PLEASE NOTE: We strongly encourage your queries before submission (written, phone or e-mail. This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it).

Editorial Submission Guidelines

In the pages of Pacific Yachting - Pacific Northwest, powerboaters and sailors share a common interest in recreational boating on the Pacific Northwest. Our editorial aims not only to entertain and inform, but to understand; The editorial goal is to gain readers of Pacific Yachting - Pacific Northwest. The bulk of our writers and photographers not only come from the local boating community, many of them were long-time PYPNW readers before coming aboard as a contributor.

First-person accounts of crises, you will notice, have a “hands-on” feel to them. The reader shares the experience with the writer, and is encouraged to “follow in the author’s wake.” While precise nautical information is important, colorful anecdotes bring your cruise to life. Both are important. In other words, our reader wants you to balance important navigational details with first-person observations, blending the practical with the romantic.

TYPES OF STORIES We buy both features and contributions to our departments. Rates vary with the amount of revision required to each manuscript, and whether or not the photography is strong enough to justify a color spread. Features run up to 2,000 words and include color photos. Departments run 800 to 1,000 words.

Sometimes we will buy longer pieces and break them into two or three episodes, but usually longer pieces are commissioned because, in our opinion, the idea deserves a longer discussion than we can provide in a single issue. Usually, whatever can be said in 10,000 words can be improved by cutting it to 2,500 words. Often, what’s been written in 2,500 words will work in 1,500, and in the hands of a good writer can be told in 500 or less.

We do not pay by the word because it just encourages longer pieces. Write tight, write short, write with the reader in mind, write to inform, write to entertain. We also buy short (50 to 400-word) news items for our ON THE WATERFRONT section (current events, coast guard and other government updates, trade news, people news, boat gatherings and festivals).

QUERIES We prefer queries rather than finished manuscripts. Your idea may have been used recently, or the idea could benefit from a bit of shaping to suit our requirements before you begin writing. Every magazine has a “slush pile” of unsolicited material that comes in “over the transom,” and Pacific Yachting is no exception. Our slush pile exists because some writers do not write query letters. However, you will save considerable time in the long run if you master this skill. Queries submitted with a few sample photographs will get the editor’s attention much, much faster.

SUBMISSION FORMAT Queries are acceptable on paper, by mail or fax. With the finished product, we will consider type-written manuscripts, but our preference is for a computer generated Word documents (both IBM and/or Mac) or as plain text, attach and e-mailed to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it (ATTN Editor of PYPNW).

Please ensure the correct spelling of all names and titles—our editors have been known to waste hours trying to correct poor spelling and sometimes even the best proofing will not catch a misspelled proper name that we cannot confirm without a local phone call or reference to a book in our library. Be accurate, and ensure that you have covered the five basic Ws. Be specific, our readers like to know how far, how long, how many. Be historic, these touches enrich the read.

ILLUSTRATIONS Our preference is slides for features, prints for all departments (any section where the illustrations appear black-and-white). Send negatives as well, using the best film you can. Fast, grainy film is not acceptable for large illustrations because the magazine is power and sail, we look for as many power boat covers as we do sailboat; because the magazine is mostly aimed at cruising the coast we look for more cruising covers than racing. Illustrative art is usually commissioned.

SUBMIT QUERIES TO:

Editor
Pacific Yachting - Pacific Northwest Magazine
180 Nickerson Street, Suite 102
Seattle, WA 98109
Tel: (206) 352.1230
Fax: (206) 352.1233

Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it