Writer Guidelines

Writer Guidelines
nola family is always interested in hearing from local, experienced, freelance writers. You do not need to be a parent to write for our publication. If you’re interested in writing for us, please read more for where to send, our style guidelines, and more.

Please send an introductory e-mail to our publisher, Ann Herren at ann at nolafamily dot com, detailing any relevant experience. Please include min. two writing clips. Most of our freelance articles are on a topic assigned by us; however, if you have a story idea that you think would be of great interest to our readers, please feel free to pitch us on it.

Our editorial calendar is set at least three months—and sometimes up to a year—in advance. Holiday- or seasonally themed article ideas should be submitted at least four months in advance.
Please note: we rarely accept first-person essays, and are not currently looking for any contributing columnists.All of our feature stories should include a local focus, and require, at a minimum, three interviews with local experts and/or parents (in person or over the phone; sometimes when working with complicated medical topics, email correspondence with doctors is acceptable). We have received the gold award for overall writing from the Parenting Publications of America, and take pride in our editorial content and style.

Payment is made upon submission and acceptance, and covers all online rights unless we arrive at another agreement. For pay ranges (by word count), please contact the editor.
We pay a kill fee of $25 for stories cut because they do not meet nola family’s standards will receive no compensation. Should a story not meet the editor’s satisfaction, though, she will do her best to work with you to make the story acceptable for inclusion.
Stories moved to online-only status due to space will receive their full payment. nola family buys one-time print rights and exclusive online rights for one year.

nola family pays $25 for reprints; however, authors willing to localize their reprints with interviews with local parents and experts can expect more.For more detailed information on our style, please read on.

Voice
At nola family magazine we strive to sound informative, but not authoritative (and certainly not lecturing!). We leave the “voice of authority” to the experts we interview for our various articles. We do like to strike a conversational tone at times:

Sources
Unless otherwise noted, all articles should include:

  1. Quotes from at least one expert (i.e., Ob/Gyns or pediatricians for medical-related articles; financial planners for a financial planning article, etc);
  2. At least two moms, moms-to-be, or dads who have experience in what the article addresses.
  3. nola family magazine has relationships with local area doctors, and may opt to provide you with medical expert resources with your assignment. 
  4. This is to facilitate your work, as they have been vetted by us and have agreed to be available to our writers. If you have a particular doctor you’d like to use as a source, please run his or her name by us first.
  5. Sources must be provided, with names and contact information, at the bottom of your submitted piece as we may contact them for verification, fact-checking, or photos.

How to reference sources:

Abbreviations, tenses, & misc.
New Orleans: you can abbreviate as NO (no periods), NOLA, or as the City.

 

 

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