Contributed articles are welcomed on CO-mag. If you want to show your work on this site and submit an article for publication please read the following instructions carefully.
Guidelines
Introduction
On the Internet, information about the artists and photographers are often very superficial. The idea behind CO-mag is to fill this void by publishing long and in-depth articles about photography, creating in this way a space where artists can deepen the analysis and description of their work; a space to develop the discussion, where the words and concepts have nearly the same importance as the pictures.
Choosing the subject
The editorial line is more to publish real life stories than a complex theoretical essay about photographic aesthetic. Souvenirs, impressions, anecdotes, behind the scenes, experiences, poems, contaminations… are all great starting point.
If you want to have an idea of what has been done before you, just have a look at the already published articles, but remember that you have a lot of freedom: you can write something completely different and original.
Avoid a general introduction to your work
Please avoid a generic introduction to your work like a statement or your general thoughts about photography. It is better (and easier) to chose a single argument or theme and develop it. If you want to write about several different subjects, please consider to write more than one article. Keep in mind that the article will link to your site, as a consequence a lot of readers will visit your complete portfolio and read your statement directly on your site. No need to duplicate it here.
Avoid duplicate content
Please do no send an article that has already been published on the web. It is not a good idea to make duplicate content because Google penalizes a website if it finds that the content is duplicated. If I publish an article that is already on your site, we both risk losing some Google traffic. No problem if some minor duplicate content is present, just avoid duplicating large parts of texts.
If you have the authorization to do it, you can republish articles that already appeared on written media like books and magazines.
Article length
The only strict rule to submit an article is to write a text that exceeds 1,000 words.
Sure, 1,000 words says nothing about the article quality, but a symbolic limit is necessary to make the difference from a site with a photo gallery with a few lines of introductory text and a real article like those published on CO-mag. Please don’t be scared, the limit of 1,000 words is not that much, it’s just a couple of pages.
Articles longer than 1,000 words are welcomed. Right now the longest article submitted is 2,143 words long. You can still try to establish the new record!
Articles shorter than 1,000 words will not be published. No exceptions.
Article layout
It is not necessary to heavily format your article, because in any case it will be re-adapted to CO-mag layout. These format styles are all accepted: section headings, italic emphasis and quotes (in quotation marks in the text or as separate paragraphs).
The file formats accepted are: txt, doc, rtf, doc or html. Please avoid sending pdf files.
Please do not include the images directly in the text, but attach them in separate files. If you want to specify the order and/or position of the attached images in the essay, just write a paragraph with text like “Here picture number 1″. Please note that for layout exigencies it is not always possible to respect the order or position of images.
If you have special layout please contact us and we will try to satisfy your needs.
Preparing the images
The photo accompanying the interview should be in sRGB, minimum size 800px the wide side. No watermark, signature and frame. Color space sRGB, compression 7.
The images can be compressed in a unique .zip, .rar or .tar.gz file and sent by mail.
All images will be labelled with “© Your Name”. If you want to add captions, please send a separate list with a separate line for each image file name and caption. Images will than be labelled “Caption © Your Name”.
If you want you can suggest which photo will be used as the “featured image” (the thumbnail that will appear on the homepage and each archive page). It can be any image attached to the article, not necessary the first one. The featured image will represent your article, so you should choose it carefully. Please also notice that the featured image will be cropped square, as a consequence make sure to choose a photo that works fine in this format.
The number of pictures can be attached to an article depends of the text length: the longer the text the higher the number of pictures. Usually 10-12 files can be attached to a 1000 words long article, if you want to publish more photographs consider writing a longer text.
Language and translation
CO-mag is written mainly in Italian, English, and French. Occasionally in Spanish and Chinese. You can write the article using the language that is easiest for you.
If you want to maximize the exposure of your work you can also make a translation of your text in one or more of these languages. If you can’t do it by yourself, consider ask a friend to help. A translation can be published even months after the article publication.
Deadline
There is no strict deadline.
The objective is to publish high quality articles and that you are satisfied by the result, not to publish your article within the shortest delay.
Monetary compensation
CO-mag can’t offer monetary compensation, but the magazine has a big (and growing) community of readers: your text will be read by lots of photographers, gallerists, publishers, curators and photo editors.
Publishing an article on CO-mag you’ll get more traffic to your site and receive a lot of exposition for free.
Need additional help or any advice?
Any additional question? Feel free to contact us.
