Writer & Photographer Guidelines
   
Please read our Technical Guidelines below before
sending any articles in - or contact us to discuss
editor@southwindsmagazine.com
941-795-8704

  
 


Stories and photographs wanted in the following areas:

All writers please be succinct and rewrite and rewrite.
"I would have written a shorter letter, but I didn't have the time." Mark Twain

Questions? Contact editor@southwindsmagazine.com or 941-795-8704

Sailing Experiences:
Stories and photos about experiences in places you’ve cruised, anchorages, marinas, or passages made throughout the Southern cruising waters, including the Caribbean and the Bahamas.


Last Page Stories - Your Fun and Interesting and Personal Experiences
Got a unique story? A funny experience? A learning experience or unusual happening? A tear jerker? An unusual story or report? A funny photo or bunch of them? This page is for our more subjective writings.

Race reporting:
Generally, we are always looking for some to send us race coverage throughout the southern states, the Bahamas, and the Caribbean. Specifically, we are looking to hire someone to coordinate all racing, who is into racing, a good writer and photographer, and willing to work a lot of hours, do some traveling, and doesn’t need a lot of money to get going with a great potential for the future.

Cruising Notes:
Southern sailors cruising on the high seas or cruising our waterways and coasts: Send us word on where you’re at and what you’re doing. How the cruising life is treating you. A photo would be nice too. We will be establishing a section on southern sailors who write in and let our readers know where they are and how they’re doing.

The Florida Keys:
Racing and cruising articles about the keys.

Bahamas:
Trips, experiences, passages, anchorages, provisioning and other stories that are of interest.

Hurricane Stories:
Hurricanes are a part of owning a boat in the Southern waters, and we would like to hear how you and your boat might have been affected by a storm or how you prepare your boat for one. Send us letters or articles.

The Politics of Sailing:
“Politics begins when two or more people get together.” Politics effect us all and particularly in the general world of boating and our waters. We have already heard about anchoring, liveaboards and other topics (like Cuba), but there is always more.

Maintenance and Technical Articles:
How you maintain your boat, or rebuilt a boat, technical articles on electronics, repairs, etc.

Individuals in Sailing Industry:
Interesting stories about the world of sailors out there, young, old, and some that are no longer with us but have contributed to the sport or were just true lovers of sailing.

The Caribbean:
Stories about the warm tropical waters farther south of us.

Charter Stories:
Have an interesting Charter story? In our Southern waters, or perhaps in the Bahamas, the Caribbean, or points beyond in some far-off and far-out exotic place?

Cuba:
Of course, there is always Cuba, and regardless of how our country’s elected officials try to keep Americans out of the largest island in the Caribbean, it will one day be open as a cruising ground. Today American sailors can legally go to Cuba and cruise if they follow the proper procedures. If you have a story about such a trip, let us look at it.

Miscellaneous Photos:
Photographs are always enjoyable, whether for their beauty, their humor, or for many other reasons, and we take them alone.

Cover Photos:
Southwinds is always looking for nice cover shots, which are always paid for. They generally need to be a vertical shot, but we can sometimes crop horizontal photos for a nice cover picture. They need to be of a good resolution. If digital, they need to be taken at a very high resolution (and many smaller digital cameras are not capable of taking a large high resolution photo as is on a cover). If a photograph, then we need it scanned at high resolution, or if you send it to us, we can do so.

Letters to the Editor:
For those of you who are not as ambitious to write stories, we always want to hear from you about your experiences and opinions. Contact editor@southwindssailing.com for more information and questions.

The Bottom Line:
Write about what you love and what moves you.


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Southwinds Writers’ and Photographers’ Technical Guidelines:
All writers please be succinct and rewrite and rewrite.
"I would have written a shorter letter, but I didn't have the time." Mark Twain

Some of the following guidelines for grammar and syntax make it easier for us to edit and use your material:

  • Subject matter should be about sailing and/or sailboats, or closely related. Especially about sailing in the South, the Bahamas, or the Caribbean, or maybe about a Southerner sailing somewhere in the world. This can be racing, cruising, daysailing, windsurfing, trailer sailing, etc. These subjects are the main interest but we will look at other stuff if it is interesting. We have a story going now that is about watching the sunset’s green flash from a sailboat. We prefer writing that is fairly objective and are not interested in articles that are too subjective. No poetry please. Sailing Jokes we like also.

  • Topics. Articles can be about sailing experiences, places people have been, learning experiences, mishaps, fun, funny, places to go, anchorages, marinas, stopovers, passages, chartering, experiences in owning a boat in charter, unusual sailing events, origins of sailing miscellany in the world, or ..... you name it. Check with us. We like all sorts of stuff.

  • Plus - We also like the practical hands-on stories about maintenance, rebuilding boats or repairs, fixes, remodels etc. and about anything to do with this part of boating.

  • Length. Keep your articles short. If last page stories, they should be 7-800 words and maybe up to around a 1000. Other articles can be in 1500 word range, plus or minus. Longer articles can be twice as long or more for two parts only. If longer than these contact the editor.

  • Format. We want everything sent in electronic format, preferably e-mail, but discs mailed in are acceptable. PC format or readable by a PC. Single-spaced text. No bullets or numbering unless they are typed in and not put in as format. You can give us instructions for suggested bulleting but please do not put them in as part of the format, but as text. Text can be pasted in the e-mail if needed. We do not want any photos overlayed into the text, just attached photos, with descriptions for captions and/or credits typed in notes about the story. All boat names should be in italics. No quotes or capitals for words. Do not put any words in all caps, including titles.

  • Suggestions. We believe that some of the best writers can’t tell a story but their grammar is great and some of the best storytellers can’t write and most of us are in between there somewhere, so we will look at a lot if it doesn’t fit into our guidelines. We’d like to see the who, what, when, where, why and how in the report writing.
     And Some Specifics:

  • Only one space between the period at the end of a sentence and the beginning of the next sentence – this makes it easy for some things for our software.

  • Single space the text, leave no space between paragraphs, and indent the first line of the paragraph.

  • No single quotes (‘) around any words—use double quotes (“) unless it is a quote within a quote.

  • All boat names to be in italics and capital first letter, lower case rest of letters (unless it really is unique to the name). No quotes around them and no all caps.

     Photos
     
  • We prefer photos/graphics with every story, although not an absolute. Photos can be sent digitally as attachments, but need to be good resolution. If you have a digital camera, then take the shots at a high resolution. If you have a regular camera, the photos can be scanned at 300dpi. If you have a large vertical photo that could be used as a cover shot, it needs to be scanned at 300dpi at an output of 8 1/2 X 11. We need 300 dpi in general but can get away with 200dpi in a pinch.
  • And of course, we take photos alone, that are just plain great photos or interesting or funny or whatever related to sailing, boating, and all. Vertical photos for covers we love too.
     Payment?

  • Do we pay and how much? Yes, but not always. A lot of people just want to get published, and they do get some priority if their work is good. Some we do pay. If so, it is based on the story and we will give you an idea for one price for the whole story including the photos. Let us know. We are a small free publication and cannot pay much for photos or stories. For cover shots, we will regularly pay $65. They must be vertical (although we can take verticals out of a horizontal photo at times). They must be a high resolution or scanned at an 8 1/2 x 11 output size at 300dpi for us to print them. They can be racing, cruising, scenery with a sailboat, a boat at a dock or mooring – a lot of possibilities, but getting a sailboat in there someway or part of one, is pretty important.

     Questions? Contact editor@southwindsmagazine.com or 941-795-8704