Writers Submission Guidelines

Please review the writers submission guidelines below, before submitting any articles to us. Send all submissions and inquiries to submit@JustSayGo.com. 

Submission Form

All articles submitted must be accompanied by the submission form, which provides a convenient place to enter important article and contact information, and assures accuracy of your story. You may use the text shown below, (copy and paste into your document), or you may request a submission form from our producer, at email: producer@justsaygo.com.

Please include the following at the beginning of each article:

Story Title:

Story by:

Photos by:

Additional photos credit:

Email address (to be published):

Story Location:

State or Country, (please spell out, no abbreviations):

Story Location: City or Town

Email address to contact you, if different from the one to be published:

Your phone number: (this is not for publication, but for our contact purposes)

Additional Comments and Helpful Information:

Audience

JustSayGo.com readers have a penchant for adventure, a taste for the unexpected, and a thirst for the unknown.

• They are intelligent people who may or may not be extensive travelers, but simply readers interested in travel and/or other cultures.

• They want a friendly, conversational tone to greet them.

• They have a natural curiosity about the subject.

Article Length

Each article should be a minimum of 500 words, with a maximum of 1000 words. Articles may be edited for clarity and length. In addition, basic information that should be included in the article include:

• Location, including city, state/province/region and country.

• Time of year

Time Frame

For the most part, JustSayGo.com articles do not have deadlines. However, in certain cases, the timeliness of articles becomes their main attraction. Publishing an article about the Salt Lake City Olympics a year after the fact would not be as interesting to readers as it would if it were published a month later. If you agree to write a time-sensitive article for JustSayGo.com, please try to adhere to the timeliness of the event as close as possible.

 

Elements to Be Included With Submission

All photographs must be submitted at the same time as the article; articles that do not include photographs will not be accepted. Please send at least 3 photos, but no more than 6 (see photo and artwork submission, below). Captions for photographs are not used with destination articles at this time. Remember to use the submission form mentioned at the top of this page. Stories that do not include this vital information will not be accepted.
 

Where to Submit Articles

Send your questions and/or completed articles, including full author contact information and photographs with captions, to submit@JustSayGo.com. Please note that we reserve the right to reject articles that do not conform to our Submission Guidelines.
 

JustSayGo.com Style

A key interest point of JustSayGo.com is the readability, conversational tone, and (where appropriate) irreverent humor. Remember, you are writing for an intelligent, busy audience that doesn’t want to be patronized or bored. The following guidelines should help you find your voice.
 

Informal Tone
You are providing a first-hand account of your particular experience. Although others may have had very different experiences, it is your thoughts on your journey that is making your article unique.

• Speak in the first person, avoiding the second person wherever possible. You are talking about your own personal experience, which can be quite different for other travelers.

• Avoid usage of “one.” Use “you” in its place.

  • Wrong: One should never stick one’s fingers in a lion’s cage.

  • Correct: You should never stick your fingers in a lion’s cage.

• The writing should be conversational with short sentences. Grammar can be a bit loose. For example, some sentence fragments may be acceptable if the usage is common, acceptable in conversation and in keeping with JustSayGo.com style. However, don’t use sloppy grammar without purpose and don’t use too many short paragraphs.

• Slang and contractions can be used where appropriate.

• You should write in a concise and direct manner, with humor and wit. Clarity should never be sacrificed for cleverness.

• Be careful of regionalisms: You do not want to inadvertently mock any particular group or ethnicity.

Easy to Use

• Never assume readers know a fact. Sometimes a piece of information that’s obvious to you, the first-hand observer, can cause confusion for the rest of the story. Don’t take anything for granted. For example, overusage of foreign words and terms without adequate explanation can cause consternation in the reader.

• Keep paragraphs relatively short.

Humor

• Humor should be sophisticated.

• Don’t be too sarcastic, condescending, critical, insulting, or controversial.

• Do not use ethnic or racial humor; language can be misinterpreted, even with good intentions.

• Puns and asides can be used where appropriate, but don’t be trite or rely on clichés.
   

Computer Submissions

It is essential that you send files in a format we can accept. Please read the following guidelines carefully.

• All materials should be submitted via e-mail.

• Microsoft Word files (6.0 or above) are preferred.

• All materials, including submission form, article and images should be submitted in ONE EMAIL, unless your email service limits your outgoing file load. If you send more than one email, please make sure each is identified with the article title in the subject line of the email.

• Please make sure that you have and use anti-virus software, so that none of us infects each other.

• Photograph names should be listed and mentioned within each article, identifying where they should be placed.

Page Layout

When writing the article, make sure that you are following these formatting requirements:

• Single-space your manuscript.

• Insert one hard return between paragraphs. Do not indent paragraphs. Do not insert any extra hard returns between paragraphs.

• If your document is over 850 words, consider dividing your story up with subheads, with each subhead title being no more than 35 characters. The subheads are simply a way of breaking up the story and making it appear more visually interesting to the eye. Subheads should be written in bold.

• It's okay to use special characters but use them occasionally, for example the
  em-dash (—), ampersand (&) and degree mark (°).
  

Photographs/Artwork

When submitting artwork for your article, please adhere to the following guidelines:

• Submit only as a .jpg or .gif (the two most common web formats).

• At least one image per article must be submitted, with a maximum of 6 images. If no pictures are available with the story, clipart and royalty-free images are available on the Internet at http://www.leonardo.com/mediabank/

• Our producer will size images to the standards established on the site.

• If you cannot submit electronically, please make sure it is okay to snail mail to us before sending. We are not responsible for artwork that is lost in the mail. If you would like your artwork returned to you, please provide a self-addressed stamped envelope. Please send an email to our producer at producer@justsaygo.com regarding this matter or if you have questions regarding photographs or artwork.
  

Spell checking and Proofing

It is the author's responsibility to ensure each document is thoroughly spell-checked. However, errors may occur in the production process. The author will be notified when the articles are published, it is then the author's responsibility to read through his or her article(s) and notify the producer (producer@justsaygo.com) if there are any errors.

Article Publishing Schedule

Articles will be published online according to the producer's production schedule. Please allow 2-4 weeks to see your articles appear online, and seasonal breaks in the production are always possible.

Permissions and Trademarks

You are responsible for getting permission to quote or reprint any material under copyright or other ownership, and to cite the source of anything that is not your original work. This includes written works as well as figures, photos and international works.

• You must send all written permissions with identification of the illustration, text or other material to which they pertain with the final manuscript.

• Please note that song lyrics and poetry (even as little as three words) can be copyrighted. If in doubt, do not use such material, as determining the copyright holder and then obtaining copyright can be a laborious (and expensive) process.

• As you are aware, plagiarism, no matter how unintentional, is a dangerous area and could lead to serious legal entanglements for you, your article, and JustSayGo.com. Please be careful not to inadvertently take language and/or full concepts from other printed sources, whether they are journals or books, without permission.

Returned Submissions

Due to the time constraints of our staff, from time to time a submission may be returned to the author with suggestions or requests for changes. This does not necessarily mean your work has been rejected, simply that your assistance in making changes will help expedite the editor’s job, as well as clean up some text and possibly eliminate possible confusion.