We are always looking for fresh new voices (i.e. not mine) to share their thoughts, experiences, and ideas with the rest of us. So we would like to invite you to become a guest author here on Skinny Artist!
What can I write about?
If you are a regular here, you already know about the kind of things we talk about here on Skinny Artist — Art, Creativity, Complaining about not getting stuff done (wait, that’s just me), and generally anything that has to do with the unique opportunities and challenges we face as creative artists in this brave new world of blogs, social media, and marketing our creative work online to a worldwide audience. In other words, if it’s something that you’re dealing with, chances are the rest of us are dealing with it too.
Do I have to be a “writer” to submit an article?
Not at all. In fact, some of the best writing I’ve seen online has been from non-writers. If you can talk about a subject, you can write about it. Just think about it as if you’re having an interesting conversation with someone and writing it down.
How much do I have to write?
Don’t worry, we’re not going to ask you to bang out some massive 5,000 word post. Anyone who’s been around these parts for awhile knows that I have a tendency to go on and on and…. well you get the idea. Typically we’re looking for something between 500-1000 words, but this is just a guideline. If you’ve got a lot to say and you go over that amount, that’s fine. Likewise if you can get your point across in 300 words, that’s cool too.
Does it have to be perfect?
Of course not! Again if you’ve actually read anything here on the site that I’ve written, you already know that I play pretty fast and loose with the English language. I’m certainly not looking for perfect, but I would like to see your personality shine through your writing. The best advice that I can give you is to write as if you were talking with a friend (which you will be) and forget about all those pesky rules of proper grammar. Now having said that, please don’t forget to proofread your post and read it out loud to see how it sounds.
So what exactly do I get out of this?
Besides worldwide fame and that warm fuzzy feeling of being awesome, you will be able to include a short author bio at the end of your article with a link back to your website. You can also include an author avatar if you choose.
Is it okay if I link to other stuff and other websites in the post?
You are welcome to include a reasonable number of links in your article as long as they are relevant to the post and not excessive. Linking to other relevant articles and websites is always a good idea if it helps the reader to better understand the content of your article. Please keep in mind that any type of affiliate links will be removed.
Can I republish something that I have already written?
Um… No. For several reasons including a big Google double-dipping slap in the face, we cannot accept articles that have been previously published either online or offline. Likewise if you submit a post to us and we decide to publish it, we will ask you to not republish that same post anywhere else online including your own website. You are, however, more than welcome to post an excerpt and then link to the full article published here on Skinny Artist.
Do I need to have an image for the post?
Readers love to see images and a post without a feature image is, well kind of boring looking, so we really try to have an image with every article we publish. If you already have an image you would like to use, you are welcome to send it along with your article. Please make sure that you are either the owner of that image or you have been given permission to use it. If you don’t have a particular image in mind, we should be able to find one for you.
So how do I submit my guest post?
You can write up your post in any type of text editor such as Notepad or TextEdit and then save it as a plain .txt file. If you use a word processing program like Microsoft Word or Pages, be sure to save you work in a plain .txt format. If you happen to use WordPress, the best option would be to write up a “draft” of the post in the post editor (don’t publish it!) and then copy and paste the HTML code so that all of your headings and links will be correctly formatted. If you’re unsure of how to format your post, I would suggest looking at some of the articles here on the site and use that as your guide.
After your post is written and ready to go, simply fill out the submission form below and we’ll let you know that we received it.
What happens after I submit my article?
I will personally read your article and let you know if I think that it is something that we could use. If it seems like a good fit for us, I may suggest a few changes here and there or I might tell you that it’s perfect the way it is. Either way, I’m here to help you out and I’ll do whatever I can to work with you. I’m really not as scary as I look ;)
Once your article is polished and ready to go, we’ll set up a publication date and I’ll give you the link, so you can start getting the word out to all of your online groupies.
Still got questions about any of this?
Contact us here.
Just fill out the form below to share your creative awesomeness with us!