I used to edit a monthly magazine; 72pp, A4, full colour. I won an award yet here I am writing a blog. That’s because email marketing is much less stressful. Most writers harbour an image of an editor, in god-like mode, sitting as a desk covered in submissions, sweeping most into the waste bin.

It’s nothing like that. Two days before press day the whiteboard will have a group around it, all, apparently, studying the gaps. The plea of, ‘Are you sure there’s nothing in the slush-pile?’ is met with a slight shake of the head but no eye contact. That’s the reality of editing a monthly.

In order for those engaged in email marketing to exploit this desperation it needs to be remembered that editors are space fillers. They need articles and that can work for you. You might even get paid, but just a little.

You produce copy regularly for your email marketing campaigns so either you already have the necessary skills or know someone who has. The only difference between writing a 1500-word article and a paragraph explaining an offer is that longer one is easier. 

Many, if not most, editors will maintain a slush pile, a file containing copy from various writers in case of an emergency. Your 1500 words will stay in the tray as long as it remains current. You will have included your website URL, mentioned your products and demonstrated your knowledge and dependability; just like an advert in fact. 

Editors notoriously regard articles as not time-specific. None will promise what month, if any, it will be published; no honest editor anyway. It is down to you to write a time-specific article so that it will be published when your email marketing campaign goes live. This will mean, of course, that if your article is bumped by another then it will be binned. Don’t look upon it as wasted effort. The editor will remember you, and two bumped articles means a lost contributor. 

Writing for others might seem a masochistic exercise given the difficulties of creating your own copy for email marketing campaigns, but free advertising is worth a bit of effort.