Writers guidelines are a set of guidelines put together by a publisher or other organization that specify their requirements for material from writers.
A good set of writers' guidelines will specify:
- topics that may be covered
- the regular sections (e.g. departments or features) that are available to freelance writers
- the sections that are not available, i.e. they are covered in-house by staff writers
- how to query, e.g. whether to submit completed manuscripts or query first
- name of appropriate editor or other contact person
- contact details
- preferred format & style
- preferred length
- rights purchased
- rates of pay
As a freelance writer you should read a publication's writing guidelines carefully. If you want to win assignments, be sure to follow them. Editors are swamped with submissions from writers who never bother to read either the publication or their writers' guidelines.
To see examples of writing market guidelines you can visit our free database of writers' guidelines. Our Markets Plus database lists even more markets - more than 2,500 publications with writer guidelines online.
By following the editor's Writers Guidelines you will automatically get to the front of the line!
Did you know?
Writers guidelines are also sometimes referred to as "Submission Guidelines", "Contribution Guidelines", "Contributor Guidelines" or "Author Guidelines".
Tip: When searching for "writers guidelines" online, don't forget to search for variations such as "writer guidelines", "writer's guidelines" and "writers' guidelines".
For example if you are searching at Google for "travel writers guidelines", don't forget to also search for variations such as "travel writer guidelines", "travel writer's guidelines" and "travel writers' guidelines".
