It all started with Grant Fritchey (Twitter @GFritchey) posting on THE THREAD asking everyone if they are interested in writing for SQL Server Standard magazine. He was saying that anyone can write it (Couple of pre requisites though) and the article should have 4000 words in it. It would go through couple edits. And I was like "Yeah Right!!! Anyone??" Couple of us talked about it in THE THREAD. I was giving couple of suggestions to some really smart guys here on the topics. One of the topic I gave was Resource Governor. But there were no takers for it. At that time I thought "Why not try it"

I got in touch with Grant and he gave me the pre requisites. Fortunately I was qualified to write for them. My train of thought was that even if Grant does not accept my sub standard article, I could always put it up in my User Group site. With that in mind I started writing about Resource governor even before I got the final Thumps Up from Grant. Grant asked for an one paragraph abstract about my topic. I had no clue what to write. I do not really remember what exactly I wrote but my abstract was accepted.

I did lots of research (I was also planning on implementing this at our work), read white papers, went through MSDN to get the materials for it. But half way through the article I realized that my article was getting too big for their requirements. I was already at 3200 words. I went back and did some extending cutting and shaving to get the word count down. Even with all that editing, by the time I completed my article the numbers words was around 4500. I send the article in for review stating the fact that I could not cut down the number of words anymore. Grant accepted it as it is.

The review came soon afterwards. Some of the best people in the world of SQL Server were the editors. I was nervous. After a week I got the review. At first when I opened the document, I was scared. It looked red (Tracking On, so all changes are Red in color). I closed it. I took a look at it after an hour. I went through the review and saw that it was not that bad at all. I was able to do all the correcting and suggestions within the time allotted. The second review was just couple of small changes. Once that was done, the article went for the final editlting. At that point I had to write something about myself. I had no clue what to write about myself. I am not a brilliant famous guy. I consider my self an average Joe. Somehow I managed to write a paragraph about myself.

Then the wait started. After couple of months, the article was published. I am a tweeter (@RumblingDBA) but with not much followers. Once the article was published, there was a big increase in the number of followers. I was totally surprised by it. The satisfaction I felt when the article was published is not something I can put down in words.

I would definitely encourage everyone to try it out. It was a challenge, It was fun and you increase your knowledge base. Did I forget to mention that they pay darn good? Yes Siree, they pay pretty well. So ping Grant (Twitter @GFritchey) and ask him about the details for writing an article. He is one freindly guy (Even though he is known as THE SCARY DBA). It is worth all the time you spend on the article.