THE SCOTS MAGAZINE COMMISSIONING AND SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
GETTING THE FLAVOUR
The first thing to do is read The Scots Magazine to become familiar with the material and the style.
Contributors should be passionate, knowledgeable and be able to communicate that passion and knowledge in a way that will engage readers in the UK and also overseas.
FEATURES
The Scots Magazine is a Scottish general interest magazine, covering “Scotland – Past, Present and Future” and includes the following topics, although this is not an exhaustive list:
- People
- Wildlife
- Nature
- History
- Social history
- Events
- Outdoors
- Leisure
- Food and drink
- Travel
- The arts (including books, music, poetry, visual arts, theatre)
- Photo features
These features are generally restricted to the geographic area of Scotland, but if there is a strong and interesting Scottish connection, we will consider the idea.
Features should be between 500 and 1500 words (including side panels on facts and information). On very rare occasions we will publish features up to 2000 words, depending on the subject matter.
The tone of articles should be friendly but informative, without being overly educational or academic.
All material must be sent by e-mail or saved as a Word document on disc. Please send an SAE if you would like your disc returned.
It will be expected that research has been done on how the feature can be illustrated. If a contributor sources the appropriate images and sends them in the correct format (to be checked by the editorial team before acceptance) then an agreed additional fee will be paid.
Please send, in the first instance, a paragraph outlining the idea by e-mail (including sources of images), to editor@scotsmagazine.com. Any unsolicited material sent without an SAE will not be returned.
RESPONSE
We aim to respond to all ideas within 14 days. This will be by e-mail.
PHOTOGRAPHY
All photography should be submitted on disc or by e-mail. For particularly large files, please use file-sharing websites such as You Send It.
All images must be clearly captioned for information and copyright.
Digital images (preferably tif or Jpeg format) should be saved at 300dpi. High resolution images should be sent to us on a CD-R or DVD. Please send an SAE if you would like the disc returned.
If historic and/or valuable images are to be used, it’s preferable that they are scanned and submitted as above. In exceptional circumstances we will accept historic prints to scan but we cannot accept liability for any loss or damage.
FEATURES WITH PHOTOGRAPHY
If you are looking to submit a feature with photography, we will accept the package as a whole – the feature plus an agreed number of images.
PAYMENT
Payment is on acceptance. In the case of features/photography packages where we use more images than agreed, an agreed extra fee will be paid on publication.
COPYRIGHT
When submitting photographs and other illustrations where copyright is held by another party, it is the contributor’s responsibility to obtain permission for use in The Scots Magazine.
EDITING
All material will be sub-edited before publication. This is normal practice and material may have to be edited for length before use.
If you would like further guidance on any aspect of contributing, The Scots Magazine staff will be pleased to help you. Email: mail@scotsmagazine.com
