Writer's Guidelines

Submitting articles to iPhone Life

(Formatting guidelines)

(Last updated July 13, 2009)

Thanks for your interest in writing an article for iPhone Life. Up front, please understand that we don’t pay authors. However, we will publish your contact information and a bio box containing your photo and your description of what you do.

We put the archives of our issues online. That means even if you don't have an issue handy, you can get a good idea of the kinds of articles we publish.

Submit a proposal first!

To make sure you don’t waste your time writing about an unsuitable topic, or one that has already been covered or assigned; always submit a short proposal first. E-mail it to Halthaddeus [dot] com (or Richthaddeus [dot] com) with your proposal. It doesn’t have to be long, but it should include a specific, focused topic sentence:

• Bad example: “I’d like to write about productivity applications.”

• Better example: “I’d like to review the five best productivity apps.”

• Even better: “I’d like to review the top five productivity apps that help your organize information on the iPhone and iPod Touch.”

Note: We generally don't give assignments to new authors. Instead, they send us a proposal with the specific ideas they have for an article.

Word length and due dates

We’ll get back to you on the proposal and if necessary, help you refine the topic. Once we’ve agreed on a topic, we’ll discuss article length and due dates. Please note that we cannot guarantee publication of any article or the specific issue in which it will be published. In general you can think in terms of 700 words per page plus graphics. Most articles are 1 to 2 pages.

Sections in the Magazine

^{Most submissions should naturally fall into one of these sections. Below is a brief description of possible articles, but feel free to use your imagination:}

iPhone/iPod touch
Reviews of new hardware including new iPhones, iPods, and iPhone challengers. Hardware considerations like battery life.

Tips
Tips and how-to's of non-obvious features. How to make best use of built-in capabilities.

iTunes
How iTunes can be used, tips and tricks, what it can do. Many possible articles here. Most users just scratch the surface.

Accessories
Reviews of individual products or classes of products.

Software
Reviews of individual or classes of products. This will section of the magazine helps users navigate the app store and find the best software for their needs. Free software. Software development stories may fall here or in "Work".

Web
Great web apps. Useful web sites.

Work
Using the iPhone profressionally, in the work environment. Collective use in the Enterprise -- Case studies, ROI, gotcha, etc. Authors may work with Enterprise Editor, Nathan Clevenger nathanciphonelife [dot] com.

People
How you use the iPhone or iPod touch personally or in a particular profession. Check out "People" section of magazine for examples.

Creating Apps
Mostly non-technical stories about the overall process of creating apps for the App store. Case studies, how to start from an idea, effective marketing, user interface, programming resources are examples of topics.  (Summer 2009 was first issue with this section.)

Different types of articles

There are a number of different types of articles published in the magazine. But all have one thing in common: they are tightly focused on the iPhone or iPod Touch. The actual articles in the premier issue serve as examples. With that in mind, here are some of the different types of articles you could write:

User Profile
This is where you write about how you use your iPhone or iPod Touch in daily life. It can be a general article, in which you write about all the different things you do with your device, or it can be focused on a specific use—for example, how you use your iPhone to help you as a teacher, lawyer, salesperson, etc. Try to avoid the obvious (e.g., “I use my Contacts manage my contacts). Instead, focus on unique ways you do things, tricks you’ve discovered, add-on software that helps you, etc. For examples, see the People section of any issue.

How To
This is where you write about how you do something specific. For example, you might write an article titled “How I keep my data synchronized while I’m on the road,” or “How I manage my finances on my iPhone.” The focus of these articles tends be narrower than the user profiles described above.

Tips and Tricks
Most of these tend to fall into the “how to” category. A tip is a very short, tightly-focused, self-sufficient nugget of information. You can write about something neat you discovered about the iPhone, or a neat feature on the iPod Touch. Tips should not be about obvious features. For example, we wouldn’t expect you to submit a tip about tapping on icons in the Home screen to launch an application, unless you had discovered an unusual feature associated with that processor--one that most people didn’t know about. We are open to tips that involve freeware apps, but prefer not to publish tips about commercial apps. Generally, tips are not over 200 words.

Product Reviews
This category includes reviews of user-installable apps, hardware accessories--occasionally--updates to the iPhone OS and new versions of the iPhone or iPod Touch. We prefer reviews from people who already have a specific product and have used it for a while. They tend to give more practical feedback. Another possibility is an article comprising a series of short reviews of related products. For example, you might submit an article titled “Five classy cases for the iPhone,” or “Track your finances with these iPhone apps.”

Interviews
A question and answer session with a specific individual who is closely associated with the iPhone or iPod Touch. For example, we might publish interviews of game developers and with the person at Apple in charge of developing the built-in applications that ship with the iPhone.

Enterprise articles
These can include any of the above article types, but they are focused specifically on enterprise use or developers of enterprise solutions for the iPhone. We are always looking for good material from experts, such as reviews of new applications. We are particularly interested in profiles of how iPhones are actually being used in organizations (health care facilities, service organizations, educational institutions, etc.). We also publish articles about strategy and implementation issues involved in using iPhones in companies, as well as new iPhone-related technology impacting the enterprise. We also publish articles about software development with an emphasis on material that has broad applicability to developers. Finally, we are interested in articles about how individuals use their iPhone in a large organization. Address questions and submissions for the Enterprise section to
Nathan Clevenger nathanciphonelife [dot] com, Enterprise Editor

Vendor-submitted articles can be problematic because of lack of objectivity. However, we will consider articles by industry experts regardless of affiliation if the approach is objective and informative.

Some things to keep in mind

If you are able to work for the love and fun of it, go ahead and submit a proposal. When you write your article, keep these points in mind:

1. You are writing to a group of readers who tend to be intelligent, but who are not necessarily experts in the topic about which you are writing. Please define unusual terms when necessary and try to avoid jargon.

2. Keep the structure of your article simple and the information well organized. We occasionally get first drafts that look like the writer just put down ideas as they came to him. That’s a great way to get your ideas on paper, but you can end up repeating yourself or splitting up your ideas. Before you send us your first draft, look it over to see if you need to reorganize it or delete repeated information.

3. Keep your article focused on the topic we’ve agreed on.

4. Your content should be respectful both to the audience and to the subject matter. Bring out the good points in any product you review. As appropriate, include areas in which the product could/should improve, and things for users to watch out for. If a product has no good points, we don't want to waste time or space reviewing it.

5. When you write the article, it might help to think of yourself as a “knowledgeable friend.” Imagine that someone you know and like has asked your opinion about something, or asked you how to do something. Or maybe you’ve discovered something interesting that you want to share with the friend. Don’t be literal about this. That is, don’t make it a letter to your friend. But write in a friendly, not-overly-formal style.

6. As already mentioned, we’ll also need a good recent photo of you and a short (less than 200 words) bio, which will appear in the article. Include an e-mail address where readers can contact you.

7. The fundamental criterion for any article is “practicality.” That is, each article should be useful to a significant segment of the readership. The more universal the content, the more likely it is that it will get published.

Our articles are written in-house, or by volunteer enthusiasts or individuals who are trying to establish themselves in the iPhone arena. We do not pay freelancers. However, if your are a freelancer and wish to write an article or two, something, to get “published in iPhone Life” on your resume, let us know. We understand that you support yourself with your writing and if you decide not to work with us, we certainly understand.

iPhone Life Editor's Choice Awards

 In order to best guide our iPhone Life readers and at the same time acknowledge product vendors, we invite authors to designate products in their articles with iPhone Life Editor’s Choice Awards.

The award can be given to App Store apps, Web apps, and accessories. When you submit your articles, please indicate which item(s) you feel deserve the award. Note that there can be more than one item nominated, especially in articles that review a number of apps or accessories.

The criteria for selecting an app or accessory are as follows:

• The item is exceptional in terms of ease of use and its feature set, or…
  
• The item provides new features to the iPhone, or significantly enhances existing features, or…
• The item has a strong “WOW” factor, or…
• The item is the best (or among the best) in its class of app or accessory.

Author's use of submitted articles

The pre-edited version of a submission remains the property of the submitter and the submitter may use that version in any way he wishes whether or not iPhone Life uses the article. Smartphone magazine retains all rights to edited submissions to use it in the magazine, on-line, on a CD, or in any way it sees fit. If the author wishes to use the edited version of the article, contact Hal Goldstein halthaddeus [dot] com. Normally we are quite liberal on allowing an article to be re-used.

Formatting guidelines for the first draft

Please submit all articles as MS Word documents. The first draft is mainly about content. Don’t bother putting a lot of formatting in a first draft. Indicate titles, subtitles, headings, and captions as described below.

• Title of the article (one per article).

• Subtitle of the article (one per article). This is sometimes called the “summary blurb” and is found below the main title. It further explains the article and draws the reader in. It is not necessary if you have a strong main title.

• Subheadings for sections within the article. For example, in an article that reviews a number of different software apps, you might have a subhead for each app. If there are five main sections in a single review, you would have five subheadings.

• Second-level subheadings. If there are multiple sub-sections within a single subheading, you can specify second-level subheadings. We rarely use third-level subheadings.

• Include graphics where appropriate; each graphic in an article should have a caption.

Some other formatting points:

• Bulleted and numbered lists are acceptable. Bulleted lists are an especially good way to organize a lot of little bits of information. Numbered lists should be used when sequential order is important. For example, in a list of steps the reader should follow.

• Tables are a great way to organize and compare similar products, but they can also be overkill if you have only a little information to present. Tables are by no means mandatory and most of the articles we publish do not have tables. However, if you decide to include one in your article, the easiest way to deal with a table is to create it in a spreadsheet program such as Excel and send it to us as a separate document. Indicate in the first draft Word document where the table goes.

• Captions should be associated with all graphics in the first draft. Captions should be able to stand alone from the text. It is OK to repeat information from the body of the article in the caption. It’s better to overwrite your captions; We’ll cut them down if necessary.

• Images: You may embed images into the text of a draft, but you should also send us the original image files separately. These image files should be in .tif, .jpg, or .bmp format whenever possible. Further, you should reference the file name of the image with the caption for the image in the document. For example, a typical graphics reference would look something like this:

  <Evernote.jpg, caption>
  
  Fig. 1: Evernote lets you collect, organize, and access info on your iPhone.

• Web references: Whenever you mention a product for the first time, include the developer’s name and a Web reference in this format: Name of product, name of developer (web reference). For example: “SugarSync (sugarsync.com) is is an excellent way to access files stored on either your home computer or the Web.” Please be boringly consistent about this format—the name of the product, followed by the name of the vendor, followed by the URL in parentheses.

Word documents preferred

We use MS Word for editing purposes. Please save your documents in that format.

Finally, don’t worry about (or spend much time on) the actual graphic design of the article; we have a graphic artist who does that. However, if you have suggestions you want to pass on, please place them in angle brackets. For example, if you think a particular picture needs to be at the top of the first page, you might put the following next to the image: <place image by article title, top left first page>