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Submissions
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Updated February 21, 2007
Thanks for your interest in joining the NightsAndWeekends.com team. We’re always looking for more entertainment gurus to share their views with our readers—the more, the merrier, we always say. We work with writers of all levels of experience—so whether you’ve been writing for ages or this is your first time submitting to a publication, we look forward to hearing from you.
Before sending in your submission, however, please read the following guidelines.
What’s It All About?
NightsAndWeekends.com is all about the way people spend their free time (in other words, their nights and their weekends). Whether our readers like to bury their faces in a book, crank up the tunes, gather their friends together and move little playing pieces around a board, or get lost in a movie for a couple of hours—or if they just want a quick entertainment fix—NightsAndWeekends.com is their place to go.
Here’s What We Need:
On Film
Whether it just came out in the theater, or you just dug it out of a corner in the video store, we want to hear about it. We cover everything from multi-million-dollar feature films to the multi-thousand-dollar independent films that are making waves at the film festivals—and everything in between.
Cover to Cover
Read any good books lately? How about any bad books? Tell us about it! Best-seller or self-published, we want to know all about what’s out there.
RPM Music
New or old…what’s worth leaving in your stereo for months, and what should be ripped off the shelves and burned? Who’s on their way out, and who’s on their way in?
Playing Games
Tell us about your favorite board game or card game (the kind that you can buy—not the kind you made up). Be sure to include the number of players needed and the time required to play.
Instant Gratification
For our readers who need instant entertainment gratification, we also offer Instant Gratification—a section of short fiction and humor. Send us your story—or a laugh or two. We’re also looking for Flash Fiction and Features—opinions, interviews, and other articles related to the entertainment industry.
Columns
We’re always looking for new regular columns for the site—either monthly or bi-weekly. If you have an entertainment-related column idea, email us with a brief summary and a handful of samples, and we’ll try to work with you to put something together.
The Rules:
Before you submit, take some time to look around the site. Read a few reviews. That’ll give you an idea of what we usually publish. Before sending us a review, double-check to make sure we don’t already have a review of the same book/movie/album/game published on the site. You can do so by checking the following lists:
Books
Games
Movies
Music
For reviews, give us some background information—a quick summary—but don’t give anything away! If you liked it, tell us why. If you hated it, give us a few reasons. Be fair but honest.
Book and movie reviews should include a plot summary. Game reviews should include a brief explanation of game play. If your review doesn’t include both a summary and a review, we won’t be able to accept it.
For more review-writing tips, it wouldn’t hurt to check out Kristin’s article, “Everyone’s a Critic” at AbsoluteWrite.com.
In general, submissions should make sense. If we have to read a review three or four times just to figure out if you liked the book/movie/whatever, we won’t bother. If we’d have to spend hours trying to figure out your creative grammar, we won’t bother, either. Before you send us your submission, please read through it. If it’s something you’re proud to sign your name to, we’d be happy to receive it.
Some length guidelines—reviews should be between approximately 200 and 500 words. Short stories and humor should be long enough to be more than just a knock-knock joke but short enough for readers to stay interested—typically, no longer than 2,000 words. Flash fiction should be as short as possible—preferably less than 200 words.
Reprints are fine as long as you own the rights to your work—and as long as your content fits ours. All we ask is for permission to use your work—and to keep it in our database. You keep the rights to your work. We’re just glad you let us use it.
What’s In It For You?
Ever since about 2001, it’s been pretty hard for a small online publication to make much money. So unfortunately we can’t afford to pay for articles right now. We dream of making it happen someday, but we’re not there yet. We will, however, be glad to include you on our contributor page—with a short bio and contact information—if we choose to use your work. We’re also happy to help you promote your work from time to time in our newsletters.
The Fine Print:
Don’t worry—it’s nothing scary. This is just to say that by submitting something to us, you agree that you hold the copyright of the stuff you send us (that means you didn’t steal it from someone else and put your name on it—in middle school, we called that plagiarism, and you could get detention for it). Because we won’t be held responsible for your thievery.
We also reserve the right to correct your spelling, grammar, and/or punctuation if necessary. If we make any major changes, you will always get a proof of your work before it’s published. If we feel that further edits are necessary, we’ll send your submission back to you and ask for a rewrite. For other legal information, please see our disclaimer.
Now What?
Start sending your submissions! Please title your email “Submission – [Category Name].” We don’t take attachments from strangers, so please include your article text in the body of the email.
Please send all submission to:
Submissions@nightsandweekends.com
That should just about cover it, but if you have any other questions, feel free to email us and ask.
Again, thanks for your interest in NightsAndWeekends.com. We look forward to reading your submission!
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