How to Submit Your Article

This online resource is designed to help you prepare your content for submission to the Backpacking Light editorial staff.

Contents

• *** NEW November 2015*** Story Submission
• Style Guidelines
• Key Word Guidelines
• Photo Submission Guidelines
• Audio Submission Guidelines
• Video Submission Guidelines

Story Submission Process

All authors will now have access to our backend content-management (article development) and editorial workflow (article editing, review, and production) systems. As soon as your proposal has been approved, you are free to login and start working on your story.

My Author Account Information

If you are an existing author, simply login with your normal Backpacking Light account. If you are a new author, one of our Editors will provide you with the necessary permissions for you to access your author portal, and let you know when it’s ready to go.

Story Submission & Author Dashboard Instructions

1. Login.
2. Visit My BPL Dashboard and click “Author Portal”.
3. Create a new article by selecting Posts > Add New from the main portal menu.
4. Write your draft article, insert images, etc., in the post editor (hint: you may find this WordPress Codex guide to writing posts useful).
5. Click the “Save Draft” button if you want to save your work, and come back to it later for review and/or modification.
6. Click the “Submit to Workflow” button if you have completed your story and are ready to submit it for editorial review, approval, and production. Before you do, please check that:
   • You have thoroughly fact-checked and copy-edited your story;
   • All images have been uploaded and inserted into the proper location;
   • All links have been checked for accuracy;
   • Your story meets the guidelines (word count, topic, etc.) agreed upon in your original proposal.

Changes as of Nov 2015: Uploading Images, Tables and Video

Make your photos and video look awesome, and meet the guidelines below, and our readers will love you for it.

Images should be at least 1,600 pixels wide and uploaded as uncompressed JPG’s. When you insert them into your article, please insert them into their own line and center them. We may change that layout as your article goes into production, but this method is essential so we can understand how you want your story to flow. Don’t forget to add captions to all of your images.

Video should be uploaded to either Youtube or Vimeo, with a direct link to the video (not the embed code) placed on its own line in your story. 720p HD or better quality is preferred.

Editing your photos: Here’s a great photography basics guide from Lifehacker.

Tables:

You can add, import, export, edit, copy, delete, … tables via the “TablePress” section in your admin menu. Everything should be self-explaining there.

To show one of your tables in a post: click on the “Table” button in the toolbar of the post/page editor to see a list of your tables. If you click “Insert” then, the correct Shortcode will be inserted for you automatically.

For Table Options and DataTables features, make sure the only four options are checked:

• (Table Options) – First row of the table is the header;
• (Table Options) – Alternating background colors for rows;
• (DataTables) – Use the JavaScript library;
• (DataTables) – Enable horizontal scrolling (required so that your table is viewable on a mobile device).

Here’s a screenshot of what the options look like:

 

Style Guidelines

Tense

Narratives can be written in either past (trip report style) or present (in-the-moment journal style) tense. Be consistent and consider whether you are writing about a past event, or a present action.

Generally, try to preserve present tense whenever possible in technical writing such as reviews.

Passive Voice

Passive voice should be limited to rare instances when active voice creates a poorly flowing sentence structure.

Lists

For either bulleted or numbered lists, please adhere to the following guidelines:

1. Capitalize the first letter of the first word in the list.
2. Punctuate list items if they are complete sentences or verb phrases, and use a period in both cases. For list items that are not sentences or verb phrases, do not punctuate at the end of the list item.
3. List items should be written with parallel sentence / verb fragment construction.

Use a numbered list when: your list designates a chronology or sequence, ranking of importance, or reflect an exact number stated in the lead-in statement.

Use a bulleted list for other lists.

Numbers and Units of Measure

1. Please include both Imperial and SI units:
   • Good: “14.4 mi (23.2 km)” (convert)
   • Good: “12.9 oz (366 g)” (convert)
   • Not Good: “14.4 mi” (SI units missing)
   • Not Good: “366 g (12.9 oz)” (please note Imperial units first, and SI in parentheses)
   • Not Good: “12.9 oz (_____)” (please fill in the blanks!)
2. In technical or scientific text, physical quantities and units of time are expressed in numerals, whether whole numbers or fractions, almost always followed by an abbreviated form of the unit. However, a unit of measurement used without a numeral should always be spelled out, even in scientific contexts.
   • 50 km (kilometers)
   • 4.5 L (liters)
   • 240 V (volts)
   • 85 g (grams)
3. Use hyphens sparingly, but wisely. Hyphenate age terms and numbers or measurements when spelled out before a noun.
   • A thirty-year-old woman
   • A fifty-mile trek
4. In technical or scientific text, use of the degree symbol (°) is unnecessary, as it is implied.

Organization

Please organize your article into a well-outlined narrative, using headings as appropriate.

Note the following guidelines:

• Use level 2 Headings (Heading 2 / <h2>) as your top-level headings, and then Heading 3, Heading 4, and Heading 5 as subheadings.
• Don’t use heading levels of 6, 7, 8 etc.
• Don’t use Heading 1 (<h1>), as this tag is reserved for your article title.
• Try to limit your word count below each heading to 300 words or less. If you have more narrative than this, split the longer content using subheadings as appropriate.
• Few, if any people, will read your article all the way through at first – they will scan and skim and scroll. So, if you have engaging headings that make sense and entice the reader, they will be more likely to read your article. Practice writing headings. Here are some guidelines / suggestions:
  • No adjectives or adverbs;
  • No superlatives;
  • Use clear, concise descriptions of the content;
  • Frame your headline as a question;
• Start your article with a level 2 headline section titled “Introduction” or “Overview”;
• End your article with a level 2 headline / section titled “Conclusion” or “Summary”.

Punctuation

1. Place punctuation inside quotes, as a general rule.
2. Use a comma in compound sentences (two nouns and two verbs).
3. Use “space dash space” between words, rather than an em or en dash (standard in internet publishing).
4. Do not make gear possessive.
   • “McHale Subpop pack,” NOT “McHale’s Subpop pack”
5. Do not use apostrophes with plural numbers unless the number is actually a possessive.
   • In the 1990s
   • The 1990’s growth
6. Do not type two spaces after a period! One space only, please. We no longer use typewriters!

Key Word Guidelines

Please make all efforts to use key words in a style and manner consistent with Backpacking Light.

More Info About Photos

Photos comprise a significant and increasing proportion of Backpacking Light editorial content. They are frequently the most important part of a given article or feature and are extremely important for reviews, DIY articles, and many technical inquiries. Photographs are also of incalculable value in conveying the beauty of places we visit and the excitement of our various adventures. Along with increasing the skills of our readers, we must always be mindful that we’re ambassadors for our sport and are key to attracting new backpackers. To that end, please keep in mind the following:

• Take and submit more shots than you think you need to give the editors a choice. Provide sufficient notes to assure we correctly identify and caption every place, thing, and person.
• If submitting illustrations or maps, they must be publication-ready, and you may be asked to edit them further after review.
• Think about the story you are trying to tell with each photo and ensure that the resulting photos look as though they belong together.
• Please set your camera to its highest resolution and quality settings.

Photo Naming, Captions

Your photo filenames should contain, at minimum, your last name and one or two notable keywords related to the story that they are accompanying, suffixed with an index number (“-1”, “-2”, etc.) to help identify its order of appearance in the story.

Captions should be noted in the “Caption” field when you upload your photo.

Audio Submission Guidelines

Upload audio as “media”, same as you would a photo.

1. Format: .mp3
2. Minimum Bit Rate: 64 kbps (can be lower for call-in audio due to quality).
3. File Size: unimportant.

Video Submission Guidelines

Upload video to Youtube or Vimeo, and insert the direct link (not the embed code) into your article on its own line where you want the video to appear.

Specs:

1. Format: Youtube or Vimeo only, 720p HD minimum