Submission Guidelines
What you need to know before submitting a pitch or story.
We are currently accepting submissions for Digital Culturist // Issue 7: Invest on a rolling basis.
Who we’re looking for
We are calling all writers who love technology, are fascinated by the inner workings of psychology, society, and culture, and have a knack for analyzing and understanding the world around them. If you’ve ever found yourself wondering about things like: the cultural repercussions of Artificial Intelligence, the consequences of a completely connected society, the physical melding of humans and technology, or the social power of the internet, then Digital Culturist needs your brain.
What we’re looking for
Digital Culturist is looking for analytical, informed stories that focus on technology, the internet, and how they affect human behavior, psychology, and culture. We are looking for unique, fresh perspectives on the following subjects (this is not a definitive list):
Internet culture/trends, Wearables, Internet of things, Artificial intelligence, Work/startup culture, Transportation, Policy/Privacy/Ethics, Gender/diversity in technology, Productivity, Transhumanism/biohacking, Futurism, Hacking/cyber crime, Economy/business, Communication, Modern media/journalism, Video games, Virtual reality, Usability/UI/UX design, Technology addiction, Education, Modern psychology, Health/fitness, Modern Art and literature, Modern Dating/Relationships…
Write something that will make us pause after reading and think, “I never thought of it that way.” Don’t just reiterate what you’ve read online — reinvent. Be creative with it. Tell us a story, narrate an experience, or mystify us with poetry.
If you’re still in the dark about what digital culture is, check out this intro to Digital Culturist to get a better feel for what we’re all about. If you’re still unsure if your story fits with our theme, email us and let us know what you’re thinking (include [Idea] in the subject line). We can help each other develop the perfect story.
Also, we want to see both sides of the coin. We understand that technology can have a negative impact, but we also understand that there are unmatched positives, possibilities, and potential. Additionally, we do not accept biased stories that are written for the sole purpose of promoting a company or product that you are affiliated with.
We welcome all genres of prose (nonfiction, fiction, poetry) and visual work that explores the social, cultural, and psychological implications of technology and the internet. Depending on the genre, all text should fall within the 500–5000 word range. Poetry has no minimum.
Submitting
Email your idea or piece to digitalculturist@gmail.com.
When submitting your idea or piece, please provide the following information:
- [Submission] in the subject line.
- Your name.
- Your preferred email address.
- Your twitter handle.
- A link to your Medium account (if you do not have one, you can create one, or ask us to publish your piece under your name/anonymously).
- A pitch of your idea/summary of your piece in one paragraph or less.
If you already have a draft of the story, attach it to your initial submission as a Microsoft Word document (.docx).
If your story is already published elsewhere* (see our republishing policy below), include a link to it in your initial submission.
Editing/Formatting
If we are interested in your idea and invite you to be a part of the issue for which you submitted, please draft your piece in Microsoft Word and send it to digitalculturist@gmail.com for the initial editing process. This process usually takes takes two to three rounds of editing, in which we will use the track changes feature in Word to:
- Provide feedback and suggestions on your piece to further develop ideas and arguments.
- Edit syntax and structure as needed to ensure the piece is clear, flows smoothly, and adheres to the intellectually conversational tone of Digital Culturist.
- Proofread/edit for grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
Once we’ve finished the initial editing process, we will add you as a writer to Medium so that you can submit the piece for the final review/formatting process through Medium’s writing tools. For the final review, copy and paste the edited piece into Medium as a draft and include a short third person bio at the end of the draft.
Note: To submit your story for final review, enter editing mode, click the ellipses (…) next to the Publish button, and select Add to publication. Select Digital Culturist, and click Submit draft.
Once you’ve submitted your draft on Medium, we will:
- Proofread the piece again to catch anything that we might have missed during the initial editing process.
- Edit the title, subtitle, and tags as needed.
- Add images as needed (feel free to provide your own (see image policies below); however, we might not use them if we deem other images more appropriate.
- Add our branding and social media plugs.
We will run all edits by you before we publish the finished product.
Note: As per Medium’s policy, you retain all the rights to your work.
Policies
*Republishing
While we would rather receive an original piece, we are open to republishing pieces from elsewhere, such as an external site or personal blog, as long as that piece is unique to our publication in the Medium community. We will not duplicate a piece that already exists in another Medium publication. Since we are part of Medium as a community, we feel that publishing duplicate content in the same community devalues our publication (plus, it would look weird on your Medium profile if you had duplicate pieces).
Conversely, if you do go original with us, and you choose to republish elsewhere on the internet, we ask that you give us a nod by adding the following to the end of your story:
Previously published at digitalculturist.com.
Sources
If you are using facts, data, ideas, or other information from published works, link them in context to their sources.
Images
If you supply us with images you want to use for your piece, we encourage you to use/create your own images, or those licensed under the creative commons. Medium has a list of stock images that don’t suck. There’s also sites like Unsplash, Flickr, and The Stocks.
If you plan to use an image you found from another source, please provide credit to the photographer and the source in the following format:
Image by [photographer name] via [source title]
If you found the image on a website and there is no photographer credit, just link the source website.
Compensation
At the moment, contributing to Digital Culturist is a volunteer effort, as we do not have the resources to pay our contributors. We hope that will change in the future.
We are excited to receive your submissions and grow Digital Culturist to its full potential.
