Author Guidelines

We welcome contributions to help turn this site into a real resource for North London. We particularly welcome reports from events (with pictures if you have them), comment on local issues, reviews of cultural events or theatre and notices on upcoming events that we can help you build. If you have an event or job vacancy you’d like to advertise just let us know, and if you think we would like to link to your website we’ll be more than happy to consider it.

Alternatively you might like to simply send us a link to an article you’ve seen that interested you and you think might interest us.

 

Remit: Please bear in mind the remit of this site. We’re based in North London and we are passionate about our communities – with a focus on supporting the left in its many forms. Having said that we are an independent site and there’s no ‘party line’ here, we’d be more than happy to see articles that encourage discussion and debate, even when we don’t agree with them.

Types of content: We take straight news, comment, reviews, reports and simple, fun shorts. We’d also be happy to run picture stories that illustrate new developments, dangerous junctions, etc.. Not all stories have to be ground breaking after all – just of general interest and hopefully the structure of the site allows for that.

You’re welcome to send us the finished piece straight off, but if you’d rather chat to us about it first that can be helpful as we’re always happy to provide constructive criticism and advice to help improve your work.

Tone: say what you feel. However, we expect the comments on our articles to stay polite, to encourage a bit of an online community, so it’s only right that we ask authors not to needlessly inflame or insult our audience to help keep them on track. Fair’s fair.

Length: In general articles we recommend 600 words for longer pieces, articles longer than that often don’t get read online (or at least only by a smaller group of readers) and we like to encourage at least one picture and several links with a piece. Please attach pictures with your submission which should be in text (not html) in the body of your email. Link urls should be placed in the text where they are intended to go – but we’ll do the coding.

We reserve the right to edit for length, house style, clarity and general corrections. However, we won’t edit for meaning without checking with you first.

House style: This site is intended for the general reader so please try to avoid technical jargon, ideological posturing or political assumptions about who is reading your article. We will reject your article if you use the words “surplus value”, “commodity fetishism” or “gaia”. I know it’s hard but do try and keep up, it’s the twenty first century you know.

We are insufferably political correct so do mind your language. Thank you.

Structure: when editing it’s likely we will create new paragraph breaks in long swathes of text and introduce sub-headers to help break things up. It’s harder to read long passages on the screen than it is on the page so this is essential (along with the occasional picture and link). If you’d like to choose for yourself where those breaks and sub-headers go then put them in to the text when you send it to us.

References: this site is not an academic journal so if you want to reference a book or source a fact either use a link or an English sentence like “In Homage To Catalonia George Orwell said…” we’ll only take footnotes out if they appear because we’re more innit than ibid round here.

Advertise my campaign: If you would like us to cover your campaign or local group, for example, we’d be really interested in a piece that explains what you are doing and why you are doing it. The less like an advert it sounds, the more effective it will be. The only payment we’re expecting is a little thought on tailoring your content for this website.

One of the underlying aims for the site is to give a space to articulate all the good work people are doing across North London but because they are doing it in small groups it often goes unnoticed. So anything we can do to help your work reach a wider audience we will be glad to help.

Pay me: No. Right now we’re not in a position to pay people for their submissions even though, to us, they are metaphorical gold dust. We don’t make any money from this site, it’s advertising and paid content free so you’re not subsidising an editor’s second yacht or anything. One day we may well be in a position to pay you for your article / photos / little piece of sunshine but that day has not yet come. Sorry.

Finally: Whilst in special circumstances we are willing to bend these guidelines, in general, please try to conform.

How do I send my work to you? Details on how to submit using email or the form provided can be found here.