East Minnesota Weekly News

Attention Writers!

Posted on 05. Jul, 2010 by Rose M Garland in Popular Stories, Writers Page

We’re looking for good, solid writers to write for the East MN Weekly News. Almost any subject may be covered. Writers are not currently paid, but writing for the EMW is something you can put on your resume, CV, on your website, or used in other places to help promote yourself or your outside interests. All articles will be held onto and published Saturday nights for the Sunday Edition.

Note: Not every writer that applies will be accepted.
Please send a sample of your work when applying.

What we’re looking for:

1. We’re looking for writers who write original, interesting articles on a variety of subjects.

2. Your articles and your writing DO NOT have to be perfect! However, it is preferred that writers have good spelling and grammar (although it’s not a requirement). If you do however, have bad spelling and/or grammar, we request that you keep your articles to no longer than 5 paragraphs. Short articles do better anyway.

3. Pictures are highly recommended, but pictures must be by you or from under a Creative Commons License Agreement. Don’t worry, they’re easier to find that it sounds.

The basic rules:

1. The East MN Weekly News will print nothing racist, whether it’s regarding African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, Caucasian Americans, non-Americans or any others. You’re welcome to write about immigration issues for example, but speculating on the traits of illegal immigrants on the basis of race will be strictly rejected.  (Editors note-7/11: I can’t believe this needs to be added, but anything discriminatory, against anyone, will be rejected!)

2. Self-promoting is great, and I recommend you promote yourself however you can! However, frequent self-aggrandizement stories will be rejected. For example, I once worked with a writer that had in all of his stories, something equivalent to: “I’m so wonderful, here’s 3 paragraphs about how great I am.” He wrote daily stories which all included how wonderful he was. That’s not ‘news’- that’s boring and pathetic. Don’t be boring!

3. You are welcome to write anything else you’d like, as long as you understand that the EMW editors also have the right to edit or reject your story. I don’t believe in censorship at all, but there are rare times (extremely rare) where something just cannot be printed in a Pg-13 newspaper – but you’re welcome to try to stretch the limits. Chances are it’ll be printed.

4. Finally – ALWAYS quote sources, and never, ever steal copy or photos!!!!!!!
   

Recommendations:

There are buttons next to your published articles. We strongly recommend all writers promote their own stories on social bookmarking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo Buzz, StumbleUpon and Digg. It’s also good karma to do the same for other writers and stories. This is not a requirement however, just a recommendation. It’s important to all of us to become widely read!

Writers Tip – avoid putting the current year or the previous year in your articles – for some reason Google doesn’t seem to like dates.

Are you still interested? I certainly hope so! If you are, I’d love to hear from you. Please Contact Me Here!

Sincerely yours,

Rose M. Garland, Editor-In-Chief

East MN Weekly News

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