Thank you for your interest in contributing to Marion’s premiere independent community news blog! We warmly invite you to participate in this project. Prospective contributors may submit original articles and opinion pieces. Please review our submission guidelines.
1. Keep It Topical
All submissions should focus on current events, social issues, community opportunities, or other matters of public interest. We encourage unique viewpoints and fresh takes on familiar subjects. Please avoid submitting self-promotional content. For advertisement inquiries, contact the Editor through the appropriate channels.
2. Be Mindful of Tone
All pieces should be professional and respectful, avoiding hateful invective, inflammatory language, or unwarranted personal attacks against community members. Articles should be clear and well-reasoned.
3. Article Length
As a general guideline, written contributoions should be between 800 and 1,500 words. This may not work for some concepts; feel free to ask the Editor for clarification. The volunteers who keep this publication going ask that submissions be concise and direct, with a focus on substance and clarity.
4. Originality and Attributions
Submissions, whether images or writing, must be the original work of the person submitting it. If an article is the property of the person submitting it but has been legitimately published elsewhere, this must be disclosed in the submission. The blog does not take liability for issues from a failure to disclose this. Attribution is required for sources referenced. AI-generated submissions cannot be considered.
5. Formatting
An ideal title should be no more than twelve words, reflect the content of the piece, and encourage readers to engage with it. Format your article in a readable style, avoiding dense blocks of text. If a volunteer has to labor to bring the diamonds out of the rough in your piece, they may pass it over.
6. Accuracy
We respect differing opinions. Howeve, we respect the grave harm misinformation may do to a community, even via a small independent blog like this. Authors must not knowingly convey misinformation. Authors are responsible for ensuring their claims to fact are accurate and based on reliable sources. If the Editor discovers any factual inaccuracies after publication, we reserve the right to remove or annotate the article.
7. Process
Submit your article via email. Include a brief biography about yourself, and feel free to add any relevant social media handles, personal websites, or media that you own (pictures, videos, audio files) if you’d like them to be included with your article.
Our team will review your submission and get back to you within two weeks depending on volume and volunteer availability. If your article is accepted, we will send you further instructions regarding edits and publication.
We may suggest edits for tone, clarity, or organizational structure, but we will never alter the meaning or viewpoint of your article. This is especially true of opinion pieces. You will have the opportunity to review and approve any changes before publication.
8. Rights & Attributions
By submitting an article to the Editor, the author grants the Editor the right to publish, edit, and promote the piece across our platforms according to the above terms. All articles will be credited to the author.
You retain all intellectual property rights to your submission, but we ask for exclusive rights to publish the article for a period of thirty days after publication.
The Editor reserves the right and discretion to decline submissions or remove articles.