How long should be the article’s summary?

[chrissponias]

Merry Christmas!

I’m a new author and I was wondering about the article’s summary. Today I had the time to read other authors’ articles here at CC in order to compare their work with mine and learn everything I could with this research. I realized that there are authors who write a very long summary after their short description, while their articles are merely 500 words long (or shorter). The content excerpt was probably as long as the article they were promoting and trying to sell. Should we write very long summaries? Is it a good idea?

Another question: What should we basically write about our article’s content in order to convince our potential customers that they should purchase our articles without a doubt? What are the most important aspects we must pay attention to?

Thank you!

[aprilk10]

Chris, if you are referring to the long summary that is placed after the short summary, authors are required to post at least 1/3 of the article here (this area is for the article only...no description). However, many choose to post the entire article. Everyone has their own preference regarding this. I generally place the whole article in the long summary, as I feel potential clients appreciate being able to view an article in its entirety before purchasing. Others are afraid that this makes it easier for content thieves. In my personal experience, I have found that only posting a portion (even broken up into sections) will not stop a thief. Regarding the short summary, this is to be a description of the article and should be at least 3 sentences long (according to the guidelines). It should be a description only and is not to be used in a promotional way (I think the guidelines say something about this). I think if the editors find it to be too "promotional" they will send it back for revision. Simply stick to describing what the article is about and it should be fine. I prefer to keep this area fairly short, as I don't think potential customers want to read alot about the article before reading the article itself. They should be able to get a good idea about the content in just a couple of sentences.