As we gear up to produce a monthly magazine, we encourage you to consider submitting an article to us.
To help you along, here's some pointers to make the process as easy as possible for both you and us.
SUBMIT A QUERY FIRST
If you haven't done the article already, use the Write for us - submit an article idea link under Contact Us to send us your article idea. We can tell you whether or not your article idea is something we need and if so, we can also give you some guideance on how to put it together.
Here's a good query example:
Quote:
I'd like to do an article on installing Kadee couplers in HO. I have some simple techniques I use and I also have some advice on how to deal with those installation situations that are more tricky. Would you be interested in such an article?
John Doe
Notice John told us specifically what he would like to write about and for what scale (if applicable). He also gave us a sense of how his submission would be of value beyond the garden variety article by letting us know he'd throw in some info on tricky coupler installations.
And here's an example of how we typically respond to such queries (please give us a week or more to get back to you, especially if it's just a couple weeks before the next magazine release):
Quote:
John:
Your article idea sounds like it would be of interest to us - how good are you with a camera? Coupler installation photos need to be really close and well lit, can you send us a few sample photos so we can determine if you can do good coupler installation shots? Also, remember we're more than just text and pictures - how handy are you with a video camera? Do you think you might be able to do a few minutes of video showing one or two of your more clever coupler installation tricks?
--Joe Fugate
Publisher, MRH
OKAY, WE LIKED YOUR IDEA
You sent us an article query and we told you we liked your idea. Excellent! Now, to produce the article.
Please don't do what some people do and write a couple pages of text, then send that to us for critique. Honestly, we can't tell what you have in mind for the final article unless you go ahead and send in the entire article. Unless we ask you for a partial submission (like we did in the example above where we asked for a few sample photos), please send us your entire article.
We can't read your mind and we don't have the time to completely tutor you in every step of the process of submitting an article.
ASSEMBLING YOUR ARTICLE FOR SUBMISSION
You article needs to include text in MS Word .doc format, a number of high quality JPGs that are in focus and well lit, and perhaps some video media in .wmv, .mov, or .mpg format.
You can send us a version of your article with the images embedded in line, but also include a separate text only version and a separate doc with just the captions, tied to the JPG file names.
Keep in mind that you can discuss related topics using a sidebar. Include any sidebars as a separate .doc file as well.
Here's an example of what John sent us:
- Main article with pictures inline: article-with-pics.doc
- Main article, text only: article-text-only.doc
- Folder with photos: photos ... includes photo-01.jpg, photo-02.jpg ... all the way up to photo-15.jpg
- Captions document tied to each photo: captions.doc
- Sidebar on couplers with offset shanks: offset-shank-sidebar.doc
John put all these files into a single file folder on his desktop called Couplers Article and then he compressed it into a single zip file called: couplers-article.zip.
John then uploaded the couplers-article.zip to us using our upload site:
http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/upload
In the upload description, John put:
Quote:
Fellows,
John Doe here. This is the Kadee Couplers article we spoke about back in July. It includes 15 photos, the main article and a sidebar. Sorry, but I wasn't able to do any video - I hope that is okay.
Let me know if you can use it.
John Doe
123 Someplace Road
Littleton, MO 45678
johndoe@comcast.com
cell: 213-456-7890
Notice John reminded us who he was and what the article was about and when we last spoke about it. He also told us a little about what the article contained and did not contain. Finally, he gave us his complete contact information so that we could easily get in touch with him. He also didn't assume acceptance was guaranteed - he gave us the room to evaluate the article and decide.
It's surprising how many people who submit an article to us forget this last part - giving us complete contact information and not assuming that we *must* accept their article without having a chance to see the final product and decide for ourselves.
It's also surprising how many people ignore our file format requirements and submit articles to us in the wrong format.
Remember, you're the seller and we're the customer (the buyer) in this transaction and if you make life hard for us, you're making it more likely we will chose to spend our money on articles from soneone else that are less work for us to use!
Hopefully, this post has helped you see how the article submission process works in a more clear fashion!
Joe Fugate
Publisher, Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine