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Hi there,

I’m Editor at Northstar Publishing, overseeing PRB+, a trade magazine that covers the parks, recreation, and camp industries. I’m currently sourcing articles for our July issue and wondered if you’d be interested in contributing.

The way we source most of our stories varies from traditional magazines. We love the idea of printing stories that are for parks, rec, and camp professionals, by parks, rec, and camp professionals. So, we don’t maintain staff writers and only occasionally work with freelancers. Instead, most of our content is submitted directly by readers, industry professionals, agencies, firms, and municipalities.

Our July issue is all about waterparks, and I’m reaching out to you regarding Electric City Waterpark. Our readers would love to know more about the park's features and what it takes to achieve a successful summer season. Would you be interested in submitting an article about the waterpark?

Below, for your reference, I’ve included our editorial guidelines. The submission deadline for the July issue is April 5. If you’re interested, please let me know and I can slot you in. I’m also happy to provide additional information or answer any questions you may have.

I appreciate your time and hope to hear from you soon.

Editorial Guidelines:

Articles should be about 1,200 words in length (if it's a little over or under, that is fine).

When possible, use Times New Roman, 10-point font and only one space after a period. Use spaces between paragraphs. Header and footer information is not necessary.

Email articles in a Word document. Please do not use Google Drive, PDFs, drop boxes, or other means to deliver your article.

High-resolution photos are preferred, but we are willing to consider others. The more photos the better. (Size: 6x4 or 4x6, or larger size preferred; Resolution: 300 pixels per inch, desired; 200 ppi minimum). Please be sure to include any necessary photo credits.

It's easier to submit topic ideas to me in advance of writing them. That way, we can work through any kinks before you write the article.

Brand names are not to be used in editorial and articles written by potential advertisers are not accepted.

Simultaneous submissions and articles previously published in other magazines are not accepted.

Our magazine serves as a how-to magazine for many parks and recreation directors, administrators, maintenance workers, etc., so if there’s any tips you can offer for a project or pitfalls to avoid, it is always a great help.

As a rule of thumb, articles should include quotes from a minimum of three original sources (via statements, interviews, etc.). Any references to outside materials should be quoted in the text with a reference to the author, or at the least footnotes. Writers should be reminded that outside references should be kept to an absolute minimum. Remember, these are feature articles, not trade journal entries.

Be sure to include basic bio info—name, title, the company/organization you are affiliated with and an email address where you can be reached that can be printed in the magazine.

For our website (digital) and e-newsletter versions of the magazine, we are seeking videos and additional photos. If you have any of this information to support your article, please feel free to send it along with your article submission.

All articles should be considered in final draft form before submitting. We cannot send drafts back and forth due to the sheer volume we are working on at any given time between the three magazines we publish.

Although articles are submitted for specific issues, we cannot guarantee their placement until final layouts are determined.

One of the most important things to remember is that as a trade publication, we make every attempt to include a “how-to” element in our articles to create material our readers can use. So, for instance, for your article, if another department was considering implementing your ideas:

• What do you recommend?
• What works well? What doesn’t?
• What are the costs associated with this project?
• What problems did you run into and how did you overcome them?