The editors at Learning Solutions receive many article pitches from authors every week seeking publication. This article will help you create an effective article proposal.
What is Learning Solutions?
Learning Solutions is the online professional publication of The Learning Guild. It publishes a variety of content continuously each week. Content comes from designers, managers, and executives in the field of eLearning for adults, or from our editors. Our goal is to provide practitioners with a place to share their ideas, their successes, and their applications of theories. There is no charge to authors for publication, and the content is available without charge to readers.
What are we looking for in an article proposal?
Always make an inquiry first. An ideal inquiry is short (it would fit on a single sheet of paper). The editors contact the writers whose proposals are accepted.
An important question the editors have about an article proposal is this: Does the author have a connection to the eLearning field as a designer, developer, manager, or executive?
Readers of Learning Solutions are members of the eLearning community in enterprises, government organizations, and in higher education. Another important question about any article proposal: Is it about eLearning, and will it be helpful or of interest to our readers?
Proposals must be vendor-neutral (with the exception of commentary in product and book reviews), non-promotional, and well-written. Spelling, grammar, and style count. An inquiry must be specific; simple bullet lists of generic topics, or requests to have us name topics for the author to write about, are not acceptable queries. We cannot accept content that has been previously published online or in print. We do claim a compilation copyright on material for the protection of the authors.
The articles in Learning Solutions are about 700 to 1,500 words in length. Proposers should keep this in mind, and should not pitch multi-article series. Queries that deal with certain kinds of content tend to get “bonus points” from editors. These include technical insights, how an eLearning team solved an important business or professional problem, and ideas and tips that are not trivial or a rehash of the latest popular conversations in social media.
Learning Solutions is not a blog. We neither seek nor accept “guest posts,” and we do not provide link trades in return for content. This is non-negotiable. Proposals that are contingent on link trades or product placement will be rejected. Content goes through vetting and editing before publication, and receiving your query is the first step in that process. The editors will consider whether a proposal appears to have any support from research, best practices, others in the eLearning field, or whether it has current relevance.
The ideal inquiry
The ideal query consists of three short paragraphs. The entire proposal should fit on less than a single printed page.
The first paragraph should approximate the first paragraph of your article. This is the “hook.” It should tell the readers (including the editors) what the article is about, arrest the reader’s attention, and give the reader a reason to read the article.
The second paragraph should provide a brief summary of the content of the article, including any important information about the type of article and the nature of the content (for example, case study, lessons learned, a new idea or theory, a design model, an interview, a product review). The second paragraph should also indicate who within the eLearning community would most likely be interested in the article.
The third paragraph should give the editors information about the author and the author’s connection to the field of eLearning.
Send it in!
That’s it! If you look at the thousands of articles we have published since 2002 by hundreds of writers from around the world, those are the steps that got every one of them published. Send your proposal to editor@learningsolutionsmag.com. We're looking forward to hearing from you!