General Submission Guidelines
Guidelines for unsolicited submission to MacEdition for non-staff members:
Articles/Guest columns
- Query letters are required. Articles blindly submitted automatically become the complete property of NMR Media and will not be returned, nor will the author be compensated.
- Query letters should contain, at a minimum: who you are, what you want to write about, and why you should write about it rather than someone else.
It is not a requirement that you be an expert in a field to write about it, but it certainly helps. Even if you’re not, you should be able to explain why someone would want to listen to your opinion/research.
Wow us with your ability to read, write, and make sound conclusions.
Compensation will be determined at the time an agreement is reached.
Letters to the Editor
Unsolicited Letters to the Editors (LTE) are welcomed (in addition to all the other methods of providing feedback on the site). The more coherent and relevant your point is, the more likely your letter is to be published. MacEdition is under no obligation to respond individually to any letter, though the editors may on occasion do so.
LTE should be submitted in email, to the address listed in the "Contact Us" page on the site. LTE should be in the body of the message. Attachments will not be accepted.
LTE should be no more than 500 words, though exceptions may be made at the sole discretion of NMR Media.
All LTE, published or not, become the sole property of NMR Media, for purposes of copyright. By submitting LTE, you acknowledge that the content may be used in other forms without credit or compensation to the author.
NMR Media, reserves the right, but not the obligation, to edit LTE as deemed appropriate for items including, but not limited to: space, grammar, spelling, profanity, and relevance. However, we will not twist the meaning of your letter. If you blast us and we print the letter, readers will know you blasted us.
NMR Media assumes no liability for any comments or assertions made in your letter, should it get published.
All potential "conflicts of interest" or "affiliations" should be noted when writing LTE so that the affiliations can be noted, if published.
Names, addresses, and company information will be withheld from publication upon request. Anonymous letters will get published only in cases of extreme relevance.
Guidelines for Guest Columns
Format
Preferred:
- Plain Text
- RTF
Acceptable:
- MS-Word 6 or above
- WordPerfect/Mac
- ClarisWorks/AppleWorks
Length
Generally, guest columns should be between 500 and 1500 words, averaging about 1000 words. While there are no space limitations on the web as there are in traditional print, there is still a limit to how much most people will read in a single sitting. This limit is a guideline, though, and can be modified if warranted for a particular column.
Topics
Query letters are required for authors who do not have an established relationship with MacEdition. If there is a relationship, a query for the appropriateness of topic (somewhat less formal than a query letter) is still encouraged.
Editing
NMR Media reserves the right to edit content supplied for publication, for any reason deemed necessary. (However, this does not indicate an obligation to do so.) This is particularly relevant in the case of fact-checking as it is the author’s responsibility to be correct if facts are provided.
Rights
In exchange for compensation determined at the time of agreement, NMR Media requires the following rights:
For original works:- First worldwide publication rights (it is exclusive, and you will have to affirm this)
- non-exclusive, perpetual secondary publication rights for the purposes of digital republication in searchable archive form and derivative MacEdition publications. (Basically, we can keep using it once we have it, as long as it’s in electronic form.)
- right to transfer these rights to subsequent or subsidiary companies, or partners as deemed appropriate, as long as it is under the banner of some brand owned by NMR Media, and the author is cited. (In other words, we may license our content, and by extension, your content, as long as credit is given to MacEdition and the author. We can’t sell your article outright to another publication, though.)
(same as original articles, but with no first rights)
- non-exclusive, perpetual secondary publication rights for the purposes of digital republication in searchable archive form and derivative MacEdition publications. (Basically, we can keep using it once we have it, as long as it’s in electronic form.)
- right to transfer these rights to subsequent or subsidiary companies, or partners as deemed appropriate, as long as it is under the banner of some brand owned by NMR Media, and the author is cited. (In other words, we may license our content, and by extension, your content, as long as credit is given to MacEdition and the author. We can’t sell your article outright to another publication, though.)
All other rights will remain with the author.
Commissioned columns
At times, NMR Media may commission columns on a specific topic. Barring an agreement at the time to the contrary, articles solicited under these terms will be considered "work-for-hire", and all rights to the work will belong to NMR Media, upon compensation to the author.