Non-Fiction Article Submissions & Contributor Guidelines

Equestrian Professional.com has an ongoing need for practical, informative articles that relate specifically to horse professionals and/or running a successful horse business.

This includes (but is not limited to) articles about barn and horse management, client communication, instructor tips, horse training (as it applies to professionals), finding and managing employees, industry news, horse business practices and equestrian marketing strategies.

If you are interested in writing for Equestrian Professional.com, please read the guidelines below first and then send an email directly to our editor at lizzy@equestrianprofessional.com. Please include the words "Equestrian Article Submission" in the subject line.

Prior to submitting a complete manuscript, please submit an article summary that includes a short writer biography, estimated length, title and brief description.

Original Content - Equestrian Professional is interested in exclusive, original articles. Please do not place your article on the web, whether it is on your personal website or blog, or on a public discussion forum, until at least 6 months after we publish your article on the Equestrian Professional website.  (You may place an article summary on your webpage or blog that links to your article on Equestrian Professional.)

In some specific circumstances, we will republish previously-published articles, or articles that are simultaneously being published elsewhere, but only if we are told in advance that the article has been published elsewhere before. For example, we publish a multitude of articles on Equine Law in order to create a virtual “equine law reference library” of sorts for our members.  If your article has been, or will be, published ANYWHERE else, whether on the web or off it, please tell us when submitting the article so that we can make the appropriate editorial decisions about it.  For example, we may be interested in including it on our blog, if it isn't a good fit for the website. However, please don't risk either of our reputations by misrepresenting your material.

Format - Electronic submissions are preferred. Use MS Word .doc format when possible. If an electronic submission in .doc format is not possible for you for technical reasons, send an email to us and ask for guidance how to proceed. Include a header in the upper left corner of your document. The header should include the article title and number of words, along with your name and email address. This information should be attached in this manner so that no matter what happens to the file after it leaves your hands, your contact data can never accidentally become separated from your article.

Photos - We encourage you to include photos but please be sure you have the rights to these photos and that we have a right to publish them! - i.e. there are no copyright restrictions, etc.  At the end of your article, add a list of your photos (filename.jpg) and their intended captions. To avoid confusion and missing photos, this information should be attached to your article on submission, even if the photos themselves are delayed and submitted separately. If you have a particular place within the body of the text where you visualized each picture, please mark those spots in the body, but also include the complete list of photographs and captions at the end of the article. We will attempt to place the photos where you request, however layout restrictions may apply.

Who Are You? Include a short (50 words or less) blurb about yourself at the end of your article. This will be published with your article and we will include a link to your website.

Example: About the author: Carol Gordon is a CPA and the owner of Blue Ribbon Accounting a firm that provides accounting services to horse business owners. You may contact Carol directly at www.blueribbonaccounting.com

Reference Your Facts & Quotes - All assertions of fact such as statistical data, historical quotations, or research summaries should be referenced to the original source.

Editing -We reserve the right to edit your piece as we deem appropriate.  We are not likely to change the content or feel of your article but at times it is necessary to do some minor editing, including but not limited to, breaking longer articles into two parts and tweaking keywords so that you articles receives better SEO.

Payment and Becoming a Regular Contributor - Because Equestrian Professional's content requires a substantial amount of real-life expertise, we often work with beginning and previously-unpublished writers.  This is both rewarding and challenging!  However, it is important to us that we develop our own talent pool and we are happy to support new writers. Because of this, we ask writers to donate their first few pieces. After that, we discuss whether or not the writer would like to be a regular contributor and featured in our contributors section. (Regular contributors are expected to contribute 1 -2 articles per month.)

At this point, we do not pay for articles. However, there are substantial benefits to contributing. Such as:
1. Gaining exposure and connecting with a group of serious horse professionals.
2. The prestige of being published on one of the most respected equine business sites on the internet.
3. Establishing yourself as an expert on your topic or in your field.
4. Receiving a high quality back-link to your site.  We have a Google Page Rank of 4 and we post a link to your website with your article.  This can improve your own website's rank and SEO.
5. We promote your article on our website via RSS feeds and the featured article section and also through our newsletter.

 Our regular contributors receive the above benefits, plus they also receive free membership and extra benefits including:
1. A detailed listing in our Contributors section that includes your bio, links to your website, services or any products you may have.
2. The opportunity to participate in our seminars as a guest speaker or co-host.  Our seminars are very popular and we aggressively promote them.
3. Periodic business coaching (informal) and marketing strategy development.
 We will also hire staff writers from time to time.  If you are interested in becoming one of our staff writers please start by contributing an article or two and then submit your resume (including your salary requirements) for our consideration.

Professionalism - Please be sure your article has been edited (proofed) and respect all deadlines. We promote your articles through our weekly newsletter and often they are connected to editorial subjects. If you are late on a deadline, it creates a lot of additional work for our staff. If you miss a deadline completely, we may have trouble finding a spot for your article for several months.

Sending Your Article - Email is the preferred method for article submissions. Send your completed article, along with any photos and other attachments, to our editor lizzy@equestrianprofessional.com