Writing for AHS

How to go about writing for the Arsenal History Society (and, if you feel like it, Untold Arsenal).

If you are writing an article for the AHS blog here are a few hints to make life easier for the editors, and to enhance your chance of getting the article published.

First, and most obviously, please read the blog, to get the flavour and style of what we are.  An article originally written for another site is unlikely to be suitable for Untold – not least because of our title.  If you want to see the variety of subjects we cover you could also look at the indexes on the home page.  Not just the Anniversary Files, but also other indexes further down the page.   Just go to www.blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk  

Second, after you have read the rest of this page please send in your article to Tony.Attwood@aisa.org –  If I am away, that gets announced on the home page, and the day to day round up on anniversaries on the home page is stopped.  You can still send me your article, but it might mean a delay of a short while before I get back to you.

Third, you can write on any aspect of Arsenal history, but please do check to see if we have covered the issue before.  There are the indexes (particularly the anniversary indexes – which although not yet complete are fairly comprehensive for much of the year), and also the search boxes.   You can cover something we have covered before providing that you are adding something new.

But also, do be aware that we are trying to be accurate.  I know mistakes occur on this site, but we are trying to get it right.  So please check your facts.    On the other hand don’t be afraid to write in – or indeed send in an idea for an article.

Format (this bit is vital)

The article should be in Word or Google doc, or as an RTF file, with your name as you want it to appear, at the top, along with your title.  (If you don’t put in your name at the top of the article, you may not get credited).  Please do note that we might edit your piece, change the title and so forth.  If we want to change the piece significantly we’ll come back to your first, but you have to expect minor edits.

Please have a spell checker tuned to British (not American) English turned on.

PICTURES

If you want to include pictures you MUST follow these instructions to the letter.

Send the text in Word etc as above, and where you want a picture put the file name of the picture in full, but do not include the picture

Provide the picture/s as jpegs in separate files – obviously showing exactly the same file names as are indicated on your text file.  Each picture must be in a unique file.  We can’t accept pdf – Word Press (the program we use) doesn’t like it.  Nor can we take spreadsheets, although tables incorporated into Word are ok.  And we can’t run illustrations that are in Word either.

Please assert that you own the copyright to the pictures.  If the pictures are copied from elsewhere on the internet, then we can’t use them unless they are clearly copyright free.  (But you must always say where you got them).

LINKS

Most of our articles don’t have links within them, but if a link is essential, then please use Word to incorporate the link into the text.   Do not put the full URL within the text, or we’ll probably lose it.

COPYRIGHT

We need to know who you are, so please provide your full name and address.  This will never be published (we will use the name you provide at the head of the article).   And please acknowledge that the text (and pictures if included) is your original work  and has not appeared elsewhere, and is not currently on offer elsewhere.  We only publish original work, which has not appeared elsewhere.

If we do use your article, you are then free to use it again elsewhere, but it absolutely must appear with a note to the effect that “This article originally appeared on the Arsenal History Society web site.”

CORRECTIONS

One of the easiest ways to annoy us is to send an article and then some time later send in a corrected version.  In between receiving it and getting your update we might well have spent half an hour editing it – and that has to be scrapped if you have sent in an update.   Please do check and double check before sending it off.  If you do send an update, we can’t guarantee to use it, and might still use the original.

WHAT WE DO IN RETURN

In return we’ll do something for you.  If we do reject a piece we’ll try and say why, and explain our position.  What’s more, although we can’t make this an open commitment, if you want some guidance on becoming a regular writer or even a professional writer, we will try and answer your questions.  This can’t be an open ended offer, because resources are limited, but we have helped a number of writers whose work we like, pointing them in the direction of where to go to get more exposure.  But please do note, this is only an offer to people who are submitting work to this site – not to would-be writers who have not started yet.  If you haven’t yet tried writing for blogs etc our advice is simple: you learn most by writing.  Just do it.  You might then not submit your original, but remember, writing needs practice.  Do it, do it, do it.

BEFORE AND AFTER

If you want to suggest a possible article, or even a series, please do email in with details.  We do like regular series.

If you have submitted an article we normally can’t email you back to say it is published.  There just isn’t time.  So you have to keep an eye on the site.  But we do reply if the article can’t be used – although again this may take a few days.

And do remember, we cover football from an Arsenal perspective.  So it doesn’t always have to be about Arsenal.

Untold Arsenal

Last point, we also run Untold Arsenal, the largest independent football blog in the country.  www.blog.emiratesstadium.info if you haven’t seen it.  Untold takes articles too – much the same rules apply – but do read it before submitting.

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