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How to Submit
Your Manuscript: Please
place your name and address in the upper left-hand corner of the first
page. This will be the name and address where we will send your check.
Please email your
manuscript to
Homestead.orgEditor@gmail.com . Send it either in Microsoft Word
format, or as regular text in an email.
Feel free to send
it “return receipt” so you’ll know we got it.
Please use this
address
Neil@Homestead.org if you have any general questions about
submissions.
Do Not Send Links:
Your finished manuscript should contain the complete article in such a
form that it can be copied to our clipboard and moved to our web pages
in one piece. That is, do not send links for us to follow to any part
of your production. If you want us to use a recipe or other
non-copyrighted material from another website, write it in your
manuscript. DO NOT send us a link to the material.
How to Submit
Digital Photographs: The
largest size we are likely to publish is 500 X 375 pixels, however,
please send us your photos in their original, largest state, and
let us reduce them to fit our needs. Please save your illustrations in
either the gif or .jpg formats with zero compression, if possible.
Some writers like
to embed their photos into Word files in the order and location that
they'd like to see them appear in the published article. This is okay,
but if you do this, or if you don't, please send us the original photos
in the same size as they come from your camera anyway. If you've sent
us a manuscript with your photos embedded, we'll place them where you'd
like them (subject to the physical limitations with which we have to
deal). This allows us to produce the best-looking result.
Remember: it is
your responsibility to determine that the photographs you send us
are your property. If you need to use photos or illustrations created
by someone other than yourself, you must receive permission from the
owner in writing (email is fine for this). If requested, we will give
an 8-point credit, which can be hyperlinked to the owner of pictures in
your manuscripts.
The best way to
email photos to us is individually, that is, one photo to one email.
Please don’t send zip files,
they give our spam-blockers fits.
Regarding
intellectual rights:. We
are buying All Rights to your manuscript and illustrations. It is our
intention to place this material on our website and keep it there
indefinitely.
If you would like
to have your material published elsewhere, you have our permission to do
so if you annotate that it is “reprinted with permission from
Homestead.org.”
If you would like
to repurchase the rights to your material, we will sell them back to you
for what we paid you originally and remove the material from our site.
Editing:
We will try to catch any errors in grammar or punctuation, but of
course, we don’t expect there to be any. Occasionally, we may
make minor changes if we encounter a sentence that doesn’t quite work,
or something of that nature. We will contact you if we see a need for
any major changes, although we don’t expect there to be any of those
either.
However, there is
an exception to this rule. It is very common for us to edit a
writer’s title, and/or subtitle and/or the first line or paragraph of
the article, perhaps even change them completely. The success of
your article, and our website, requires titles and lead-ins that grab
the reader by the lapels and drag him forward against his will.
Typically, these
may be quite a bit shorter than the, perhaps more informative, title
that you may have chosen. We also have to consider the physical
limitations of some of the places where we will promote your article,
such as the small, cramped banner on the Homestead Forum. If you are a
stickler for using only your own writing, give us titles with punch and
opening lines that compel the reader to keep reading.
If you should
discover a mistake in
your article after it is published, whether it be our error or yours,
now or ten years in the future, please make us aware of it and we will
get it changed forthwith. We also don’t mind updating articles as time
goes by and conditions change.
Technicalities:
If you are not in the habit of putting two spaces between sentences,
please try to adopt this correct policy with your next submission.
One mark, ‘ is an
asterisk. Two marks, “ is a quotation mark. If you don’t make this
distinction, someone else has to go over your entire manuscript
correcting this error.
Word for Windows
has a very powerful spell-checker, unless you ignore it.
So you know, we try
to make a 2,000-word article and illustrations fit onto three web pages,
although this can vary quite a bit.
Payment:
Our current rate is
$100 for 2,000-3,000 words or greater and sufficient images.
Our policy has been
to pay everyone at the time we publish their article. However, we are
currently somewhat ahead of that schedule and hope to stay there.
Please cash your
check as soon as it is conveniently possible.
How to
Improve the Effectiveness of Your Writing:
We put hit counters at the far bottom of each page both to see how
we’re doing and so you can see how you’re doing. You can use these to
judge how well your audience is concentrating. Check the number for the
first page, then see what it is on subsequent pages. Wait for a time to
do this when your ego is in pretty good shape, because the results are
often disappointing.
I’d urge you
though, to watch these counters. An extraordinary number of hits to
your first page means you’ve got a topic of interest to the audience, or
at least a good title. Good things to know for future submissions.
How to
Maximize the Number of Manuscripts You Sell to Us:
Stay in touch. If you’ll send me a short list of three to six topics
you’d like to write an article around, I’ll pick those that appeal to me
and probably give you the go-ahead on at least one of them.
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