Guidelines for all freelance authors submitting stories to MyCaribbeanScoop.com
We are providing the following information to help you in the submission of articles/content to MyCaribbeanScoop.
We love to write and share real stories about the Caribbean because it’s our passion…and we expect that to be your passion as well. We share your stories, you share our stories and everyone benefits
And so while we can’t afford to provide a salary we provide a small token of appreciation for those who contribute on a regular basis. In addition, you’ll be gaining good publicity, twitter and facebook followers, and some good karma.
Write: It’s simple, but not easy. Keep your content Caribbean-focused, follow your passion, and you may find your experience is of service to the greater good.
There’s no catch. It’s a delight—and even better, it’s genuine.
Two Options
1. Short Articles/Videos/Pictures-Submit via our submit form.
Suggested word count is usually ballpark of 200 words, but shorter (video with a unique intro or personal take) or longer is always fine as long as you feel you’ve kept the readers’ interest.
Note: If any part of your work has been published previously, you must inform us in writing—or you legally guarantee our right to publish. If your work has been published previously elsewhere online, please update your article with a slightly new title and/or intro. This allows Google and other search engines to pick up the article as a new, unique article.
2. For Regular Contributors
If you’re interested in becoming a regular writer, we ask would-be columnists to email four sample articles over the course of a month, along with information about what topics you’d like to cover to us at contributor@mycaribbeanscoop.wpmudev.host. It takes us time to set you up as a contributor on our site—so you must first commit to post at least one blog per month.
What Should You Write About?
Most contributors stick to one topic-of-interest, while occasionally writing other topics. To familiarize yourself with the tone and format of our blogs (they are generally shorter, and more personal than articles), scroll through the first few articles on mycaribbeanscoop.wpmudev.host.com.
You can write about anything that falls under “Caribbean Experiences”—real Caribbean stories and life experiences that inspires, educate and hopefully will lead to positive changes in the Caribbean. More specifically (but not limited to), we generally focus on inspiring stories and burning social issues. Basically, any article and video you find yourself getting emailed by friends, or stumble across on the online, or any new topics interesting enough to chat about to a friend but must be Caribbean related.
Once you’ve written your post, you’ll want to make sure that people actually read it. There are great articles available online—we highly recommend, Problogger, take a look!
General Principles
Tone & Edits
Reading MyCaribbeanScoop.com before submitting work will help you write to our audience. We do not publish infomercials, advertorials or glorified press releases. Articles are not a substitute for advertising. Your bio may, however, contain info re: your projects, web site etc.
Write for MyCaribbeanScoop as you would write a letter to your best friend (a personal style, however, doesn’t necessitate that the substance is casually researched). If you like something, be detailed. If you are negative, be fair. Always begin from the ground up: who, what, where, why, when. Keep it accessible—don’t assume knowledge on the reader’s part. Don’t dumb it down—feel free to go in depth—just define and explain as you go, and keep it fun or serious as appropriate.
Expect edits. This doesn’t mean that your article isn’t already great—but we may need to tailor your work to our audience and/or to fit our layout, particularly if your submission is on the long side. This includes images! We want to include your images where possible, but reserve the right to choose what we use for final publication, for aesthetic reasons and / or copyright issues.
Reviews/Interviews/PR/Advertorial Articles
We don’t do it. We will publish dedicated coverage, however, for non-profits and for-profits whose missions we and our readers believe in, on our site, facebook, and twitter. We retain editorial oversight and will intro this sponsored blog saying whatever we want. We guarantee the specific day of media coverage you request. You provide the content.
Acceptance, Payment & Rights
We can’t pay per article. We do, however, offer writer incentives for consistent writers.
We hope that you’ll consider the publication of your work the best publicity money can(‘t) buy, a good link/clip for your journalist’s portfolio, a contribution to your community and something to email home about. We may not be able to respond to or publish your work immediately but we do our best to have our readers and community voices heard.
MyCaribbeanScoop reserves all use rights to anything we publish in any form—but, with permission, we’re usually happy for you to sell your work elsewhere, provided we’re credited and linked to. Important: By submitting you give us use rights in perpetuity. You can use with credit and link, if you ask permission, in any publication that you own or control. We generally will not give permission or reprint articles we’ve edited, hosted, shared.
If you would like to republish your work elsewhere, please email contacts@mycaribbeanscoop.wpmudev.host.
We ask that you include a link back and language at the bottom indicating that readers may find the original piece on mycaribbeanscoop.wpmudev.host.
We aim to be a publication, not a bulletin board, so we generally don’t love reposting entire mycaribbeanscoop.wpmudev.host articles other places unless we have a mutually respectful relationship with another publication.
Promoting your article/content
If accepted and published, please feature your MyCaribbeanScoop article on your web site, social media profile, etc.—the more you feature it in your personal sphere, and email it to friends, the more traction and traffic it will get.
