Blueridge Bulletin Article Submission Guidelines
The Blueridge Bulletin welcomes article submissions from Blueridge residents. Authors should follow the following guidelines:
- Before submitting, please email bulletin@blueridgeca.org to confirm your article is appropriate for the Bulletin, and there is time to get it inserted into a given month’s issue. Note that we reserve the right to reject any submission for any reason.
- We accept a wide variety of articles and topics, but as a rule they must relate to the community of Blueridge and/or its residents. As the BCA is non-partisan, we cannot accept articles or photos that actively endorse or oppose any political candidates, but we are happy to encourage voting and other civic participation. Articles may discuss local businesses, but such discussion needs to be part of a larger purpose or program of the BCA or other entity.
- Submissions come in three general kinds:
- Photos with captions. Such images should highlight the neighbourhood in some way, or show an issue in it. Captions should be just a sentence or two. Since we publish digitally images will be edited (scaled and/or cropped) to fit our format. Typically such images will wind up about 600 pixels wide and their aspect ratios will be unchanged. Photographer credit will be given.
- Regular articles must be short. 2-4 paragraphs and a maximum of 500 words are the recommended limits. Regular articles have a header image above them in the published bulletin. If your article must be longer than is recommended, we can consider putting it on the Internet and linking to the full article from the Bulletin. Such articles will be hosted in the Bulletin section of the BCA website, and may become part of the core BCA website itself if the topic warrants it and the author and BCA agree that should happen. Author credit is given on the website in these cases.
- “In A Nutshell” entries are very short, just a couple of sentences. They are not accompanied by an image. These are for meeting announcements and other brief blurbs.
- Photos with captions. Such images should highlight the neighbourhood in some way, or show an issue in it. Captions should be just a sentence or two. Since we publish digitally images will be edited (scaled and/or cropped) to fit our format. Typically such images will wind up about 600 pixels wide and their aspect ratios will be unchanged. Photographer credit will be given.
- There is no charge for articles appearing in the Bulletin.
- We do not accept articles that amount to advertisements. But note that paid ads are possible at the end of each issue. See our paid Ad Guidelines for more about those.
- We reserve the right to edit articles as we see fit, particularly for size, clarity, taste, and legality. Every effort will be made to keep the meaning of submissions the same, but errors are possible. If you have concerns, ask to see the edited text of your article before it is sent out. We will do our best to make that happen, though timing and publication commitments may not make it possible.
- Publication dates vary slightly, but the bulletin generally goes out in the first week of each month. We attempt to send it out as close to the 1st of each month as possible.
- Submission deadlines also vary each month. As a rule, articles should be submitted at least 4 full days before the first of each month, but check the submission deadline given in the previous issue of the Bulletin and/or on this page. If you cannot submit your article by that date, email us and let us know. We will try to work with you, but reserve the right to reject or delay your article a month if it is taking too long. Example: To get your article published in the July 2022 Bulletin it needed to be submitted by midnight on June 27th. NOTE: the earlier you submit the more chances we have to ask questions if needed, confirm edits, and so on. PLEASE SUBMIT EARLY IF AT ALL POSSIBLE! If your submission comes in just before publication errors are more likely and the chance to fix them is greatly reduced.
- Regular article submissions (but not “In A Nutshell” blurbs) can include a header image. Authors are encouraged to include such an image to go with their article. Such images must be royalty free if you send us one, though. Do NOT submit copyrighted images. Your own photos are ideal for this case. Images may be edited for publication. Good images are about 600 pixels wide and 300 tall, but you can send us larger images which we can scale and/or crop for use. We reserve the right not to use the image you send us for any reason.
- You can submit in plain text, MS Word, or PDF format. Simple text in the email itself is generally easiest.
- Do not embed images in Word or PDF documents. They should be sent as separate attachments.
- To submit your article email it to bulletin@blueridgeca.org along with any image(s) you would like to see included.
- Submissions become the property of the BCA. We’re happy to credit authors, photographers, and the like.
- Past issues of the Blueridge Bulletin are archived on the BCA website, on the website of our email provider (MailChimp at this time), and may also be saved elsewhere. They are freely accessible to anyone on the internet at any time as a result, and will be forever. Consider carefully before publishing email addresses, names, or other personal data as a result. The BCA is not responsible for such publication.