 |
|
| |
|
||||||||||||||
|
OUR AUDIENCE The primary audience for Rock & Gem is rockhounds and lapidary hobbyists. Our goal is to provide informative and entertaining articles for this audience, and to draw new people into the hobby.
WHAT WE BUY
We are particularly interested in field-trip and “how-to” articles. We also accept articles pertaining to specimen collecting, gold prospecting, minerals, geological formations, mining, informative and historical aspects of the hobby, lapidary profiles, and other related subjects. Especially welcome are articles that educate beginning rock collectors or lapidaries and promote active participation in the hobby. Feature length is 2,000 to 4,000 words. Field-trip articles should include clear, specific maps of the field-trip area, showing major highways, roads and landmarks that will help guide the reader to the site. These can be hand- or computer-drawn. They must also provide specific, easy-to-follow directions to the site(s) discussed, as well as photos of the site(s) and types of specimens collected. How-to articles may run 600 to 1,300 words, and should give clear, step-by-step instructions, accompanied by plenty of close-up photos or diagrams of the various steps and of the completed project. Freelance authors accept responsibility for the accuracy of their facts. Please confirm any statistical or factual information with a reliable source before submitting an article.
QUERIES
It is not necessary to query. We trust that you know what other collectors, rockhounds and lapidaries like to read, so please use your own judgment when it comes to what slant to give your article. To avoid repeating a topic we’ve already covered, familiarize yourself with past issues of the magazine. All articles are taken on speculation.
Rock & Gem will only consider unpublished manuscripts submitted via mail that include (a) a double-spaced printout (sans-serif font preferred), (b) an electronic copy on a 3¼-inch, PC- or Mac-formatted floppy disk, (c) usable photos, and (d) adequate captions. The printed manuscript should reflect any special text formatting (i.e., italics, super- or subscript letters, etc.) that should appear in print. Save the file to disk as a .txt (text only) file. In your cover letter, please give your mailing address, phone number, e-mail address, Social Security Number, and a word count. Do not fax or e-mail submissions. An e-mail is not a substitute for a disk, and the editor will not open unsolicited attachments. PHOTOGRAPHS Each article should be accompanied by a selection (8 to 15) of clear photographs (color or black-and-white prints, or 35 mm slides), shot with 100 or 200 ASA film, that illustrate the story. Do not send negatives. Digital art must be submitted as .tif or .jpg files on disk or CD, accompanied by a proof sheet. Color photos must be 300 dpi at 4 inches by 5 inches; black-and-white diagrams must be 200 dpi at the largest intended size. Photo CDs will not be returned unless requested. Articles without photographs or with unusable photographs will not be accepted. Provide a separate typewritten list of informative captions numbered to correspond with your photos. (Please see Tips for Writing Good Captions on back page.) Do not write captions on prints in ink. Do not refer to photos or diagrams in your manuscript, as not all will be selected to run. ACCEPTANCE Rock & Gem does not send acceptance letters. When you submit an article, please be aware that you are submitting for an issue at least four months ahead. Your article may not be used immediately, but held for a future issue. Rejections will be processed in a reasonable time frame. Please allow us up to six months to use your manuscript before calling.
PAYMENT Payment for articles ranges from $150 to $300, and is made upon publication. Rock & Gem buys first North American serial rights and electronic media rights. Simultaneous submissions are not accepted. Articles are selected for publishing by the editorial staff, and are subject to editing. By submitting an article, you are accepting the terms laid out in these guidelines. RETURNING MATERIALS Due to the volume of submissions received, rejected materials will be returned only if accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE). Please be sure yours is large enough and bears adequate postage for all the materials you want returned. Rock & Gem can accept no responsibility for loss of, or damage to, unsolicited editorial contributions.
REJECTION LETTER
The editor is unable to make comments on every manuscript that is turned down. The form rejection letter is not designed to discourage the contributor, but outlines the general requirements for acceptance. Use the listed criteria as a guide when preparing future submissions. Please do not call the editor for further advice.
MAILING ADDRESS Mail submissions to:
Rock & Gem Submissions
HOW-TO GUIDELINES Rock & Gem is always looking for lapidary how-to stories. “Lapidary” can involve a wide range of crafts using gem material or stone, as well as lost wax casting, and silver- and goldsmithing. Our main audience is rockhounds, and how-tos give them ideas of what can be done with the material they collect, including fossils. If your expertise is in metalsmithing, you might consider finishing off your jewelry project with a premade cabochon or gemstone(s) for the rock and gem tie-in, though it is not necessary. Rock & Gem pays $200 to $250 per story.
Our main theme issues are January and July (gold), June (field trips), and October (opal). Other themes vary from year to year. Lapidary projects may tie in with these themes, but do not have to.
Rock & Gem accepts projects of all levels of difficulty. You may query on a topic, but all submissions are taken on speculation. We can't say for sure whether we can use a story until we’ve seen the final version, including photos and captions. Our main concern is not an artist’s writing ability, but his/her ability to clearly communicate instructions that will allow the reader to successfully finish the project. Most of our contributors are amateur writers, so you’re in good company! How-to word length ranges from 600 to 1,300 words. Use as many words as it takes to explain the project clearly; some projects take more, some fewer. The same rule applies to photographs. Do not refer to your photos within your text, as not all will be selected to run. Also provide a list of necessary materials and tools so the reader can assemble everything before starting the project. Provide a sharp, close-up, color photo of each important step of the project, as well as several of the finished item. The rule of thumb is 8 to 15 photos. Quality photos are often used on the cover. Prints and slides are both acceptable. Digital photos must be submitted as high-resolution (300 dpi at 4 inches by 5 inches) .tif or .jpg files saved on diskettes or CD. Do not submit laser prints except as a proof sheet; they will not scan well for reproduction. Please include a proof sheet with your diskette or CD for easy identification.
Diagrams must be high-resolution printouts that have not been folded for mailing or .tif or .jpg files that are 200 dpi at their largest intended size.
Write an informative caption for each photo, describing the step that is being illustrated. This may seem repetitive, but it beats having an editor fabricate a caption based on her best guess of what the photo is showing. Type your captions on a separate sheet and number them to correspond with the photos. Do not write captions on the backs of prints in ink. Ink often transfers to the faces of the photos, rendering them unusable. Type your captions on a separate sheet and number them to match your photos. Use a typewritten or printed adhesive label to identify each print or slide with your name and address to help ensure their return to you. All stories should be submitted as a complete package, including (a) a printed manuscript, (b) a text (.txt) file of the story on a PC-formatted disk, (c) 8 to 15 photos or appropriate diagrams, and (d) a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) of adequate size and with sufficient postage for any materials you want returned. See Rock & Gem’s writers’ guidelines for general submission information.
TIPS FOR WRITING A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a good caption is worth it weight in gold. Photos are a critical element of your Rock & Gem submission, and it is equally important that you provide adequate captions for them. In fact, poor captions can cause your manuscript to be rejected. Rock & Gem’s caption style is to use informative full sentences that tell the reader more than he could see by looking at the photo. You cannot leave it up to the editor to write your captions. She doesn't know why you took the photos you did, so she can't explain to the reader what is relevant about them. Here are some tips to help you write acceptable captions that will draw readers into your story. Captions must be meaningful full sentences, not merely identification. Your captions should say something about the subjects of your photos and explain why they are relevant to your article. It is not enough to identify a specimen in a photo and give its dimensions. The minerals are the thing. As much as you and your friends and relatives like being identified in a photo caption, remember that the minerals are the important thing to the reader. They subscribe to Rock & Gem for relevant information about minerals and collecting sites. What would you want to know if you were the reader? Put that information in your captions. Your captions should be just as full of interesting information as your article. If you have trouble writing an original sentence, find a sentence in your article that relates to the photo and copy it to your caption file. It’s that easy to write good captions! If you can't find a passage in your article that relates to your photos, you probably need to take new photos. If you are writing a how-to story, the same technique applies. Just copy the text that describes the step pictured, condense it a little, and paste it into your caption file. Examples
Poor: Two hand samples of ricolite
Poor: David Rogers shaking a sapphire screen
Poor: Drill hole in bezel
Poor: Six-inch emerald crystal
Poor: The finished “S” element
Poor: The author digging gems at the rocks at the Pitt Mine. These are very generic examples, but as the expert on your topic, you can include specific information that our rockhound readers will want to know. For more examples of Rock & Gem’s caption style, pick up any copy of the magazine. Read the captions and copy the style.
Please remember the following when writing captions: |
|
||||||||||||||
 |
