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Contributors' Guidelines
 Natural
Child Magazine is a positive, grounded, open-minded, subscriber-supported digital
magazine for parents who want to explore
conscious, environmentally-sound,
healthy family
life from pregnancy through birth and early childhood.
The focus is on the health and well-being of children and the Earth.
We believe that mothers
and fathers are experts about what is best for the well-being of their own
families. We provide a place for them to share natural living strategies for
their young families. We seek to support them in their choices and in their search
for unbiased facts that provide an alternative to the information found in
traditional consumer parenting magazines.
Examples of topics for which we seek
submissions include: green living with young
children, feeding your child naturally, vegetarian babies,
keeping your home free of toxic chemicals that can
especially affect the health of pregnant women and infants,
connecting young children to Nature, natural childhood remedies, natural
family fun and play, non-competitive games, holistic grandparenting,
healthy pregnancy, homebirth and other birth stories, breastfeeding issues, babywearing, cosleeping, vaccination
pros and cons, circumcision pros and cons, non-coercive parenting, and
non-violent communication.
Editorial Style
Since
our readers live around the world, our articles need to reflect
that. Please avoid using local slang or other terminology, as well as
references to specific seasons or weather. Resources, where provided,
should be as international in scope as possible. The
length of your article is not as important for a digital magazine as it
would be for print. However, we prefer articles of approximately 1,500
to 2,000 words; please discuss length with us prior to writing, if possible.
We use gender-neutral language and appreciate our writers
structuring their work to avoid referring to all people as "he." If
necessary, accepted articles will be edited to reflect this policy.
Our articles include both mothers and fathers, and focus on outcomes for
children. They must include a sensitivity to child health and the
environment.
Natural Child Magazine is primarily reader-supported.
We do not publish "advertorials" or articles promoting
or mentioning products, services,
brands, or companies.
We support the World Health Organization's International Code of Marketing
of Breastmilk Substitutes and do not publish articles
about bottle feeding.
How to Query Us
Please do not send us general "I want to write for you"
letters. Query by email with an outline of a
specific proposed article and a
bit of background about you and your experience with the topic. We appreciate knowing if your article has been published
elsewhere – either in print or on the web
– in the past, or if you have
submitted it elsewhere recently. We are unable to
pay contributors but will provide you with a
subscription, and are happy to link to your
website or blog and/or to barter for advertising.
Articles are accepted for
publication in a particular issue of Natural
Child Magazine. That means
we require your permission to publish the article one time in the
magazine and to have it appear in that context on our website, and as
part of third-party CD/DVD versions or other
compilations of the magazine's articles that are
licensed by libraries and other institutions.
Writers retain all other rights to their work, and are therefore free to
contribute their articles to other magazines or websites without our
permission. However, as a courtesy, we ask that you not publish the
proposed article anywhere else until it's been published by
us, and during the two-month period while the
issue in which it appears is current.
We welcome photographs to accompany articles; we require photo releases
in order to publish photos of people other than
yourself and immediate family. If the subject(s) are not your
children, we require written permission from the children's parent or
guardian.
Your article must be submitted in
Microsoft Word or a compatible format, with no fancy fonts or other
formatting. If you are also submitting photos, please attach them
separately and do not embed them in the article. All articles will
be edited for spelling, punctuation, grammar, clarity, space, and
consistency with our editorial
style. We may change the title. If major renovations are required, your article will be returned
to you with suggestions for reworking.
Editorial deadlines are the first of
December, February, April, June, August, and October.
Contact
Wendy Priesnitz, Editor by email:
Editor@NaturalChildMagazine.com
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