Revised December 5, 2017
Neighborly Town™ welcomes content from published and unpublished writers, from within and outside of the organization. Inquiries may be submitted here. Please include a brief description of the topic and content.
Due to time constraints, we discourage sending unsolicited submissions and have no responsibility for acknowledging them or for their care.
Before submitting content to us, you are responsible for reading, accepting, and agreeing to these guidelines including the agreement at the bottom.
Compensation
As a new nonprofit organization, we are currently not able to offer compensation other than the credit given as writer or contributing writer.
Rating, Comprehension Level, and Style
The content published by Neighborly Town™ is meant to be read by general audiences. Adult, edgy, or profane content is strictly prohibited.
While we are on a very worthwhile mission, we do not take our work too seriously. Consequently, we publish content that is very easy on the eyes and ears. Although we cover serious topics, when appropriate, we encourage the writer to inject some levity. Ideally, all of our content should be enjoyable, inspiring, and informative.
Content should be written for comprehension at the 6th-grade level except when a non-compliant term or phrase is deemed essential by the writer and editor. In such a case a parenthetic synonym, definition or explanation is the norm.
With the exception of our profiles, we encourage a non-formulaic approach. However, be sure to use a good-to-great literary hook in the first paragraph. You may also suggest a title for the piece, but we may revise or make a substitution.
We encourage all writers to keep in mind the immortal words of Lord Polonius from the Bard’s Hamlet, “Brevity is the soul of wit.” (Act 2, Scene 2)
As for style and mechanical resources, we highly recommend the following:
- Strunk and White’s Elements of Style
- Jacques Barzun’s On Writing, Editing, and Publishing
- William Zinsser’s On Writing Well
- Leither and Horwitz’s Slant.
Editorial Privilege
We retain the right to edit all content for clarity and conciseness with or without notice to the writer. Substantive changes are made with the writer’s consent.
Short Form
Currently, most of our content is short form at a length of 500 words or less. Our aim is to allow the average person to read the piece in just a few minutes.
Long Form
Some of our content is long form with a word count of more than 500 words. We may break up long form pieces into parts and publish them in succession.
Blog Posts
Although most of our blog posts are written in-house, we occasionally feature a guest post. Generally, all blog posts are in short form and in the first person. They are usually 4 to 5 paragraphs in length.
Profiles
Although most of our profiles are written in-house, we occasionally feature one by a contributing writer. Generally, all profiles are to use the short form although they may be written in several parts which would be published in succession. Each profile or segment is usually 4 to 5 paragraphs in length. The subject may be an individual, organization, event, etc.
The following is a suggested order for the paragraphs and content when a person is the subject.
- Engaging opener (good-to-great literary hook)
- Neighborhood or community service completed by the subject
- About the subject’s career
- Anything else about the subject that might be of interest to a general audiences
- Closing that ties-in with something from the opening paragraph
Byline
If you are a contributor, submit a current version of your byline with your submission.
Images
Where applicable, include a recent color headshot in portrait orientation and in either BPG, GIF, JPEG or PNG file formats but not TIFF. Smartphone images are acceptable. File size should be a minimum of 800 x 600 pixels but no larger than 5312 x 2988. Email the file(s) to your editor. You may also submit images or short videos of general interest. If you did not take the photos or shoot the video then you must have the written permission of the photographer/videographer to share them with us for use by us in any form including online, print, broadcast, etc.
Revisions
These guidelines may be revised with or without notice.
Agreement
By submitting content to Neighborly Town™ (NT) you acknowledge that NT shall rely on it being accurate to the best of your knowledge and belief. NT is under no obligation to use any or all of the content you submit. NT may subsequently update, revise, and remove any and all content at NT’s sole discretion and NT is under no obligation to notify or explain its decision. By submitting content to NT, you freely provide NT and its successors, assigns, licensees, and affiliates a perpetual, universal, and non-exclusive license to publish, broadcast, or otherwise use the content for any lawful purpose. This is the entire agreement between you and NT on the subject and supersedes any other. By submitting content to NT you hereby acknowledge and accept this agreement and agree to be bound by it to the full extent allowed by law. Likewise, you agree to the Terms of Service for our website and any other site or platform on which the content you submitted is published or broadcast.