[box icon=”none”]The following has just been updated on the writers page for AVfM. Please feel free to ask any questions here as there is no commenting available on the site page for writers. Thanks – PE[/box]
Please read this carefully and completely before submitting.
A Voice for Men welcomes contributions from the larger community of men and women with something to say about most any aspect of the modern sexual zeitgeist. Some basic requirements for submissions are as follows:
You must know, or be willing to learn, how to post an article in WordPress admin. It is relatively simple and we will help you if you are unfamiliar with the platform.
Pieces are generally expected to be between 750 and 1,500 words, but variations on that are not out of the question.
Very important: Use a spell check before submitting, or we will send your piece to the trash before we finish reading it. Sorry, we don’t have time to compensate for your lack of attention to punctuation and other details.
One of our pet peeves is improper use of bold fonts, ALL CAPS and punctuation. Caps, bold font and exclamation points do not make your point stronger in most cases, and may actually make you look desperate. Occasionally there are exceptions, but the best policy is just to let the writing, not gimmicks, make your point.
Improper use of punctuation in relation to quotation marks is one of our other pet peeves. For example, when using quotation marks, in most cases punctuation will be placed inside the second set of marks, not outside. Thus, we put something in quotation “like this,” not “like this”. Cool? There are some minor exceptions, and you can read about that here.
Going through a piece with lots of things placed in quotes and having to henpeck our way through correcting things like that puts us in a bad mood. So, please do your part; have your article not require anyone to sit with it for two or three hours in order to make it publishable.
[box type=”alert” icon=”none”]Some other matters for writers to consider:[/box]
Your byline: We ask all writers submitting for the first time to give a first and last name to use in the byline. It does not have to be your actual name. It can be a pseudonym of your choosing. Please do not submit articles with an internet screen name like lizardgulp321 or Phineas Fembotcrusher and expect us to let it represent a contributor to AVfM. Please help us maintain a professional appearance that fits the high caliber website AVfM has become.
You have to be able to write effectively. You needn’t be Hemmingway, but fundamental writing skills are a must. You can have the greatest ideas and perspectives in the world, but if you can’t set them to pen in a way that keeps people engaged, then no one will finish what you have written, or come back to this website.
This is not a place for partisan politics. Period.
This is not a place for woman bashing. Clarification: We invite well written pieces on the dark side of both the feminine and masculine psyche with unapologetic abandon. The point is that bitches and ho’s diatribes are not the same thing as incisive analysis about what is wrong with women in this culture, any more than rants about how “men only want one thing” have ever added anything meaningful to understanding men, generally speaking. OK, lecture over.
Regarding religion: AVfM accepts no articles that either promote religion, or that are critical of those that choose to follow a religious path in life. The idea is the AVfM is not a platform for a religious message, nor is it a place where we will tolerate those who are religious being made to feel unwelcome or unwanted.
If you have not just been scared off, and you can wield a keyboard like a sword, then shoot me an email at avoiceformen@yahoo.com. Send me a submission (no attachments, plain text only please), include whatever name you want placed as the byline for the piece, and let’s add another voice to the choir.
