Writers' Guidelines

Thank you. We greatly appreciate your interest in writing for Mahogany Baby. Our magazine is based on a foundation of reader-submitted work. We welcome unsolicited articles, and we encourage you to familiarize yourself with our publishing goals.

Our main objective is to be truly helpful, to provide information that empowers our readers to make changes and supports them in being their own experts. We like articles that have a strong point of view and come from the heart, that are challenging or evocative. Our choice of articles depends on the other material we have published on the subject, how new the topic is to us, and how unique the presentation is. It helps if you include photos.

Familiarize yourself with Mahogany Baby. We are more likely to publish your article if you are a Mahogany Baby reader and are familiar with the issues we discuss. Think about the subjects you know well and those that are under covered. Mahogany Baby is a bi-monthly publication and we regularly cover subject areas that inlcude:

Getting Organized
These quick and essential tips give busy parents, and organization-challenged parents ways to improve their homes allowing healthier and happier habits.

Dad's Spot
Because Dad is all too often missed, dissed and overlooked when it comes to baby, parenting and even family, the magazine has dedicated this special page to those fathers who will express how they really feel and how they contribute to baby, parenting and family.

HIStory/HERstory
This is a reflection on overlooked historical figures such as Beah Richards whom have contributed greatly to the Black community and the world at large.

Vent!
People are people, and our readers are people too who need a healthy outlet to vent. Mahogany Baby provides a therapeutic way of dealing with whatever is on their minds. This is where the readers exhale all their frustrations to a healthier view on life.

Poetry
We publish several poems in each issue. Please send us no more than two to four pieces at a time.

Queries: We encourage you to send a query if you are unsure of our interest in the topic of your article. A query is a one-page specific description and outline of your article. You can query us on more than one topic at a time.

The length of an article is not a significant consideration. Although we recommend 2,000 words, do not let length be a limitation. Say what you have to say.

Double space your manuscript and leave one-inch side margins for possible notations. When submitting an electronic file, please save your article as an MS Word document and e-mail it as an attachment.

E-mail: editors@mahoganybaby.com

The availability of photos enhances the appeal of your article to us. Photos should be sent electronically in JPEG format (72 dpi, 60k max.). We will need high-resolution images if we publish your piece.

Please do not send us an article that you have already submitted elsewhere unless you have had the article returned or have heard that it is not going to be used. Also, please, do not send book-length manuscripts. We prefer to publish only original material, but will occasionally publish excerpts from books.

Keep a copy of your article. We may return submissions after consideration, but suggest that you keep a copy for your files.

Please include a brief biographical sketch at the end of your submission so that we can print it if your article is used.

Please include your name, address, phone number, and e-mail address on the first page of your manuscript, as well as your name and the page number on each subsequent page. Include your phone number and e-mail with all correspondence.

Our procedure is to read and respond to articles within four to six weeks of receiving them. This can be a long time to wait, especially if you are eager for a reply. Please be patient. Contact us if you wish to inquire about your manuscript before hearing from us.

Once an article is received and we retain it, we may want to keep it for several issues; we plan quite a bit in advance and may have already selected articles for upcoming issues before we receive your article. Final decisions are made only after all articles on hand are evaluated. Even when an article is selected for an issue, it may be pulled for lack of space. These uncertainties make it difficult for us to be as specific in our acceptance as we would like; we appreciate your understanding of this creative process. We try not to keep an article longer than six months to a year because, although we may like it, we feel it should have a chance in another market.

Our hardest task is returning articles that we cannot use. We try to be honest in our replies, but it is not always possible to provide in-depth feedback. We evaluate all articles in light of the other articles we have on hand, when last we covered the subject, and our readers' interest in the subject matter. We retain only a small percentage of the articles we receive. Returning a manuscript is not a personal rejection; it is a practical consideration. We encourage you to submit your manuscript elsewhere if we cannot accept it.

At present, we do not pay for articles, but hope to in the near future. The author retains the rights to the article after publication. We accept articles on a speculative basis, so even if we have expressed an interest in, or have given you the go-ahead on, a proposed article, we cannot guarantee its publication.