Writer’s Guidelines
[Please carefully read this entire
section before submitting work.]
Our writers are all, with a few exceptions, women living in Western North Carolina.*
We welcome writing from corporate execs, university faculty, housewives and mommies. We recognize that wisdom and profound insight, humor and wit can reside within any of us, no matter the letters following our name or our position in society.
WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR
1. WNC WOMAN celebrates the wisdom, insight, experience, and know-how of women. We want to read about women doing stuff: building things—whether it is barns, businesses, or better mousetraps; fixing things, whether it is her plumbing, her car, or her life. We want to know what you have done that you never thought you could do. We want to read about you turning around a bad situation. We want to read about things that work: successful alliances formed, dreams manifested, obstacles overcome. We want to read about women who say “Oh yeah? Says who?” to the lies they have been told, the myths about what is and is not possible. We also want some really juicy fiction, poetry that moves us, (we only accept free verse) and essays that get us thinking. We would love to have at least one belly laugh per issue—a dozen if possible.
2. We have a very particular intent with WNC WOMAN. We encourage you to study the magazine to get a better idea what we are looking for.
3. Writers usually* must be women living in Western North Carolina. Only rarely do we make exceptions. (In our annual June Y Chromosome issue, we invite those with a Y Chromosome to join our ranks! And beginning in July 2010, we are interested in one profile each month of particularly inspiring men or an article about relationships from the male perspective.) And we only write ABOUT women living in Western North Carolina.
4. Length of articles: We like depth so we’ll accept pieces up to about 2300 words (and photos or artwork too, in 300dpi); we are interested in short pieces from time to time (say, 500 words) but generally like from 1000 words up to 2200, even 2500 if the article warrants those words.
5. Looking at some new categories: In the past we were not interested in health related articles; however, since the demise of New Life Journal, we feel this area is not well covered in WNC so we have instituted a monthly health column (and are interested in health related articles if they fit the guidelines in #1). We are interested in stories of your experiences with health crises, how you coped, who supported you, etc. Articles that inspire others is what we like to read. We love reviews of books by regional writers. If you have an idea for an entirely new category, send us an email at [email protected] and we will discuss it with you.
PREPARING YOUR WORK
1. We are looking for excellence in the written word. We encourage a positive tone and active voice. If there are good websites related to your article, do include their URL. We expect you to have carefully edited and proofed your work, and to have run a spell check.
2. Include your bio at the end of your article. Two or three sentences should be sufficient. Please include in your bio whatever contact information you’d like for our readers and put it at the end of your article.
3. Please don’t indent your paragraphs, double space or do “hard returns” after sentences; all those make our job harder when we place your article into our layout. Also, take out any hyperlinks to websites or email addresses.
1. Please send your article via email to [email protected] as an attached Word document or directly in the email.
2. At this time we are not able to pay our writers. We want the rights to print your work and have it online, but otherwise, because we are not paying, we do not assume ownership—it is yours to do with as you will after it is published in WNC WOMAN. If it is later published elsewhere, we simply ask that at the end you say “First published in WNC WOMAN” and the date.
3. Even if we express interest in your work and say we intend to publish it, we never know until the very last minute if it will fit in print in a particular month… it may not fit until several months later; we will let you know once the final version goes to the printer.
4. Please put the word SUBMISSION as the first word in the subject line; this helps us retrieve relevant emails easily.
6. The deadline is the first of the month AT LEAST ONE, PREFERABLY TWO MONTHS in advance. For example, we need to receive an article for the January issue by December 1st, hopefully November 1st. We may possibly take work closer to the publication date, so email to ask if you are working on something but won’t have it by the two-month deadline… but the FINAL deadline is the first of the month prior to publication. We will give priority to those articles submitted earliest, all things being equal.
7. Please submit your own work, unless you do not have a computer and you submit it through a friend. Otherwise, we do not accept third party submissions (as through an agent or publicist.)
* We are now accepting writing from women outside of Western North Carolina.
UPCOMING THEMES
February 2012: Our annual Relationships issue. And, we don’t just mean romantic ones!! We want to hear about what relationships mean to your life; challenges you encounter; changes you have made; obstacles overcome.
March 2012: GIRLS! How are young girls growing up these days? What new challenges do they face? What is happening to empower them, give them new opportunities, etc. This month is the the Girl Scouts’ 100th anniversary so an article about them will be a centerpiece of the issue.
April 2012: Earthly Connections. From food & water to physical activities the earth provides our literal ground of being. In this issue we want to hear about your relationship to the earth; we want to hear about growing and cooking and eating food; about hiking and climbing and just being with the land.
May 2012: Stepping Up... to the plate, to the task. All about those moments when we, or someone we know, took responsibility for our lives, helped someone else, made a commitment to a cause, found our courage.
