Welcome aboard!
We’re glad you’re considering submitting an article for publication in Caribbean Compass magazine. We enjoy working with both experienced writers and first-timers with a good story to tell and hope you find the following information useful.
WHAT WE WANT
• Caribbean Compass publishes articles of interest to the Caribbean boating community, both local and visiting, and those interested in coming. Content is tightly focused on the Wider Caribbean Region.
We publish articles on a variety of topics pertaining to the Caribbean Sea, including cruising destinations, sailing events, marine environmental news, and shoreside activities of special interest to boaters, such as concerts and festivals. (We don’t publish articles about any other parts of the world, but if you have an idea for a story about sailing to or from the Caribbean, please send a query.)
• The Compass is shaped more by writers’ ideas than by a rigid editorial policy. Be yourself, deal with a Caribbean topic you care about, and write as if you were writing to an intelligent but as yet uninformed friend.
• Suggested length for feature articles is 2,000 words or fewer. A good article is often shorter; don’t pump up an interesting concise piece into a long boring one. News items for Info & Updates, Eco-News and Regatta News should be 400 words or fewer. (For Regatta News submission requirements, contact [email protected])
• Make your article informative and fact-rich. For example, rather than “We recently sailed our boat to Prickly Bay…” add essential details: “In early January 2019 my husband, John, and I sailed our 41-foot sloop Sea Witch to Prickly Bay on the south coast of Grenada.”
• Do your best to send articles in “sail away” condition, rather than “handyman’s specials” that need to be worked into publishable shape. Check spelling and grammar, and make sure you’ve included all the information that you as a reader would want.
Be sure to include your byline, and a suggested headline and photo captions.
• For feature articles, original, sharp, large, high-resolution photos are required (see SENDING IN YOUR PHOTOS below).
• If you would like a short footnote about yourself included, please mention your name, the name of your spouse or others on the boat if applicable, boat name and type, and the length of time cruising. Include a high-resolution “headshot” photo if you like.
WHAT WE DON’T WANT
• We don’t publish articles or photos that have appeared previously, or will appear simultaneously, in any other Caribbean publication.
• We don’t publish articles that attempt to secure free advertising on the pretext of furnishing news. If an article that stands on its own merit mentions specific events or businesses in a positive light, that’s okay, but we do not publish articles that could be seen as promotion for a specific event or business. If an event or business has a genuine piece of news for our Business Briefs department, or if you want to promote a Caribbean marine-related club, charity, NGO, etcetera, we’re happy to share the news, but we do not pay for promotional items.
• We don’t publish individual consumer complaints, regatta results complaints, or material submitted anonymously. (If you have a legitimate reason for requesting that your name not appear in print, this request will be considered.)
SENDING IN YOUR TEXT
• Send text as Microsoft Word (.docx) documents. Do not send text in PDF or JPG format.
• Name all text attachments using a clue word from your article’s subject, and your surname, e.g. “lobster-jones.docx”.
• Send all text submissions to [email protected] or executive editor Tad Richards at [email protected]
SENDING IN YOUR PHOTOS
• We cannot use photos embedded in text/Word documents or PDF files. Send them separately.
• Photos MUST be in high resolution: 300dpi (or more) at 100% size (between 5”x7” and 8”x10” is good); and in JPEG, BMP, TIF, or TIFF format. (If you’re not sure what all this means, just set your camera to “large” before you shoot.)
• If sending many photos, send attachments over several e-mails, or use Dropbox, WeTransfer or similar.
• Captions/cutlines for the photos are required (e.g. who or what is in the photo, and when and where was it taken). If you did not take the photos yourself, let us know the photographer’s name for photo credits. This information can be included in the body of an email.
• Send photos to [email protected]. It’s best if you can send them all at the same time as your text.
THE SUBMISSION DEADLINE IS THE 1ST OF EACH MONTH FOR THE FOLLOWING MONTH’S ISSUE
(e.g. submissions must be received by January 1st to be considered for publication in the February issue). Please contact [email protected] to arrange for exceptions.
We’ll do our best to include time-sensitive articles in the earliest possible issue. “Timeless” stories may be held for use on a space-available basis.
EDITING
• Accepted submissions may be edited for accuracy, length, clarity, fairness and grammar.
• Caribbean Compass does not provide hard copies, tearsheets or clippings. To save the pages where your article appears in the online version of Compass as printable PDF files, go to www.caribbeancompass.com and open the relevant issue at “Caribbean Compass Back Issues Archives” in PDF form in your browser. After it downloads, save it on your desktop. Then Google “splitting PDFs” to save the relevant pages as printable PDFs.
THANK YOU!
We appreciate the opportunity to consider your work for publication in Caribbean Compass — thank you!
I’ll look forward to hearing from you,Elaine Lembo, editor
[email protected]