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Green Hell Mustang

Designer, Hack Photographer
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Aug 17, 2014
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In light of the post about Toyota Trails and the Relic Run, I had the idea to do a post about good guidelines to follow when writing articles for magazines. One of @David1947's ‘call to action’ posts is what gave me the idea for this - all credit goes to him. There are a few guys in the club that have been in the ONSC for a long time, and may be old hands at this or have already been published. For anyone that has never experienced writing and submitting an article to a publication (Toyota Trails or otherwise), this will serve as a guide. Hopefully it will also be a call to action, since we have so many quality events that play out over the course of a year.


Most, if not all, publications do their articles in a multiple of two pages, otherwise known as spreads. All publications have to have a final page count divisible by four; this is to account for the way publications print – front to back. For that reason articles are usually done in even increments. Any extra space is usually used for ad placement. So, the articles in a magazine usually take up two, four, six, and eight pages. The editor for a magazine will sometimes assign a specific number of pages to an article and give the author a word count to stick too. Here is a general guide of what to follow for article word length. I’ll also include photo count and what types of articles generally appear in those page increments, as far as Toyota Trails is concerned.

2-pages (single spread)
  • ~500 to 800 words
  • 3 – 4 images

4-pages (two spreads)
  • ~900 to 1200 words
  • 6 – 8 images

6-pages (three spreads)
  • ~1300 to 1600 words
  • 7 – 9 images

8-pages (four spreads)
  • ~1800 to 2100 words
  • 9 – 11 images
EDIT: I wanted to add a note about photography. Submit as many good photos as you can with your article. The photo count (per article) above is the number of photos generally chosen by the magazine. Publications prefer getting more photos than this. This way there are more to choose from. It's up to the writer or photographer to submit the photos they are happy with, but definitely shoot for a larger number.

Here is what the different story lengths get used for in Toyota Trails. This may vary from magazine to magazine, but the structure is fundamentally the same. The content mentioned below is what may appear in Toyota Trails.

2-pages: This is a very short article and mostly dedicated to Member updates, Member rigs, Hall of Fame, and tech articles.

4-pages: These are also on the shorter side, but tend to allow more space for photos. The types of articles that usually show up at these lengths are Club Spotlights, journal style articles that follow-up from a previous article, short trail rides, and eventful day excursions.

6-pages: This is an oddball size and I haven’t encountered this too many times. This could be a continuation of the above article length (4-pages). This may accommodate an article that’s too involved for two spreads, or should have more photos. This would be a good length for something like the Meet & Greet since that weekend also includes a workday.

8-pages: These are the big trail ride and get together articles. I believe GSMTR, Mardi Krawl, and Cruise Moab have been featured on four spreads. This is an ideal length for the Relic Run, Logan’s Run, perhaps even Hurricane Creek


There really are no rules with article submissions. However, having articles that fit the space is a huge win for the designer, especially when there are good photos to go with an article. This way the page space can be used better. So I hope this helps with anybody that wants to write an article about some of the trail rides we do during the year. @JohnVee has done a fantastic job with his articles. I hope more people feel the need to contribute their experiences. So, get out there and write, photograph, and keep documenting the adventures with your cruiser(s).


I hope this was helpful. Was this helpful? Clear as mud (no pun intended)? Do I need to amend anything? Let me know.
 
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I imagine we could just publish our own rag ...
 
The circulation would not be much less.............. We are talking about a magazine with what, 3,500 or so circulation?
 
Hay your wright Shaun, this here mite be ONSC's big brake. Lets awl get some storys published in are vary on rag. I can bee edictor. Their gonna love what we right to. I no they will. We can have pitchers of are trucks in they're. It will be grate. Maybe have a fore sell section with adds liek cregslist to sale are parts. Hell yeah 'murica! I'd by a copy.
 
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You be am a mighty fine righter thar Dave, mighty fine.
 
You be am a mighty fine righter thar Dave, mighty fine.

I rite awl the adds u see on cregslist. I'm a pro. Just sayin.
 
I lik whare ths 'cussion is goin.
 
I sawz some of yer work, brilyant man!
 
Most of you don't know this but I actually have a BA in Journalism from UNC Chapel Hill. I am whatcha' call an edumacated redneck and a huge grammar nazi, believe it or not. Who'd a thunk it?!
 
Heather got me a mug you'd like Dave

il_875xN.1082206795_gz3y.jpg
 
Most of you don't know this but I actually have a BA in Journalism from UNC Chapel Hill. I am whatcha' call an edumacated redneck and a huge grammar nazi, believe it or not. Who'd a thunk it?!

Heather got me a mug you'd like Dave

il_875xN.1082206795_gz3y.jpg

*Promptly goes back and rereads all of his posts*
 
Maybe do a southeastern magazine? Maybe just something online.

Will say back in the day UC used to do a publication called the Tow Hook. Problem is you have to have someone willing to spend countless hrs putting it together for no money. Club mailed them out. Pretty cool.
 

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Maybe do a southeastern magazine? Maybe just something online.

Will say back in the day UC used to do a publication called the Tow Hook. Problem is you have to have someone willing to spend countless hrs putting it together for no money. Club mailed them out. Pretty cool.
Thats a great idea, I know it can take a lot of time. This one is the PCA for the carolinas publication, similar concept and mostly member driven. Low quality graphics for the industry, but who cares!
http://www.carolinas-pca.com/NewsDates/TRArchive/2017_01_TR.pdf
 
I am becoming pretty handy with wordpress as of late my company is redesigning our website and that is what we are using for the design aspect the plugins are pretty endless as what we can do. I wouldn't mind helping out if we wanted to do something like that keep an updated blog I think would just be good the big thing will be getting traffic to it with social media though it really helps getting traffic to a site.
 

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