and asking to be published?
Does one need to major in communications or is a well-thought out opinion piece of value?
Which magazines should one seek out?
Do you encourage this kind of behavior in your subordinates? Do you expect it of your leaders?
Is this something one expects to learn in Grad school?

Response by 1LT Private RallyPoint Member made Sep 16 at 2019 11:26 PM

2019-09-16T23:26:28-04:00

Response by SSgt Jim Gilmore made Sep 17 at 2019 1:56 AM

2019-09-17T01:56:10-04:00

1. Write the article.
2. Have someone review/edit it for you. You are your own worst critic.
3. Submit it to several sources and its editors.
4. Seek out periodicals that best suit the topic of your article.

If you are asked to write an article, get some ideas of what the solicitor wants, then write it but keep within their published or given guidelines. I've been asked to write for Command Post here on Rally Point. I was hesitant but went for it. You should too.

Response by SPC Nancy Greene made Sep 17 at 2019 2:37 AM

2019-09-17T02:37:34-04:00

Excellent questions! Sorry I don’t know the answers. I do know when I was in Graduate School, journals and counseling publications were always looking for articles to publish. Might want to select with whom you want to be associated with and then contact the source. Not sure, that is my only suggestion. Good Luck! Let us know when your article is in print so I have the chance to read it. Sound as if you have a lot to share! Thanks, Nancy

Response by Capt Daniel Goodman made Sep 17 at 2019 7:38 AM

2019-09-17T07:38:08-04:00

http://www.usni.org

This is among the very best, that I've seen let company graders publish, ob V mainly Navy, USMC, and USCG, though I'd expect one could be from Army or USAF, NOAA, or USPHS...they have competitions I've seen, to get articles submitted to cinsider...it's help to know your major, grades, GPAs, awards stuff if any before your bach major, same info, grad level interests, what branch and/or MOS you'd want, I can suggest a good deal more of your wanna hear it...your question interested me as it was obv unusual, one I hadn't seen gone into on here before, so, if you can, no rush, elaborate, hobbies, interests, reading tastes, sports esp any martial.arts, such stuff tends I find to give insight into the mind on here, that's why I always suggest such info be sent in on career/educ threads like yours, honest....

United States Naval Institute

The U.S. Naval Institute provides an independent forum for those who seek to advance and strengthen the naval profession.

Response by MAJ Private RallyPoint Member made Sep 17 at 2019 10:29 AM

2019-09-17T10:29:22-04:00

Work with your local Public Affairs Office (unit of garrison). They are the subject matter experts in journalism and have the direct contact(s) that can get your article published.

Additionally, the PAO will also help you edit and re-write your article to ensure it is ready for print. No matter the publication, there are established guidelines to follow when writing a piece for print. You have a much better chance of getting it published if the editor does not have to make many changes to it because you already have followed the AP format.

Lastly, the article is your invention. Be proud of it but do not be defensive of it. PAOs and editors will probably make changes, re-write sentences, and/or cut portions out to fit a page. Do not be offended. Just remember they are working to assist you.

Response by SGM Bill Frazer made Sep 17 at 2019 1:15 PM

2019-09-17T13:15:24-04:00

It has to be worth something 1st and provoke thought.

Response by SGM Private RallyPoint Member made Sep 17 at 2019 5:22 PM

2019-09-17T17:22:28-04:00

1. It is as simple as submitting your article for considerations and publication.
2. Your major does not matter (I know very few communications majors who could write well). An opinion piece would not be considered by most publications. Most contributed articles are objective analyses of TTPs, or recent or historical operations or strategies, some are a more straight-forward "a way" to do something based on a recent training or deployment evolution.
3. You should seek out the publication that best fits the audience for your article.
4. You would definitely learn this in grad school, depending on your major, you would learn it as a junior or senior.
For starters, I recommend reading the last few issues of Infantry magazine to see what kind of works were contributed and published, and like most publications, their submission process is explained in their About Us link.

https://www.benning.army.mil/infantry/magazine/

magazine

Response by MAJ Ken Landgren made Sep 17 at 2019 8:00 PM

2019-09-17T20:00:57-04:00

PAO loves articles from units.

Response by SGT Chris Stephens made Sep 17 at 2019 8:03 PM

2019-09-17T20:03:58-04:00

When I was in, I was a journalist. We took submissions from other soldiers for our publications, but be prepared for it to be heavily scrutinized. For my own writing, I was also my own publicist, constantly contacting different publications with stories I had completed to see if they were interested in running it. It was pretty cool because my stories or commentaries would get picked up from all sorts of military publications and caught the eye of many.

If you're really serious about this, learning the journalistic style of writing would be a great starting point.

Response by 1LT Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 27 at 2020 12:41 AM

2020-01-27T00:41:40-05:00

I recently had my very first article published! Like 4 days ago. It was submitting to MANY journals with many rejections before it was finally accepted to the Journal of Burn Care and Research. It was coauthored and we had a dedicated "master writer" per say whom it was his full time job to write. Also for anyone here, what is the best way to annotate on an OER that you are published? Working on my support form and am at a loss for words.

Thanks!