It is not always necessary to literally make friends with your editor. If anything, of course, he or she is your customer rather than your friend and may even be your competitor when it comes to contributing to the publication! There are, however, some rules of etiquette that will help you build a better working relationship with them and increase the chances of your work being accepted

Firstly, only ever send your editor work which you are fairly sure they can publish. An editor is always short of time and won't appreciate being sent work that you merely think they might be interested in, or on the off chance. In the long run it will give the impression that you have no idea what they are actually looking for and haven't actually studied their publication.

Most importantly, don't submit an article or a proposal on a subject that has been covered fairly recently (within the last three months) unless it is new or unique in some way. Again this shows ignorance on your part. Having said this the three month limit is quite acceptable. Most publications have their favorite subjects and will frequently cover them over and over again with surprisingly regularity: The editor knows what sells his or her newspaper or magazine, so take it as an illustration of what you can sell to them!

Always make sure your work is clear and legible. An editor may have only a few minutes or even seconds to flick through an article or proposal to make sure it is of interest. This is particularly important when you first approach a publication and are an unknown.

Always check carefully to avoid stupid errors, especially spelling mistakes. Everyone makes them sometimes - and you may even find that your editor's spelling is dreadful - but it is not a good recommendation for a writer. He or she will assume that, if your spelling is wrong, then the quality of your information must be too.

You should also try to make sure that your finished article is as near as possible to the version that will be used, ie. it will require a minimum of editing. In practice this rarely happens because even the most junior editor likes to chop, change and alter your highly polished article almost beyond recognition. However, it is always an advantage if your article can be used as it stands and it also creates a better impression when the article lands on the editor's desk.

Finally, don't pester the editor if at all possible. This can be a very difficult temptation to avoid bearing in mind the weeks or months that many editors take to reach a decision. Chasing up an editor won't make any difference to your chances of acceptance and, indeed, it may make your work more likely to be rejected. Do not be surprised if the first you know of your work being accepted is seeing it in print in your morning newspaper!