EDITORIAL Writer Guidelines & Submission Policy WELCOME! Thank you for your interest in contributing articles to MidWest Outdoors! Below is some info and guidelines to help you produce articles and images that are on target as we help our readers enjoy the outdoors! Send submissions to: info@midwestoutdoors.com Editorial Deadlines January issue, Canada Fever – Nov. 20 February issue, Canada Fever – Dec. 20 March issue, Canada Fever – Jan. 20 April issue – Feb. 20 May issue – Mar. 20 June issue – Apr. 20 July-August issue – May 20 September-October issue – Jul. 20 November issue, IceBreakers – Sep. 20 December issue – Oct. 20 What kinds of articles do we want? At MidWest Outdoors, our mission remains unchanged. We want to help everybody in the Midwest enjoy the outdoors. That means publishing articles that are mostly how-to/where-to. Our readers love detailed, local information they can’t get anywhere else! With few exceptions, we stick to covering fishing and hunting in Midwestern states: the Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and northwestern portions of Kentucky and Tennessee. In January, February and March, we publish ‘Canada Fever,’ the only sections in which we publish articles focused on Canada. TONE We publish articles that present the outdoors in a friendly, positive, and helpful way, and we don’t assume readers know ‘insider’ terms. Articles are preferably written in simple English that every reader will understand. We do not want articles to be preachy or snobbish. We are an oasis of positivity for lovers of fishing, hunting, shooting, and related outdoor topics. PRODUCT MENTIONS Unless we ask you for a product review, please do not write articles centered around features, benefits, and use of products. The reader is our primary target, so the premise of each article should center around helping the reader catch fish, hunt game, or find a good place to go. Of course, knowing about equipment is important in fishing and hunting, but product mentions should be presented in a way that serves the reader, not a sponsor. Some of you have sponsors, and product mentions are important for keeping those sponsors. It’s a matter of how you write things. Keep the spotlight on helpful information and slip in specific product suggestions. A good way to show products is in photos demonstrating what you are writing about. But avoid photos that are simply closeups of logos. WORD COUNT & COPY BREAKERS MidWest Outdoors publishes articles of about 600 to 1,500 words. All things equal, we prefer shorter. To make long stretches of copy easier to read, we encourage you to use copy breakers within your text. Copy breakers should be no more than 25 characters long. PHOTOS & GRAPHICS We love visuals that help illustrate concepts! Within reason, send us whatever you have that helps show what you are describing, up to 10 images. We can deal with prints or slides, but prefer digital images, in the highest resolution possible. We cannot print low-res photos, even those that look ‘fine’ on a computer screen. Minimum size: 5 inches wide, 200 dpi/ppi. (5 inches = about 1,000 pixels) We like getting the file just as it came out of the camera. Set your camera to the highest resolution possible, but it’s not necessary to shoot RAW files. We love maps and illustrations, provided they are original and/or royalty-free. If you are scanning images, set the scanner resolution to 300 dpi and the scale to 100%. Save the scan as a tiff (.tif) or jpeg (.jpg) file, at full resolution. If original is smaller than 4 inches wide, set resolution to 600 dpi and the scale to 100%. CAPTIONS Include suggested caption information for every photo you send, on the same file with your article text. Put name of photo, then caption. Please do not send captions in separate emails. Be specific and creative with captions and include names of people––and to avoid embarrassment, make sure their names are spelled correctly. How do I send articles and materials? MidWest Outdoors prefers receiving articles in Microsoft Word documents. For best results, please use our article template. FREE TEMPLATE We have a Microsoft Word document you can use as a template for your articles. It includes the format we prefer for adding suggested captions. Customize it for your use, save as a template, and call it up every time you start a new article. To request the template file, write “send me the article template” in an email to: info@midwestoutdoors.com. PROBLEMS? If you have troubles sending a word doc, you may paste the contents of your article into the body of an email, to the same email address noted above. Make sure captions are included, and that each caption clearly indicates which image it accompanies. Was my article accepted? We receive a large volume of editorial submissions every day, so please do not call the office asking about the status of an article. If we do not plan on using your material, we’ll let you know via email within 10 days of receipt. We keep some materials for up to 18 months before publishing them, especially if they are well done but “too late” for an upcoming issue. The best way to know that your submission was used is to watch the mail for a check from MidWest Outdoors. We pay shortly after each issue is published. SUBMISSION POLICY Any story submitted must be original and any accompanying image or images, such as photos, charts, maps, graphs or art, must be either original or from a royalty-free subscription service that allows for commercial use, posting, and/or publication by MidWest Outdoors Ltd. As a MidWest Outdoors, Ltd. contributor, your submission of any text and/or image is a guarantee and warranty that you and MidWest Outdoors have the right to use the text and/or image commercially for publication with your story. As such, you acknowledge to indemnify and hold MidWest Outdoors Ltd. harmless of any wrongdoing resulting from posting and/or publishing copyrighted materi-als of any kind, including text and images. Additionally, MidWest Outdoors Ltd. reserves the right to use any stories, submissions, and/or related materials in MidWest Outdoors magazine and any of our digital products, including, website, eNewsletter, and social media, as well as MidWest Outdoors Ltd.’s promotional materials.(Required)WELCOME! Thank you for your interest in contributing articles to MidWest Outdoors! Below is some info and guidelines to help you produce articles and images that are on target as we help our readers enjoy the outdoors! Send submissions to: info@midwestoutdoors.com Editorial Deadlines January issue, Canada Fever – Nov. 20 February issue, Canada Fever – Dec. 20 March issue, Canada Fever – Jan. 20 April issue – Feb. 20 May issue – Mar. 20 June issue – Apr. 20 July-August issue – May 20 September-October issue – Jul. 20 November issue, IceBreakers – Sep. 20 December issue – Oct. 20 What kinds of articles do we want? At MidWest Outdoors, our mission remains unchanged. We want to help everybody in the Midwest enjoy the outdoors. That means publishing articles that are mostly how-to/where-to. Our readers love detailed, local information they can’t get anywhere else! With few exceptions, we stick to covering fishing and hunting in Midwestern states: the Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and northwestern portions of Kentucky and Tennessee. In January, February and March, we publish ‘Canada Fever,’ the only sections in which we publish articles focused on Canada. TONE We publish articles that present the outdoors in a friendly, positive, and helpful way, and we don’t assume readers know ‘insider’ terms. Articles are preferably written in simple English that every reader will understand. We do not want articles to be preachy or snobbish. We are an oasis of positivity for lovers of fishing, hunting, shooting, and related outdoor topics. PRODUCT MENTIONS Unless we ask you for a product review, please do not write articles centered around features, benefits, and use of products. The reader is our primary target, so the premise of each article should center around helping the reader catch fish, hunt game, or find a good place to go. Of course, knowing about equipment is important in fishing and hunting, but product mentions should be presented in a way that serves the reader, not a sponsor. Some of you have sponsors, and product mentions are important for keeping those sponsors. It’s a matter of how you write things. Keep the spotlight on helpful information and slip in specific product suggestions. A good way to show products is in photos demonstrating what you are writing about. But avoid photos that are simply closeups of logos. WORD COUNT & COPY BREAKERS MidWest Outdoors publishes articles of about 600 to 1,500 words. All things equal, we prefer shorter. To make long stretches of copy easier to read, we encourage you to use copy breakers within your text. Copy breakers should be no more than 25 characters long. PHOTOS & GRAPHICS We love visuals that help illustrate concepts! Within reason, send us whatever you have that helps show what you are describing, up to 10 images. We can deal with prints or slides, but prefer digital images, in the highest resolution possible. We cannot print low-res photos, even those that look ‘fine’ on a computer screen. Minimum size: 5 inches wide, 200 dpi/ppi. (5 inches = about 1,000 pixels) We like getting the file just as it came out of the camera. Set your camera to the highest resolution possible, but it’s not necessary to shoot RAW files. We love maps and illustrations, provided they are original and/or royalty-free. If you are scanning images, set the scanner resolution to 300 dpi and the scale to 100%. Save the scan as a tiff (.tif) or jpeg (.jpg) file, at full resolution. If original is smaller than 4 inches wide, set resolution to 600 dpi and the scale to 100%. CAPTIONS Include suggested caption information for every photo you send, on the same file with your article text. Put name of photo, then caption. Please do not send captions in separate emails. Be specific and creative with captions and include names of people––and to avoid embarrassment, make sure their names are spelled correctly. How do I send articles and materials? MidWest Outdoors prefers receiving articles in Microsoft Word documents. For best results, please use our article template. FREE TEMPLATE We have a Microsoft Word document you can use as a template for your articles. It includes the format we prefer for adding suggested captions. Customize it for your use, save as a template, and call it up every time you start a new article. To request the template file, write “send me the article template” in an email to: info@midwestoutdoors.com. PROBLEMS? If you have troubles sending a word doc, you may paste the contents of your article into the body of an email, to the same email address noted above. Make sure captions are included, and that each caption clearly indicates which image it accompanies. Was my article accepted? We receive a large volume of editorial submissions every day, so please do not call the office asking about the status of an article. If we do not plan on using your material, we’ll let you know via email within 10 days of receipt. We keep some materials for up to 18 months before publishing them, especially if they are well done but “too late” for an upcoming issue. The best way to know that your submission was used is to watch the mail for a check from MidWest Outdoors. We pay shortly after each issue is published. SUBMISSION POLICY Any story submitted must be original and any accompanying image or images, such as photos, charts, maps, graphs or art, must be either original or from a royalty-free subscription service that allows for commercial use, posting, and/or publication by MidWest Outdoors Ltd. As a MidWest Outdoors, Ltd. contributor, your submission of any text and/or image is a guarantee and warranty that you and MidWest Outdoors have the right to use the text and/or image commercially for publication with your story. As such, you acknowledge to indemnify and hold MidWest Outdoors Ltd. harmless of any wrongdoing resulting from posting and/or publishing copyrighted materi-als of any kind, including text and images. Additionally, MidWest Outdoors Ltd. reserves the right to use any stories, submissions, and/or related materials in MidWest Outdoors magazine and any of our digital products, including, website, eNewsletter, and social media, as well as MidWest Outdoors Ltd.’s promotional materials. I have read the Writer Guidelines & Submission PolicyName(Required) First Last Email(Required) Δ
