Submission Guidelines
Let’s get a fountain of stories flowing deep and wide!
Americana Steeples wants to spread the word, and without you that won’t happen. We need your stories!
We want everyone to read about your churches – history, people, architecture, projects, old recipes – and that’s just to name a few!
We’re just asking you to be bold and share your stories. Do you know of a story that needs to be told? Let us know!
Guidelines to get your started
All you need is a story or even just an idea. We will help you every step of the way and at every stage of the writing process.
The best way to start is for us to talk over email or even a phone call. But we also have a form below if you want to fill that out to get rolling! You can email Teresa at [email protected]
These guidelines will help ensure that your story will spread far and wide on the Internet.
- The length of the story should be a MINIMUM of 1,000 words, ideally longer. That’s easier to achieve than you may think. If that sounds daunting, don’t worry because Teresa will help you make that goal.
- Please also submit high quality photos. We’d like to have at least 2 photos if possible. The more the merrier!
- We will edit all stories for such things as SEO, grammar, punctuation, paragraph length, and style, but your post should be checked by you for spelling, grammar, or any other errors prior to submission.
- With your story submission, please also send a high-quality image of yourself and a brief bio. If you wish, you may also include your social media links and website, if you have one.
- Send the story and all attachments, such as photos, to [email protected]
Here’s an important rule. If this one is not followed, it will actually hurt our website and yours too. Your story must be original and not previously published anywhere. Otherwise, search engines will punish us for having duplicate content.
Here are some guidelines that mostly apply to bloggers & professional writers
- Links can be included in the story document itself or in your email.
- We’re going to ask you to be involved in helping to promote your story. We’ll let you know a week before the story is published so that you can post a “Coming soon” type post to your social media to promote the upcoming story.
- Once your story is published, we will be promoting it on our social media. Please share liberally! And don’t forget to check on the comments so that you can participate in the conversation about your story.
- Do not add any affiliate links to your story.
- We want to make as many people as possible aware of your ministry and wish to include all websites, addresses, and contact information so that they can continue to learn about you and support you if they are moved to. With this in mind, please do not ask for donations.
For one year, your story has to be exclusive to Americana Steeples. Do not publish your article on any other online site for one full year. After one year, you may republish it on your own website as long as you follow these stipulations, which are in place for both of our benefit.
- The story must be altered with significant changes – it cannot be the same story as written for Americana Steeples.
- For your website, give the story a new title on SEO.
- We will let you know the keywords we use for your story published on Americana Steeples. After a year, if you publish on your website, please use different keywords. Just like the above, competing with the same keywords will not benefit either of us in the long run.
- It would be a good idea to use different images.
Please follow these guidelines when submitting a story to Americana Steeples. We have the right to decline any story that does not meet our guidelines or does not align with our vision and mission.
Before you submit a story, please email us first to talk about your idea. Email us at [email protected]