Spiral Nature’s content is divided into four main categories: Occulture, Magick, Spirituality, and Reviews.
If you’re interested in writing for the site, it’s a good idea to sign up for our free newsletter to get an idea of the kind of work Spiral Nature publishes.
These guidelines concern essays, articles, personal reflections, biographies, interviews, and related material. For guidelines concerning media reviews, please see the review guidelines.
In any case, it’s probably a good idea to review these dedicated pages on the process of writing for Spiral Nature:
Pitch
In all cases, please send in a pitch or query letter first, and we can work together to ensure it’s the right fit for the site. I’m looking for pitches that are focused, specific, and have concrete applications (whether those applications are explicit or not).
Spiral Nature is especially excited to receive pitches from writers who are queer, trans, people of colour, and/or awesome.
Never pitched before? Here’s a handy how-to guide.
Additionally, Copyblogger has a great post about how to write captivating stories that I highly recommend.
Audience
Consider who the audience for the piece is. Are they beginners new to the subject? Intermediate? Experts? Each target audience will have different needs and expectations.
- Beginners and novices need things spelled out for them. They’re new to the subject, and may need terms and background explained in a clear, step-by-step way — without talking down to them. Provide a detailed explanation of what preparation needs to be done, step-by-step during, and what the result should look like. Offer tips and tricks, and troubleshoot where you can.
- Intermediates have mastered the basics, and are looking for something a little more challenging. You can make certain assumptions about their basic level of understanding, and more detailed explanations can be referenced with links to other material elsewhere. Take them further with spins and new tricks on tired techniques.
- Experts already know just about everything about their topic. New translations, studies, or new information that has come to light may offer something that hasn’t been seen before. Or a novel twist based on first hand research or new developments.
- Professionals may be tarot readers, magicians-for-hire, or others who offer speciality spiritual or magical practices. These people are already experts, and are looking for ways to improve their business and relationships with their clients. Offer them real-world techniques and best practices you’ve either used yourself, or have sourced from other professionals.
Images
Images are typically sourced by the editor, and will not be the writer’s responsibility. If you have something that’s a perfect fit, or ideas for what would suit the piece best, feel free to pass them along.
Please note: Spiral Nature only uses images with the permission of their creator, images in the public domain, or with the appropriate Creative Commons license.
Links
If you have a link you’d like to include, place it between square brackets before the text you’d like to link, e.g. [http://www.link.com].
Footnotes
When referencing another’s work, whether a book or website please cite the source in text or footnoted, as appropriate.
Footnotes and page citations can be enclosed within double brackets.
Length
Articles should be between 800 to 1,200 words in length, but we’ve been known to publish pieces in excess of 1,400 words when the writer gets deep into a topic.
Editing
Editing is a collaborative process, and there are usually a few questions and sometimes minor rewriting. Writers always have a chance to look over edits prior to publication.
It’s certainly not necessary to have these committed to memory, especially as each publication will have their own internal standards, but for those word nerds who are super interested in how and why things are edited the way they are on Spiral Nature, check out:
Rights and copyright
For new material, Spiral Nature asks for first Web rights for the first 12 months, after which you can republish it elsewhere, with a note indicating it was first published with Spiral Nature.
Copyright remains with author of the piece.
Payment
Spiral Nature pays $10 per article or review, or offers compensation in trade for a small one month sidebar ad (a $30 value).
Questions?
Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have.
