Editorial
Guidelines for Free-Lance Writers and Photographers
UPDATED JAN. 6, 2006
Parents' Press is a monthly newspaper for parents and expectant
parents in the San Francisco Bay Area. Our circulation is 75,000.
Our readers have children ranging from infancy through high school.
The majority of our readers are well-educated and expect their
children to attend college eventually.
Our Mission
We believe that there are many different types of successful
families today, and our goal is to provide parents with the information
that lets them make the informed choices best for their own families.
In keeping with this philosophy, we do not use articles that
promote a particular religion or political position.
What We Buy
NOTE: Our
greatest current need is for well-researched articles with a
strong San Francisco Bay Area focus. We
usually buy all rights to local articles (including electronic/web
rights), and payment may range up to several hundred dollars
for articles that require a substantial amount of research. Round-up
articles should cover all parts of the Bay Area.
Examples of recent articles by
Bay Area free-lancers include "Coffee,
Tea, Mommy, & Me: Tumble & Tea, Play Café Bring
New Parent-Child Café Concept to East Bay;" "The
Great Charlie Brown Hunt - and Places to Lunch or Munch Along
the Way" (about the creation and display of dozens of Charlie
Brown statues in honor of Santa Rosa cartoonist Charles Schulz),
"His, Hers, or Hyphenated? Solving
the Surname Dilemma" (about the different choices Bay
Area families make about their children's last names), and "With a Baby Goat Here, and
a Baby Chick There . . . Vallejo's Loma Vista Farm."
We use several freelance articles per issue. Our focus is
on practical, down-to-earth articles. No political material,
fiction, poetry, childbirth stories. We are generally overstocked
on humor pieces. We do not buy "parenting advice" articles
based mainly on the writer's own experience, whether as a parent
or as a therapist, or solely on .published sources. We emphasize
carefully researched articles. Please identify your sources and
provide contact information for fact checking.
Articles on health, education, and child development are usually
written by professionals in those fields or experienced, specialized
free-lance writers.
Good possibilities for non-specialist writers include interviews
with well-known Bay Area figures who have young children; places
to go with children; parent resources (e.g., crisis hotlines);
"how-to" articles on everyday aspects of childrearing
(e.g., giving a birthday party, buying play equipment, dealing
with peer pressure).
We do not use articles that focus on a single business, although
we have done "round-up" stories on recycled children's
clothing stores and on play cafés. In these cases, we
make every effort to include ALL such businesses without our
circulation area, whether or not they advertise with us.
A writer's first article for us is often "on spec;"
we usually make assignments after a mutually satisfactory initial
experience with a writer. We may ask for rewrites or additional
sidebar material without extra compensation. We sometimes cover
a writer's unusual expenses.
Non-local articles are most often purchased on a second rights
(reprint) basis, and we require permanent San Francisco Bay Area/Northern
California exclusivity. Our usual payment is at or slightly above
average for regional parenting publications.
Past reprints purchased have included: "Working Out With
Your Baby," "How Safe Is That Swimming Pool?"
(a look at water quality at public pools by a Florida state pool
& spa inspector; we added a local sidebar); "Say Cheese!
How to Videotape Your Child's Birth;" and "What's Reggio?
The Hot New Preschool Approach from Italy."
We normally pay within 30 days of publication (occasionally
slightly longer, depending on cash flow, staff vacations, and
the general level of chaos in our office at any given time).
How to Submit
We prefer complete manuscripts from writers whose work we
have not published previously. Please include word count, what
rights are available, and anywhere else the article has been
submitted or published.
By mail:
Dixie Jordan, Editor
Parents' Press
1454 Sixth St.
Berkeley, CA 94710
Include a stamped, self-addressed envelope if you want your
manuscript returned, or your query answered. Submissions on disk
in MacIntosh format only, please.
By e-mail:
ParentsPrs@aol.com
Please include the word "Query" or "Submission"
and a very brief description in your subject line. NO ATTACHMENTS,
NO MICROSOFT WORD (.doc) FORMATS. Manuscript must be included
in the body of the e-mail, in plain text (not HTML)
Although we try to reply promptly, we receive a very large
volume of submissions. It may take up to two months, or even
more, to receive a reply.
Rights
We buy articles in one of three ways:
1. All rights, including electronic, for publication in print
and on-line. Pay is based on the amount of work and research
entailed rather than length, and may range from $100 to $500.
(Higher amounts usually go to authors who have written several
articles for us.) We like to have photographs accompany articles,
if appropriate, but do not pay extra for them. (All photographs
must be accompanied by appropriate model releases.)
2. First periodical (print) rights with permanent Northern/Central
California exclusivity, plus electronic/web rights. Pay is substantially
lower than for all rights.
3. Second rights, again with regional exclusivity. Many authors
who sell mainly on a second rights basis include the price of
the article with the submission. Pay is generally between $25
and $50.
Photography
We occasionally buy one-time rights to photographs that are
suitable for use on our cover. Prints, slides, CDs are all acceptable
for submission, or e-mail one or two .jpegs to artdept@parentspress.com.
Please include a stamped, self-addressed envelope if you want
your photos returned.
Each photo (slide, CD, etc.) should be carefully labeled on
the reverse side with the photographer's name. Exercise care
in labeling - pencil and ballpoint pen can damage prints, while
felt-tip and similar ink can smear if not allowed to dry thoroughly
before one photo is placed on top of another.
Please remember that we must judge photos by how well they
will reproduce on newsprint. Many very cute photos are not suitable
for newsprint reproduction.
Model releases must be included for each person who is identifiable
in a photograph. The release must be signed by the individual,
if 18 years or older, or by the subject's parent or legal guardian
if under 18.
Submit photos by mail to:
Art Department
Parents' Press
1454 Sixth St.
Berkeley, CA 94710
|
