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General Submissions InformationThank you for your interest in writing for Celebrating Greyhounds Magazine. Celebrating Greyhounds is an award-winning magazine for Greyhound adopters, owners, and friends. The purpose of the magazine is to provide information about Greyhounds as a breed. Recognizing that there are differing points of view on issues such as racing, breeding, and adoption policies, the magazine does not advocate a position on these issues. It will publish articles and reader letters regarding these issues as deemed appropriate. We are interested in articles about (in no particular order of priority) Greyhound health, behavior, care, activities, and humor (including short fiction); Greyhounds in amateur competition; Greyhound history; Greyhound-related crafts, and more. We are interested in articles that present information to Greyhound adoption volunteers, such as news or how-to articles. We are interested in articles about the culture of Greyhound ownership. We are also interested in original artwork, cartoons, book and product reviews, opinion pieces, and other material of that nature. Browse the cumulative index of articles on our website to get a sense of the type of material we like to include in the magazine. The index will also give you a sense of the topics that we have recently covered in the magazine; understand that we are always looking for new and different material to present to our readers and, therefore, if we have recently published an article on (for example) finding a lost Greyhound, we are unlikely to do so again in the near future unless the second article is substantially different from the first. We welcome original, literate articles by both published and new writers that appeal to all Greyhound lovers. Although we are interested in reprinting previously published work as well as original work, we prefer to have first printing rights to articles prior to their submission to other publications. We appreciate query letters before authors submit articles. Subject Matter Guidelines A. In General · Although most articles are based on our personal experiences with Greyhounds, articles should be factual rather than opinion-based or anecdotal. · Quote experts. · Writers should be knowledgeable to allow us to provide credible information about Greyhounds as a breed, their history, background, health, behavior, adoption, and Greyhound-related activities. · We are generally not interested in tributes to, or articles about, individual pet Greyhounds unless the article contains information of interest to our readers. · We rarely publish poetry, articles in the interview format, or articles in which the dog speaks as if human. · We occasionally publish short fiction (up to 2000 words). As a quarterly magazine, we prefer not to “serialize” articles. · We do not publish articles that have as their primary purpose the solicitation of funds. · We prefer tightly written articles in the active voice and reserve the right to edit for clarity, grammar, punctuation, and space constraints. B. Specific Regular Departments: Hero Hounds: We publish short stories about Greyhounds who have engaged in acts of heroism. Because the person who is on the “receiving end” of the heroic act can best write this type of story in a genuine, heartfelt manner, we prefer that the article be written by that person, rather than a third party. These stories run about 300-700 words. Think Piece: We publish opinion pieces on a wide variety of subjects related to Greyhounds. Length is open. However, the article should be long enough to articulate and support a cogent argument. As the “Think Piece” title indicates, the goal should be to stimulate thought, not to antagonize. In Memoriam: We publish notices in our In Memoriam section to remember deceased dogs who have been featured in the magazine. We do not publish notices for dogs who have not been featured in the magazine. These notices have a strict 175-word limit. The notice must mention the issue(s) of the magazine in which the dog appeared. The notice must be submitted to Celebrating Greyhounds Magazine within one year of the dog's passing. General Text Style Information We adhere to The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual, published by Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., New York, New York. Please see the style section for specific writing style examples that often appear in our articles. We reserve the right to edit. Please include two or more photos and/or artwork to go with your article. To identify the image, write a number on the reverse and supply captions at the end of the article with a corresponding number. Include an end-of-article About the Author byline. Submitting Material The
preferred procedure for submitting material is to send a query via
e-mail to the Editor, followed by an electronic file attached to a
separate e-mail. Please send articles as hard copy suitable for
scanning (no handwritten articles) to Celebrating
Greyhounds, Attn. Editor, Payment Since proceeds from the magazine are used to support the work of The Greyhound Project, Inc., no monetary payment is made. Instead, Celebrating Greyhounds provides writers with a byline and a copy of the issue in which their article appears. All regular contributors receive a subscription to the magazine. Deadlines Spring Issue: December 1; Summer Issue: March 1; Fall Issue: June 1; Winter Issue: September 1. Query deadlines are two months prior to issue deadline. Return of Material Photos submitted to Celebrating Greyhounds cannot be returned. We cannot use Polaroid photos or low-resolution digital photos printed on most home printers. Although we appreciate and enjoy all the photos we receive, we cannot print them all. We do keep them for possible use in future issues. Refer to pages 3 and 4 for formatting guidelines.
Style, Text, Grammar, Punctuation, and Photo GuidelinesRefer to this section before and while writing your article. It is meant to standardize style and usage and will minimize the need to edit. Text Formatting Guidelines 1. Submit articles electronically as Word documents attached to an e-mail message, or as hard copy via regular mail. Please provide photos. See photo guidelines for further information. 2. Use Times New Roman 12-point font, double-spaced. 3. Use one space (not two) between words and sentences, particularly after periods. 4. Indent paragraphs at .25. No tabs or space bar entries to start paragraphs. No extra lines between paragraphs. No special formatting, underlining, centering, or bolding. No page breaks, headers, footers, paginations, or style tags. 5. Unless you have many references, include them in the article text, not as footnotes at the end of the article. For example, write: According to The Merck Veterinary Manual, bacterial meningitis is uncommon in dogs and cats. 6. Add subheads to define sections. Use title case; that is, all initial letters should be capitalized except for prepositions under four characters. No periods after subheads nor special formatting or indenting. Punctuation and Grammar 1. Use the active voice, not the passive voice. Write: “The veterinarian examined Rory” rather than “Rory was examined by a veterinarian.” 2. Avoid excessive use of the first person (“I”). 3. Enclose quotations in smart quotes (“ ”). Use straight quotes (″) only for units of measurement. 4. Use quotation marks only when quoting someone. Use italics rather than quotation marks to represent unspoken thoughts or interior dialogue. Example: “Drive faster,” she said. We’re too late, I thought. 5. Use serial commas. Example: dog, cat, and otter; not dog, cat and otter. 6. Avoid run-on sentences. Example: “We use martingale-style collars for walks, however we do not use them in the house.” Break this into two sentences. 7. Use exclamation points when the sentence is exclamatory. Do not use for emphasis. 8. En dashes vs. em dashes: Use the en dash where the phrase could be read by replacing the dash with the word “to” (e.g., April-June) or for an adjectival phrase that contains an open compound (e.g., post-Civil War America). Use the em dash for other situations that call for a dash. Refer to the “dash” entry in the AP Stylebook for guidance. Insert a space on either side of the em dash. Number Usage 1. Spell out numbers zero through ten. Eleven or above are numbers except at the beginning of sentences (such as this one). 2. Use figures, not words, for ages, as in “My dog is 2 years old.” Fractions, however, must be spelled out and hyphenated, as in “My dog is 2 and-a-half years old.” Do not use “My dog is 2 ˝ years old.” 3. Use numbers for units of measurement. Examples: The four Greyhounds weighed between 60 and 72 pounds. Cut a board to 8 ft 4 in. long. Straight quotes are also acceptable to represent inches and feet. Do not use curly quotes as in 8” if you mean 8". 4. Units of measurement may be abbreviated (lbs, oz, mg) without a period. Use a period for inches. (The tail was 20 in. long.) 5. Spell out fractions smaller than one, using hyphens. Example: three-fourths. 6. Use commas in numbers larger than 999. Example: 1,000, not 1000. 7. Use percent, not %. Style and Usage Guidelines 1. Use your word processor’s spell check and grammar check functions, but do not rely on them. 2. Capitalize the word Greyhound or other breed names (Doberman, Saluki, Pharaoh Hound). Greyhounds’ names are not in quotes. 3. Use veterinarian, not vet. 4. Use great, not greyt. 5. Use website, not web site. Use e-mail, not email. Internet addresses should begin with “www.” 6. Spell out the names of U.S. states in article text. Abbreviations are acceptable for photo captions, author biographies, and event listings. In these cases, use standard abbreviations for states, rather than the postal abbreviations (unless for a mailing address). Example: use Conn. instead of CT. 7. Do not use “their” to avoid a gendered pronoun, as in “The owner didn’t visit their veterinarian.” Use “his” when in doubt. Alternate with “her” as needed and if desired. 8. Use “who” rather than “that” when referring to a Greyhound, e.g. “the Greyhound who chewed the bone.” 9. Do not use “etc.” to end a sentence. 10. Use italics for emphasis (not bold or all caps). 11. Italicize the titles of books, magazines, television shows, movies, plays, and other works. Put magazine and newsletter article titles in quotes. 12. Brand names and medical terms: Try not to use brand names unless essential to the article. Use a generic term, like adhesive bandage instead of Band Aid® or antibiotic cream instead of Cortaid® or cotton-tipped applicator instead of Q-Tip®. If using a brand name, insert the trademark as appropriate (for example, ® or ™). For prescription medication, use the generic name in lower case. Disease names are also lower case. Photo Guidelines 1. Please supply sharp, well-exposed photos or slides taken with film-based cameras. Photos taken by standard film-based cameras are strongly preferred. Use a commercial photofinisher. We never accept photos printed on a home printer. We do not accept unsolicited digital photos. 2. Use an address label on the back of the photo to identify the photo as yours. If you must write on the back, please use a fine point, permanent ink pen or affix a label and use a regular pen. Include the name of the dog(s), your name, and your address.
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