Article Submission Guidelines
Conservation Magazine Mission Statement
Conservation Magazine provides nature and outdoor enthusiasts and hunters and anglers with the opportunity to discover and connect with the people and research that positively impact the conservation of Alberta’s fish, wildlife and habitat.
Conservation Magazine is a semi-annual publication that focuses on the conservation of fish, wildlife and habitat in Alberta. We have an increasingly strong and devoted readership of people who are knowledgeable and passionate about the outdoors and make the natural wonders of our province part of their lives. Our readers enjoy hunting, fishing, bird watching, hiking, wildlife watching and outdoor photography.
We immerse ourselves in Alberta’s wild side while encouraging others to do the same, and aim for the magazine to evoke this sentiment. Conservation Magazine not only educates and encourages with provoking, original stories and articles, but also highlights the work of Alberta Conservation Association and our member groups that ensures Alberta’s extraordinary outdoor opportunities are available for generations to come.
Writing for Conservation Magazine
Geographically speaking, Conservation Magazine profiles happenings in Alberta. The best way to learn what constitutes a story publishable by Conservation Magazine is to read current issues, but keep in mind that we only accept fresh, new story ideas and angles and never regurgitate past material.
Articles submitted for publication should fulfill the promise of the author's query and, most important, the editor's assignment. Familiarize yourself with our publications to ensure your material is compatible with the magazine's format and needs.
Queries
Please query through email before submitting. Your query should portray the essence of your story and show why our readers would be interested. Indicate what photos and/or illustrations will accompany the story. Please send queries to lisa.monsees@ab-conservation.com, with a concise subject line indicating you are querying an idea to Conservation Magazine. Include your e-mail, telephone or other contact information with each query.
New writers, or writers who have not yet written for Conservation Magazine, are encouraged to query with writing samples attached. Spec submissions will not be considered without an accompanying query.
Queries allow us to assign specific articles according to our needs. Even though you may have a fantastic article idea, we may have recently published a similar story or have one in our files.
Please follow these guidelines when writing:
- Ensure your article is free of spelling errors (please always follow the latest edition of the Canadian Press Stylebook).
- Ensure your article is grammatically correct and accurate, and write tightly. Please adhere to the word count provided.
- Use a friendly, informal, conversational tone.
- Numbers, distances, amounts: make your facts interesting and relatable whenever possible. i.e. A muskrat can swim underwater about 46 metres. Compare that to an Olympic-sized swimming pool, which is 50 metres in length. The more imagery we can convey to the reader, the better.
- Suggest a headline and secondary headline, as well as paragraph headings when necessary.
- Please single space your document, and submit it in a conventional font (Times or Times New Roman, 12 point).
- Do not put two spaces after sentence punctuation; one space is all that is required. Please do not indent, tab or include hard returns.
- Please accompany your article with photography (for more information, see “Photography Submissions” ).
- If necessary, include relevant sidebars for additional information. Do not create a text box or highlight this particular information; simply leave one space, and title the proceeding information “SIDEBAR”.
- Do not insert photos, graphs or maps into your word documents!
- Source your information.
- Meeting deadlines is crucial; a missed deadline without prior approval can mean your manuscript will be rejected as publication schedules are tight.
- Ensure photo support arrives on deadline labelled appropriately. Submit an appropriate caption for each image (see “Photography Submissions” for further details).
Stories are typically supplemented with sidebars, bulleted lists, subheads, pull quotes and other graphic-friendly elements – please keep that in mind as you write.
Failure to follow these guidelines may result in the rejection of your manuscript.
Photo Submissions
In most cases, written stories are accompanied by photography, and bought as a package. Only digital photography is accepted. All photography must be taken in Alberta and of high-resolution. Fuzzy snapshots will not be considered. Set your camera to shoot at 200 dpi – 300 dpi and at a 4x6 format.
How to Submit Photos
When submitting photos, graphs or maps, please remember that all require captions, credits and other pertinent information that connects the image to the story.
Please ensure your photographs include within the megatag what we are looking at and where/when it was taken.
Metatag examples:
a) Mule deer taken at Buffalo Lake, September 2009_Lisa Monsees
b) Southern prairie grassland, east of Lethbridge, September 2009_Randy Lee
c) Kananaskis Mountain, July 2009_Don Myhre