There's been some buzz in publishing circles recently about "accidental publishers," companies that publish content even though that's not their primary business. Does your company send e-mail newsletters to customers or prospects? If so and that's not your primary business, you're an accidental publisher, too.
Taking the analogy one step further, that makes the person who's primarily responsible for your e-mail newsletter its editor. Even though your official title may be marketing manager, CRM (define) specialist, or owner, if you're in charge of what goes into the e-mail newsletter you're an editor, too.
The editor's role is two-fold: you must ensure the e-mail newsletter supports business goals while making it engaging to readers. It's a balance. Present your business messages in an e-mail no one reads and you fail. Develop an e-mail readers love but that doesn't support your business goals and you still fail.

One way to make your e-mail newsletters work in your role as editor is to borrow the tools publishers use and embrace them, rather than shy away from them. Here are some tips.

Editorial Calendar
Keep a running calendar of topics to be included in your e-mail newsletter. Plan ahead as much as possible. If yours is a business-to-business (B2B) audience, for instance, you might plan to include highlights of the big industry conference that happens each October in your November e-mail newsletter.

Editorial Meeting
Once you have general topic ideas, you can get more specific about content for each issue in an editorial meeting. The best editorial meetings are interactive. They start as brainstorming sessions, ending with a list of specific items to be included in the newsletter.
Who should attend the editorial meeting? Anyone who provides content for your e-mail newsletter or who has an interest in its success. This could include people within your company, your creative agency (if you work with one), and outside contributors, such as business partners, freelance writers, and topic advisors. Everyone who's invited should bring ideas for articles or items with them. Be sure to remind them of the publication's business goals and provide information about your target audience. Lead by example; come armed with a bevy of great ideas.

Production Schedule
A set production schedule can save lots of time and headaches. If yours is a monthly publication, your schedule might look like this:

• 10th of current month: Hold editorial meeting.
  
• 17th of current month: Get final approval on copy.
  
• 24th of current month: Get final approval on copy in design.
  
• 30th of current month: Get legal approval.
  
• 3rd of next month: Send out newsletter

By having roughly the same dates every month, people can get into a groove for when items are due. You're also more likely to be able to maintain a consistent send date, which may help opens and clicks as people get used to looking for your newsletter around the same day or time.

Ownership
If there's one thing the best "real" editors feel, it's ownership over their publications. There's passion there; their publications are like their children. They care.
One issue many accidental editors deal with is how much ownership they actually have. Is their job just to compile what other people provide? Fixing typos is a no-brainer, but what about issues of tone and voice? What if the content provided doesn't fit with business goals or isn't really relevant for your target audience?
The level of ownership you'll be able to exert will vary from company to company and from person to person.

Often, e-mail newsletters with low ownership, where information is gathered from a number of different sources and published as is, aren't as effective as they could be.
Some have a bulletin-board quality: the pieces are put together almost randomly with no overarching content strategy. These newsletters are often no more than the sum of their parts; in some cases, each part's effectiveness is even diminished.
Others end up being too directly promotional and not engaging enough. Consider the following two items, either of which may have been submitted by a content partner for a March e-mail newsletter.

Copy item A: XYZ is the leading manufacturer of free online games. We offer you great games to play,including:

• Classic titles
  
• Sports games
  
• Action titles
  
• Children's games

Make the most of your game time with XYZ -- check out our newest games now!

Copy item B: Excited about March Madness? Stage your own online tournaments playing family and friends with Football Fever, free online from XYZ. Even if you don't have footy dreams, you'll love the games we offer:

• Tetris, the classic
  
• Rally Race, for action
  
• Match-It! , for children 3 and up

And much more!

Both are factual. Both get the point across about the free gaming Web site. But B is more specific and engaging. It's better content for an e-mail newsletter. A is just a generic ad.
What if this content partner provided A, the same exact one, month after month? Bor-ring. Much better, for the provider, you, and your readers is to target the message to something of interest (say, football in February) and mention specific, different games each month.
What if your content partner doesn't have the expertise or time to craft a new, engaging item for each newsletter? What if they don't get the tone and voice, or they don't understand why the item on the right is more engaging?
As an editor, you owe it to yourself, your company, and your readers to try to help. Offer to have someone at your organization or agency write the copy for them. Sometimes, a partner can provide information on things that are new or especially popular, and you can then write about those items.
Sometimes you may do your own research, identify things on their site that would interest your readers and write copy based on that. You still want to get their OK, but by having the copy written in a format that fits with your e-mail newsletter, you do everyone a favor.

In the early 1970's, I had the opportunity to hear a speech by W.Clement Stone, co-author of one of the best-selling motivational books of all time, "Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude."
At age 6, Stone was hawking newspapers on the streets of Chicago to help his widowed mother pay the rent. He had his own newsstand at 13, and later founded what would become a multibillion-dollar insurance empire with $100 of his hard-earned savings.
Stone's own rags-to-riches story convinced him that, with a positive mental attitude, anyone could become successful. The formula for achievement that he shared with us that day allowed no room for procrastination, however, "When you wake up in the morning, start with the phrase,'Do it now, do it now, do it now, do it now,'" he said, adding that we should repeat those three words 50 times in the morning and 50 times before bed.
The message he wanted to ingrain in our heads was simple: If you want to be successful, don't wait for tomorrow. Just do it now.
Stone, who died in 2002 at the age of 100, was a prime example of the power of starting. He didn't let significant obstacles deter him from becoming successful because he understood that the journey of a thousand miles really does begin with one step.
And there's no time like the present to take that first step.
I don't know what you need to start. Maybe it's an MBA program. A foreign-language course. A leadership training program. An exercise regimen. A new way of running meetings. A complete overhaul of your hiring process. The search for a new job. It doesn't matter what it is.
Just start now.

If you're still wavering, let me give you three more reasons why you should start now.

1. Start now because today matters.
That phrase—today matters—isn't just the title of my latest book. It represents a deep conviction I have that, to borrow a line from Benjamin Franklin, "One today is worth two tomorrows." Here's what I believe. Most people—including many leaders—over-exaggerate yesterday, over-estimate tomorrow, and under-estimate today. The fact of the matter is that the "good old days" were never as good as we remember them to be, and tomorrow often isn't as productive as we think it will be. Today is the day that matters, the day with the greatest potential for accomplishment.

2. Start now because it removes the greatest barrier to your success.
Do you know what that barrier is? It's what W. Clement Stone warned against: Procrastination. Anyone who brags about what they're going to do tomorrow probably did the same thing yesterday. My friend Dick Biggs made a tremendously insightful comment one day while we were having lunch together. "John" he said, "let me tell you what the greatest gap is. The greatest gap is between knowing and doing." That is so true.

3. Start now because it is the open door for opportunity.
It's the job that never started that takes longest to finish. And let me tell you something—you cannot win if you do not begin. You must go through the door of opportunity when it opens to you, because you never know how long it's going to stay open or if it will ever open again.
I love this statement by Karen Lamb: "A year from now you may wish you had started today." Those are strong words of caution, especially for people who are reluctant to start because they're comfortable with the status quo, they're afraid of failure or they don't want to put forth the effort.
This highlights a problem that is all too prevalent in the 21st- century marketplace: We want the rewards of success without paying the price.
Unfortunately, as Seth Godin—author of "Purple Cow" and "Permission Marketing" — pointed out in the May 2003 issue of "Fast Company," you can't have one without the other. "You don't win an Olympic gold medal with a few weeks of intensive training," Godin wrote. "There's no such thing as an overnight opera sensation. Great law firms or design companies don't spring up overnight.
Every great company, every great brand, every great career has been built in exactly the same way: bit by bit, step by step, little by little." In other words, there is no magic solution to success. But there is a first step, and that first step is starting. Not tomorrow, but today. Not next week, but now.

This article is used by permission from Dr. John C. Maxwell's free monthly e-newsletter 'Leadership Wired' available at www.MaximumImpact.com.