Guidelines and Suggestions for Guest Posts at The Weekly Crisis
Thank you for your interest in writing a guest post for The Weekly Crisis.
To help fascilitate your writing of said guest post and to make it easier on me, in terms of formatting the post for publication, I’ve put together a few guidelines and suggestions for you below.
Please note that these are not set in stone – merely guidelines. Ultimately I want people to write in their own voice. However the following might help your post to ‘fit’ better with The Weekly Crisis and get the attention it deserves.
Topics
Posts work best if they are relevant to my overall topic – comic books and the reviewing thereof. Of course there is a lot of leeway in this overall topic – generally anything comic related, ranging from interviews, state of the unions, previews, back issue reviews or guest spots in any of my regular columns, are available for guest post positions.
Review Format
For all reviews, please use the same formatting as I do in my own reviews. By this, I mean starting with a 200x300px cover image of the comic or trade followed by the title and issue number in CAPS and the writer and artist on separate lines below. Here’s an example:
[200x300pxCoverImage]COMIC NAME #1234
Written by Writer Name
Art by Artist Name
Finally, end your post with a verdict – Must Read, Check It or Avoid It – similar to how I do with my own reviews. Follow this with a short, one to two sentence, summary of your thoughts.
Voice
Some guest posters worry about what voice or style to write in. Ultimately this is up to you and I want to encourage you to bring your own voice to your post. My readers are used to my voice, which I’d like to think is personable and relatable. However, it’s up to you how you approach it.
Sub-Headings
I love to use sub-headings in my posts when it comes to editorial or opinion pieces. This breaks up the content into digestable pieces and helps draw the eye down the post. Examples of these are the very sub-headings I am using for this post – Topics, Voice, Sub-Headings, etc.
If you have a sub heading in your post, please, simply leave them unformatted and I will add the required html when it comes time to publish. As long as you have it set up properly, it should be painfully obvious what are or are not sub-headers.
Images
I love to include images in posts on The Weekly Crisis. As my theme (reviews) is fairly text oriented, images add personality, break up content and grab attention. I find that posts with at least one good image, specifically a clickable image header, in it get more attention than others. A few suggestions for images:
Thank you for your interest in writing a guest post for The Weekly Crisis.
To help fascilitate your writing of said guest post and to make it easier on me, in terms of formatting the post for publication, I’ve put together a few guidelines and suggestions for you below.
Please note that these are not set in stone – merely guidelines. Ultimately I want people to write in their own voice. However the following might help your post to ‘fit’ better with The Weekly Crisis and get the attention it deserves.
Topics
Posts work best if they are relevant to my overall topic – comic books and the reviewing thereof. Of course there is a lot of leeway in this overall topic – generally anything comic related, ranging from interviews, state of the unions, previews, back issue reviews or guest spots in any of my regular columns, are available for guest post positions.
Review Format
For all reviews, please use the same formatting as I do in my own reviews. By this, I mean starting with a 200x300px cover image of the comic or trade followed by the title and issue number in CAPS and the writer and artist on separate lines below. Here’s an example:
[200x300pxCoverImage]COMIC NAME #1234
Written by Writer Name
Art by Artist Name
Finally, end your post with a verdict – Must Read, Check It or Avoid It – similar to how I do with my own reviews. Follow this with a short, one to two sentence, summary of your thoughts.
Voice
Some guest posters worry about what voice or style to write in. Ultimately this is up to you and I want to encourage you to bring your own voice to your post. My readers are used to my voice, which I’d like to think is personable and relatable. However, it’s up to you how you approach it.
Sub-Headings
I love to use sub-headings in my posts when it comes to editorial or opinion pieces. This breaks up the content into digestable pieces and helps draw the eye down the post. Examples of these are the very sub-headings I am using for this post – Topics, Voice, Sub-Headings, etc.
If you have a sub heading in your post, please, simply leave them unformatted and I will add the required html when it comes time to publish. As long as you have it set up properly, it should be painfully obvious what are or are not sub-headers.
Images
I love to include images in posts on The Weekly Crisis. As my theme (reviews) is fairly text oriented, images add personality, break up content and grab attention. I find that posts with at least one good image, specifically a clickable image header, in it get more attention than others. A few suggestions for images:
- the maximum width for a header (think those Weekly Crisis or Moments of the Week headers) is 608 pixels (roughly the width of my content area).
- the maximum size for cover images is 200x300px (constrain for 200px width, final size might be off by a few pixels, depending on original size)
- please ensure images are able to be used in terms of copyright and fair use
If you can’t find the right image for your post don’t get too stressed. I’m reasonably quick at finding them, especially in regards to cover images.
If you have the image already, feel free to provide a link to it from your Flickr account or upload it to ImageShack or any other imagesharing service.
Post Length
This is the most popular question in regards to guest posts and it’s summed up as such – as long as it has to be to get your point across.
If you can do your post in 200 words and it is concise and covers all the points you wanted to make, then the post only has to be 200 words. If you need 1000 words to do it, the post is 1000 words.
However, I suggest trying to stick to about 500 words for most single issue reviews and upwards of 1000 words for most OP/ED articles.
Editing
Please note that I do edit posts that appear on The Weekly Crisis. I rarely heavily edit them, but it’s not unusual for me to change a title, rework an opening or conclusion or correct grammar/spelling.
Don’t be offended by this - I’m just trying to make it as successful as possible and I know what generally works well with my audience.
Occasionally I’ll send a post back to you, the author, with suggested additions, omissions or changes. This is generally if I feel the post could be further enhanced in ways that go beyond some basic editing.
My hope in this is that we get a post up that hits the mark with my readership - good for you as the author, good for The Weekly Crisis readership and, as a result, good for the blog as a whole.
Also, do not format your posts with any html. I will handle the bolding, headers and other html coding.
Exclusivity
Unless previously negotiated, I’m assuming that the post you’re writing is exclusively for the use of The Weekly Crisis. While you’re more than welcome to write on the same topic elsewhere - my hope is that posts that appear on The Weekly Crisis do not appear in the same form elsewhere, whether on your own blog or as a submission to someone elses.
Byline
As the author of the post, I want to highlight you, your blog or any product or service that you have to offer. This should largely be done in a byline.
Bylines should be a sentence or two, at the start of a post, explaining who you are and what you do. Feel free to include up to 3 links in it, whether it’s your blog, social media links (Twitter, MySpace, etc) or anywhere else you would like to spotlight.
This byline will appear in the opening of your post in italics with the links and text you provide. If you don’t feel up to the task of writing a byline, just provide the links and I’ll write it for you.
In-post links - if relevant to the topic you’re writing about, you’re welcome to link back to your blog within the post. Keep in mind that this ‘relevancy’ is very important. Some guest posters have included too many links or irrelevant links back to their own blogs and have received some criticism as a result. I don’t mind promoting you - but sometimes subtlety works best.
Conclusion
If you have any questions or concerns - please do contact me via the form below and I’ll do my best to answer them.
Before writing your guest post, please contact me so we can discuss your guest post proposal. You may reach me through my contact page or the contact form below. Simply state that it is a guest post proposal in the message and leave me your idea, whether a review, Top 10 Tuesday list, opinion, editorial or anything in between, and a link to your blog or website (don't worry if you do not have one) and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.
Thank you for your interest and involvement with The Weekly Crisis.
If you have the image already, feel free to provide a link to it from your Flickr account or upload it to ImageShack or any other imagesharing service.
Post Length
This is the most popular question in regards to guest posts and it’s summed up as such – as long as it has to be to get your point across.
If you can do your post in 200 words and it is concise and covers all the points you wanted to make, then the post only has to be 200 words. If you need 1000 words to do it, the post is 1000 words.
However, I suggest trying to stick to about 500 words for most single issue reviews and upwards of 1000 words for most OP/ED articles.
Editing
Please note that I do edit posts that appear on The Weekly Crisis. I rarely heavily edit them, but it’s not unusual for me to change a title, rework an opening or conclusion or correct grammar/spelling.
Don’t be offended by this - I’m just trying to make it as successful as possible and I know what generally works well with my audience.
Occasionally I’ll send a post back to you, the author, with suggested additions, omissions or changes. This is generally if I feel the post could be further enhanced in ways that go beyond some basic editing.
My hope in this is that we get a post up that hits the mark with my readership - good for you as the author, good for The Weekly Crisis readership and, as a result, good for the blog as a whole.
Also, do not format your posts with any html. I will handle the bolding, headers and other html coding.
Exclusivity
Unless previously negotiated, I’m assuming that the post you’re writing is exclusively for the use of The Weekly Crisis. While you’re more than welcome to write on the same topic elsewhere - my hope is that posts that appear on The Weekly Crisis do not appear in the same form elsewhere, whether on your own blog or as a submission to someone elses.
Byline
As the author of the post, I want to highlight you, your blog or any product or service that you have to offer. This should largely be done in a byline.
Bylines should be a sentence or two, at the start of a post, explaining who you are and what you do. Feel free to include up to 3 links in it, whether it’s your blog, social media links (Twitter, MySpace, etc) or anywhere else you would like to spotlight.
This byline will appear in the opening of your post in italics with the links and text you provide. If you don’t feel up to the task of writing a byline, just provide the links and I’ll write it for you.
In-post links - if relevant to the topic you’re writing about, you’re welcome to link back to your blog within the post. Keep in mind that this ‘relevancy’ is very important. Some guest posters have included too many links or irrelevant links back to their own blogs and have received some criticism as a result. I don’t mind promoting you - but sometimes subtlety works best.
Conclusion
If you have any questions or concerns - please do contact me via the form below and I’ll do my best to answer them.
Before writing your guest post, please contact me so we can discuss your guest post proposal. You may reach me through my contact page or the contact form below. Simply state that it is a guest post proposal in the message and leave me your idea, whether a review, Top 10 Tuesday list, opinion, editorial or anything in between, and a link to your blog or website (don't worry if you do not have one) and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.
Thank you for your interest and involvement with The Weekly Crisis.
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