Newsletter

Strut Your Stuff!

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES FOR ARTICLES AND NEWS

The Southern Breeze News offers members of our region the chance to be published on a topic of interest to children’s book writers and illustrators. This document is your guide to success in writing and submitting your article.

Word count

General articles should be no more than 250 words. If you are asked to write a feature article, you may write up to 350 words.

Deadline

Articles for the summer issue must be submitted by April 1. Articles for the winter issue must be submitted by October 25. If you are a first-time contributor to SBN, please submit your article at least three weeks before these general deadlines. This will allow the editors time to give you additional feedback and provide the chance for you to rewrite your submission if needed for acceptance.

Organizing your article

The most important information should be in the first couple of paragraphs. If the reader looks only at these two paragraphs, he should know the main points of your article. This is contrary to what we learn as storytellers, and it can feel like we are giving away the ending of the story, but it is the standard of journalistic writing. If you are writing about an event or speech, resist the urge to weave a narrative that tells what happened in the order it happened. Instead, lead with the most important thing that happened, or the speaker’s core message. After that, fill in the details, working from the most important to the least important. Remember, in the old days, when editors “cut” an article for length, they did exactly that, snipping off the bottom of the article so it would fit on the page. Today, we don’t use scissors, but readers often drop off before they’ve read the full article. That’s why the end is still the right place for the least essential information.

Proofreading and fact checking

When you think you’re all done, check again. Run your article through spell check and correct mistakes. Read your story aloud, listening for sentence structure. Read your story backwards one sentence at a time to find errors in grammar. Double check the proper spelling and capitalization of people’s names, places, book titles, and publishers.

Publishing rights

SBN appreciates one-time-rights for articles and illustrations we publish. After we have published the work you've submitted, you may pursue other avenues for publication.

Book review policy

It is against SCBWI policy to review ANY children's books in regional newsletters. Acceptable reviews include how-to books on writing and illustrating, and books of essays about children's literature.

Submitting Your Work
  • Email your submissions to Dori Kleber, dori (at) dorikleber (dot)com.
  • Subject line: “Southern Breeze News Submission”
  • Include the title of the piece (if it has one), your name, phone number, website (or other contact information you want published) and email address in your message.

Deadlines
Summer Issue: Midnight – April 1st EST
Winter Issue: Midnight – October 25th EST

Check here for the writer's style guide.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES FOR COVER AND INTERIOR ILLUSTRATIONS

The Southern Breeze News (SBN) seeks both cover and interior illustrations. One illustrator will be selected for the cover art and several illustrators will be selected for the interior art for a single issue of the newsletter. This is an excellent chance to get your work seen by a large audience.

Guidelines
  • Submissions should represent the artist’s best original* work directed at children’s and young adult literature. They may be custom pieces or portfolio pieces.
  • A single cover illustration and/or multiple (3-5) interior illustrations should be submitted.
  • All work should be submitted as a digital image file at 72 DPI such as JPEG or TIFF. All Cover submissions should be full color. Interior art can be either grayscale or color.
  • Cover image size should fit within a 9”x12” proportional area at 100% size at minimum. We prefer larger pieces as we may need space within the art to add our masthead logo. (see cover on other side)
  • Spot illustrations can be any shape or size beyond the minimum of a 3” x 2” area.
  • All images should be converted to RGB.
* Due to the legal nature of contractual agreements, we can not accept illustrations of licensed properties, illustrations that have been published previously, or illustrations whose copyright is owned or shared by another company or publisher.

Permissions
  • SBN reserves the right to crop, reduce, enlarge or otherwise manipulate the work to fit the design requirements of the publication.
  • SBN requires one-time-rights for illustrations and articles published.
  • Emailed submissions will not be returned.

Benefits
  • Selected illustrations will run in one issue of the SBN.
  • The illustrator who’s work is selected for the cover art will be interviewed for an article in the SBN.
  • Both cover and spot illustrators will have their web site and contact information listed in the issue.
  • A poster will be made of the cover work for display at events.
  • Bragging rights and a portfolio piece!

Submitting Your Work
  • Email your submissions to Prescott Hill, Art Director, hill_design@mac.com.
  • Subject line: “Southern Breeze News Illustration Submission”
  • Include the title of the piece (if it has one), your name, phone number, website (or other contact information you want published) and email address in your message.

Deadlines
Summer Issue: Midnight – April 1st EST
Winter Issue: Midnight – October 25th EST

No comments:

Post a Comment