Yes! We welcome and encourage everyone to send us stories for publication. Priority is given to paid subscribers, as they are paying for the privilege of having their content receive priority over non-paying submitters, however, we accept and publish submitted content from everyone, providing it adheres to our publishing guidelines.
There is no charge to submit stories and articles, providing they are not advertising or promotional in nature. If a story is advertising or promotional, (ie: you are seeking to profit from and/or raise awareness for attendance to an event, or to promote published materials, etc.), we will inform you it would be better for you to consider advertising options. Note: This typically doesn't apply to our regular stories by readers.
Stories can be as short as a couple of paragraphs and should not be more than 700 words. We understand that good stories can sometimes run a bit longer than 700 words and we do our best to accept stories a few words over the 700 mark, however we ask that stories be kept to around 700 words. Submissions that are over 700 words may be returned to their submitter for editing before they will be considered for publishing.
Unfortunately, we do not. Our editorial focus is on true-life stories. We do not accept fiction or serials for publishing.
Almost anything and everything! You could find yourself thinking about something that happened in your life and think, 'wow! That'd be a great story to tell!' – but there is no one around to hear it. Write it down and send it to us! We'd love to share it! Over the years, we've had folks write to us and tell us about the first jobs, first cars and first dates. We've had great stories about life on the farm, life in the city, life in the small town and life on the road. Every story is great, because each one is a little unique. Our precious memory stories help us remember the good, the bad, the ups, the downs, the triumphs and those 'near misses' that are part of life – and they are enjoyable to read and share!
It really depends on the story and our editor would have to review it before making a final determination. We encourage people to write about stories from their own life and their own perspective, however, sometimes folks write about a family member or a friend, or other significant person in their life. This is fine, however, we ask that your story be about your own personal recollections of the person. We do not accept stories written 'in the third person' - i.e., stories written by you, where you refer to yourself in the third-person, such as 'John liked to get up early in the morning.' It should read, 'I liked to get up early in the morning.'
We do not accept stories that are biographical in nature, or stories written listing a 'life summary' of others, nor do we accept articles that are written as a tribute to others. Biographies, tribute stories, and stories that are not about the submitter (in some way) are not considered for publishing and will be returned to the submitter.
Not at all. In fact, we prefer you aren't a professional writer. We have a few professionals on staff to clean up grammar, spelling errors and stuff like that, but we want you to write in your own words, so that your story has your voice.
Write to us like you were writing a letter to a close friend. You can even start it off like this, 'Dear Senior Paper, I remember this one time when I was about seven or eight years old and mom and dad had just bought a brand new car. It was...' and there you go! Your story is started! The hardest part is now over and you can let your precious memories flow.
We ask that you do not send more than three or four stories at one time. We try to publish stories on a first-come basis and we don't usually publish stories from indivdiuals in back-to-back editions, so four stories would stretch out over a year's worth of issues.
We try to get all stories published as soon as possible, however, we cannot guarantee when (or if) any story will be published. On average, it can take between three and four editions for a story to be published. Each story is given a unique datestamp ID number when it is received by our office and we try to publish stories on a first-come basis to ensure fairness, however, if your story has a particular theme (such as a winter story, a summer story, a Christmas story, etc.) we may decide to hold that for a related edition (ie; winter story in winter a winter issue) rather than publish it in a spring issue.
We prefer submissions be typed, however, we accept handwritten stories as long as the handwriting is legible. If you want to write, that is fine, however we ask that all names (of people, places, events, etc.) be printed, so that we do not misspell them by accident. While not mandatory (and not affecting when stories are published), our preference for receiving material is as follows: 1. by email or submitted through our website 2. computer printed or typed letter 3. hand-printed letter 4. written (cursive) letter with names printed
Unfortunately, we do not have the space to accept birthday or anniversary write-ups as part of our regular editorial content. For people who want to celebrate a birthday, anniversary, or other significant event or achievement, we offer a special advertising feature called Milestone Announcements.
Because our publishing space is limited, we do not accept media releases, news releases, news promos, or public service announcements for publishing. If you believe readers would benefit from your media release, we encourage you to get in touch with our advertising department.
Yes, The Senior Paper is a copyright protected publication. The contents of the publication cannot be reprinted, reposted, hosted, recorded (audio or video), rebroadcast or streamed online, either in whole or in part, without the prior expressed written permission of The Senior Paper.
You retain copyright on all stories you've authored and submit for publishing consideration. By submitting the story to us, you are granting us non-exclusive permission to edit and reprint your story, per Section 3 of our Terms and Conditions. You are free to reprint your story at any time, for any reason, in any other publication, without requiring our permission, as you are the original copyright holder of the work.
