Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Wend Magazine


EDITORIAL GUIDELINES:

Wend stories are first person, narrative nonfiction accounts of adventure travel, with a human-powered outdoor recreation bent. Smart, edgy adventure stories for active, environmentally conscious readers, we encourage authors to go on outdoors adventures, and then explore the meaning beyond their experiences on our pages.
Make sure that you have access to photos to accompany your story or access to relevant photographers that we may contact. 35mm slides or negatives are accepted, but must be accompanied with reference prints or contact sheets. Digital resolution of 7 mega-pixels or higher accepted (which means some point-and-shoots work, but a digital SLR is way better). Do not alter or render photos unless otherwise specified.

SUBMISSION PROCESS:

Click on the corresponding link to submit a proposal to the appropriate department. It’s unnecessary to submit the same proposal to multiple departments, as we go over all proposals from all departments as a team. Please become familiar with the specific department guidelines and review a minimum of at least three past stories or photo essays from the appropriate department prior to submitting. The easiest way to do this is by signing up for full access to ourfree online digital archives.
Once you’ve identified the appropriate department, please send us a brief query summarizing the scope of your story or photo essay, and an explanation of why you’re qualified to do it. While we are primarily looking for experienced, professional contributors who are familiar with the editorial process, we also consider unpublished contributors because hey, a lot of folks who’ve been published are hacks anyway.
Writers, please attach or include a link to examples of media (i.e. photos, videos, etc.) that would accompany your story. Story proposals without photos will not be considered.
We very rarely commission work unless we’ve done business with you in the past, but if you have an established reputation or a really, really kick-ass adventure coming up, then we might consider it on spec. When submitting a proposal for an upcoming journey, please include a few clips of your previously published work so that we can get a sense of your authorial voice and command of the language and/or lens.
While we are generally inundated with great submissions, there are still occasions when we find ourselves seeking content. This may be due to a story falling through or because we made room for a new section. When this happens, we make a digital call for submissions. If you are interested in receiving these calls, as well as other updates, be sure to follow us on Twitter and become a fan of us on Facebook.
We have a small staff and we receive a lot of submissions each day so unfortunately we are unable to respond to each proposal individually. Please don’t call the office or e-mail our editorial staff with questions or to follow up. If you don’t hear back from us, it’s safe to assume that, for one reason or another, we won’t be able to use your work. Unless you hear back from us, please feel free to submit your work to as many different publications as you like. It won’t hurt our feelings.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:


How do I know if my submission is right for Wend?
You may have written a moving personal essay about an epiphany you had during your trip to Thailand, or done a fascinating bit of reportage about an ancient city in Africa, but if there isn’t also an outdoor recreation thread (such as trekking, surfing, skiing, snowboarding, sailing, skating, climbing, cycling, paddling, etc.), then Wend is not the home for it. If your epiphany in Thailand came while climbing a mountain, or you did a portion of your reportage on the ancient city by riding your bicycle to it, then you might have a story we’d be interested in.
How do I know if Wend is the right home for my submission?
Wend is the magazine you REALLY want to write for, not the one you’re simply trying to make money from. We encourage authors to take risks and express themselves on a literary level, while taking our readers along for the ride. Of course, we pay, and pay competitively, but our goal is to be the darling in your journalistic quiver, not just the source of your next paycheck.
When is the best time to submit?
We schedule stories for many of our departments up to a year in advance. But we are always accepting (and reading) submissions. If our ad team has a banner month and we decide to grow the next issue by a few stories, or if for some reason a story falls through, then we go straight to the slush pile.
Is there anything I should keep in mind when submitting?
Send us a detailed, focused proposal showing us that you understand our publication and the nuances of the department you are pitching. Wend only comes out five times per year and we get a lot of great submissions. The best proposals are the ones that make us look at one another without hesitation and say, “Yeah, of course this should be in there.” The proposals that most typically do that are the ones that have it all: good photos, a query letter that outlines and allows us to ‘see’ how the various layers of the story would unfold, and a sense that you understand Wend’s tone and voice. If you aren’t a reader and a fan of the magazine then you probably shouldn’t even bother submitting.
How can I familiarize myself with Wend?
It’s easy to familiarize yourself with Wend before submitting. All you have to do is click over to ouronline digital archives, where you can access several years of Wend issues, including our most recent issue, all for free.

RATES:

Rates are listed next to each department. Please understand that we are an employee-owned, independent publication, printed on FSC-certified sustainable paper (which is crazy expensive), and, therefore, can’t afford to pay as much as some of our bigger brothers. But we’ll probably let you have more fun with your story than other publications, so there’s a tradeoff.
Payment will be made 30-45 days after publication. It is unlikely that we would ever pull your story from the lineup once we’ve committed, but this is publishing and once in a while circumstances beyond our control require us to do so. While these instances are rare, they do come up. We do not pay a kill fee.

DEPARTMENTS:


Wendex: Wending by the numbers. A collection of interesting facts and figures from the outdoor-adventure community, this section is compiled in-house. Do you have a legitimately sourced, interesting factoid that could work in this section?
Playground: Celebrating the places where we play. Photo essay showcasing human-powered outdoor adventure activities, with a focus on place. Whether it’s hiking the Continental Divide, ice climbing the Rjukan region of Norway or cycling the Serengeti, this section celebrates the places where we play.
Now & Then: Timeless adventure. Historic and current ‘found’ outdoor adventure news. From the 1893 New York Times article claiming cyclists should be governed by the same speed laws as horse-drawn carriages to a mountaineer’s failed attempt to send a tweet from the top of Everest, Now & Then is full of fun, found news you never knew you needed to know. This section is compiled in-house. Do you have an interesting piece of found news?
Wipeout: Welcome to the hurt gawker. Full-page shot of someone eating shit really, really hard.
Greenery: Green gear and the technology of sustainability. Roundups of green gear as well as interviews with gear designers about sustainable technology and environmentally conscious manufacturing processes in the outdoor industry. This section is compiled in-house. Do you know of an outdoors brand that is particularly progressive?
Platform: You write the message, we amplify it. In this section, we connect readers with nonprofits by donating space to organizations that promote an active, outdoor-adventure lifestyle or that advocate for environmental policies that will protect the places where we play.
  • Photos: 5
  • Writing: Description of organization and why there is a need for it (350 words)
  • Payment: Publication
  • Submit proposal to Platform
Feast: Tales of adventurous gastronomy. From eating snakes, scorpions and sparrows in China to hitting bottom in Mexico’s Tequila Town, Feast stories are first-person narratives exploring some of the world's most fun, frightening, dangerous and downright strange food and drinks.
Snap: Photo diary of outdoor adventure. Whether bikepacking the Rockies, surfing Haiti, trekking Tasmania or diving beneath glaciers in Antarctica, Snap authors use cutting-edge photography to tell the stories of real people (sorry, Lance Armstrong) on extraordinary outdoor adventures.
Footprint: Environmental and human impact stories reported from the edge, in a narrative nonfiction style. Whether they are sailing the Atlantic to discover gigantic oceanic garbage patches, ski traversing across the Flathead wilderness to investigate trans-boundary conservation issues, or kayaking a wild river in Laos to gather information that could save local fishing economies there, authors of Footprint stories include their own human-powered outdoor adventure as part of the reporting process.
Wanderlust: Memoir or personal essay exploring the meaning beyond the author’s outdoor adventure experience. From Chelsey Gribbon, who underwent a miscarriage just days before she was to run an adventure race in Patagonia (and ran it anyway) to Eric Larsen, who pushed through 750 miles of mind-numbing white nothingness to reach the South Pole, Wanderlust pieces are both thought provoking and inspirational.
Passport: Narrative nonfiction reportage on subjects ranging from history and the natural world to non-timely current events and anthropology. Whether they are trekking the Voodoo Trail in West Africa, canoeing the mostly unknown waters of the Canadian Arctic, or cycling through the mountains of Central Asia to learn about local music, authors of Passport stories include their own human powered outdoor adventure as part of the reporting process.
Survival Kit: Outdoor brands pay our bills and we thank them by gearing models out in their products, having a Wend-style photo shoot, and featuring the photos in the magazine. From urban kayaking to rooftop camping and hobo travel, we like to make every shoot unique. Want your gear to be featured in Wend?
Trailhead: Formative moments from formidable adventurers. First-person personal essay taking a reflective look at an inspirational moment on the author’s road to adventure, written by an established outdoorsperson. We solicit most Trailhead stories, but are open to considering story pitches.
Sketchbook: Illustrating adventure. Sketchbook celebrates the outdoor-adventure lifestyle through illustration.
Sanctuary: Nature Divine. Ideal shots produce the same take-your-breath-away-and-speak-in-a-whisper sense of awe that a devout person might experience when stepping into a Mosque in Turkey or a Cathedral in Rome. Submit a photo for the opportunity to win green gear. We choose a new winner every Sunday. If your shot is compelling enough to make us believers, then we’ll feature it in the magazine.
Seen, Read, Heard: Adventure vicariously. Reviews of books, music and videos that inspire readers to set out on an adventure of their own. Do you have a recommendation of media that our readers might like?
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