Indy’s Child is always looking for talented, experienced freelance writers to enhance our magazine. If you think you would be a good fit, please read on.

General Guidelines

Although we welcome queries and submissions, our magazine content is based primarily on the editorial calendar we have in place for the year. View this calendar to see the article topics we have planned for each month’s issue. Our magazine is dedicated to being a local resource for our community, so we are interested in what Indy area experts and parents have to say. On occasion we will use material that is meant for a national audience, but our primary goal is to provide our readers with a local angle that is pertinent to them. If you wish to be considered as one of our freelance writers, please send an email to our editor, Nicole Sipe, at [email protected] outlining your interest and experience along with several samples of your work. We are not, however, interested in featuring guest bloggers in our magazine.

Writer’s Guidelines

There are several elements to writing a feature article that give us the best response among our readers. Here are several points to consider when crafting your stories.

• Tell people something they don’t already know. If a parent picks up one of our magazines, they are probably reading other parenting publications as well. We want our readers to feel that when they choose Indy’s Child, they will find something new, interesting or particularly helpful to them. Try to go beyond the obvious angle of a story to get a new perspective.

• Get quality information from sources. Think carefully in advance about the questions you plan to ask sources so you can elicit the most interesting answers from them. For a full length feature (unless it’s a profile piece), interviewing multiple sources is expected along with relevant research included on the topic.

• Be objective. Be careful about unintentionally inserting your own opinion as fact. We want to make it clear in our articles that our information comes from knowledgeable experts and sources. Your role is as objective interviewer. Avoid personal anecdotes and the use of “I” in your writing.

• Be specific. Rather than providing generalized tips or advice, strive to make your information something readers can really use. Give them a concrete “take away” from reading your piece.

• Stay on track. Keep your thoughts organized along a theme. Break up big blocks of information with sub heads to make clear transitions. Using sub heads also makes articles much easier to read when they appear online where users will click away if they can’t find what they want quickly.

• Have an interesting introduction and provide compelling conclusion. If the introduction is lackluster, readers won’t continue. Think of something that will grab their attention. For the conclusion, tie your thoughts together to the beginning of your piece. Answer the question or address the issue you are talking about. Make sure your ending provides some sort of impact rather than just giving a synopsis of what you already wrote.

Payment

Writers are paid based on the assigned word count for articles. Payment is made upon publication of the article in the magazine. Checks are typically sent within the first week of the month of publication. Freelancers should submit an invoice (within an email) that includes their name, address, phone number, social security number, the name of the magazine, the issue month, the name of the story, the assigned word count and per word fee. Invoices should be sent within a week of submitting a story to the editor. Thank you for your interest in writing for Indy’s Child! We look forward to hearing from you!