Cohousing-L Mailing List: Call for Articles: "Politics in Community, " Communities issue #140

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

Communities Editor <cnroth [at] gmail.com>
is the author of the message below.
It was posted by Fred the Cohousing-L list manager <fholson [at] cohousing.org>
--------------------  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS --------------------

Hello,

Communities Magazine is now seeking articles for issue #140,
"Politics in Community." The issue will be out in September 2008.

Please send your article idea to editor [at] ic.org by ***Sunday, April
6***. (Early submissions are appreciated.)

Your final article must reach us by ***Friday, May 23***.

1. Theme articles: "Politics in Community":

What is your community's relationship to politics? For example, are
larger-scale political awareness and action important to you
individually and/or collectively? Do community members have
relatively unified or diverse viewpoints on political issues? How do
you discuss political subjects? Do you have a community etiquette
about when and where it's ok to talk politics, and when it is not? Do
internal politics operate within your community that either mirror or
contrast with the political dynamics of the larger society? How do
you handle political disagreements and internal political tensions?
How do you present yourselves and your political viewpoints to people
outside of your community? Do you see yourselves as contributing to
political change on a local and/or a society-wide level?

[Please forward this email to anyone you think has a good story on
this theme for Communities magazine.]

2. We are also seeking articles about:
- Creating community in your neighborhood;
- Starting a new community;
- Process and communication issues in community; and
- Seeking community to join.

Word length is from 900 to 2500 words. We're seeking articles written
in a reader-friendly, popular-magazine style, rather than in academic
style.

If you'd like to submit an article, let us know and we'll send you
Writers' Guidelines. Contact Chris Roth at editor [at] ic.org or
541-937-2567 ext. 116.

If you don't want to write an article but want to submit photos, let
us know and we'll send you Photo Guidelines. Contact Ann-Marie
Stillion at annmarie [at] ic.org.

I. WHAT "SUBMITTING AN ARTICLE" MEANS. We will promise to read your
article, but we may respectfully decline it and not publish it, or
save it and publish it in a future issue. We also reserve the right
to edit, shorten, or revise your article. Most of the time we contact
authors about this ahead of time and get their comments, corrections,
etc.
 
II. GETTING PERMISSION AHEAD OF TIME. Please send the article only
when you have permission from anyone you need it from, such as fellow
community members. It's difficult for us to get all set to run an
article only to find that the author's fellow community members say
No at the last minute.
 
III. PUBLICATION RIGHTS. Once your article appears in Communities
magazine, we own first North American Publishing Rights. This means
your article appears in Communities magazine the first time it
appears in North America. After that, you own it again. If you'd like
to use it elsewhere, you can, and we would appreciate your using an
attribution line saying, "This article first appeared in Communities
magazine, (date); for further information on Communities magazine:
http://www.ic.org ."

IV. PHOTOS.

If we publish your article, we want to accompany it with compelling
images that illustrate your subject. You know your subject best, so
we are appealing to you for images. If you submit an article idea,
our Photo Editor, Ann-Marie Stillion, will send you our photo
guidelines, including how to send us your photos. In the meantime, we
hope this guide will help you. If the task seems overwhelming, see if
others in your community like taking pictures. They might already
have great images to go with your article.

If you would like to submit an article but cannot supply photos,
that's fine; however, you must give us plenty of advance notice so
that if we use your article we can get an illustrator.

No matter how you send us your photos, please remember to include
information for the caption of each photo, as well as the full name
of whomever we should credit for the photo, including their community
name. Also, if there are people in the photo, then get permission to
use the photo in Communities magazine. A good caption includes the
location, all the names of the people or group in the photo, and the
date if that applies. Also, please prepare to send hi res images; web
photos rarely will be usable.

Content of the submitted images:

If the story is focused on a certain person or group, include a
photograph of them. Always get as close to your subject as possible.
Photographs of your subjects engaged in their work or in their
environment make for interesting photos. We will assume that any
people in your photos have already given you permission to appear in
Communities magazine. If you think this will be a problem, please
take care of it before sending us photos.

You may also include additional, ambient photographs of a home, a
table setting, food, art, or landscape, along with your people shots.
We are a magazine about people and communities but every picture does
not need to have people in it. Maybe the image is a row of colorful
shoes next to a playground that suggests children, for example.

Modern digital cameras put the power of making beautiful images in
all our hands. Use the power and have fun!

Color cover photos:

We pay $150 for the images we use on the cover. If you are interested
in submitting images for the cover, please study the call for
articles posted for that issue. The best way to achieve a winning
cover is to study the magazine. Be aware that your image must work
behind the masthead, cover titles, etc.-normally the top of the image
should not be vital to the image meaning. We are seeking
thought-provoking approaches to visually communicating
community-images which speak in new and interesting ways. Surprise
us. Think about what you would want to see/say on a newsstand. Feel
free to contact the photo editor with images or suggestions. You will
need at least a 6 MB camera at the highest resolution of capture for
cover photos.


Chris Roth
Editor, Communities Magazine