Great Lakes Echo accepts submissions from guest writers (and videographers, photographers or podcast producers) who wish to contribute content to the site. The submitted content is published at the discretion of the site’s editors. If Echo chooses to publish your submission, an Echo site editor will contact you about formatting the work for the site.
To submit content to Great Lakes Echo, email Echo editor Dave Poulson at: poulsondavid@gmail.com
Here are some general guidelines to consider when preparing your work for submission:
Writing for the Web
Online readers expect brevity. They also appreciate writers who break up the text with subheadings, turn paragraphs full of facts into bulleted lists, and include links for them to investigate your claims further. The Great Lakes Echo site editor who works with you to prepare your content for the site will help you maximize the chances that readers will stick with your piece by suggesting ways to add these Web-friendly elements to your writing.
If you have a lot to say about a lot of things, shoving all your ideas into one post is not the best way to go. Stay concise and specific in your guest column submissions. There’s no set limit to how many times we’ll accept work from you, as long as it continues to meet our requirements.
Submitting Images
You must have permission to use any images you include in your work. We encourage submitting images of some kind with your text. Images found on most government sites may be used freely. You may either submit the images as .jpg files via email or include a direct url to the image from its source. Ex: http://www.fws.gov/yreka/baldeagle_clip_image002.jpg is a direct link to an photo of a bald eagle found on the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s web site.
Submitting video
Whether you’ve produced a mini-documentary about air pollution or have 30 seconds of raw video from your cell phone of you pulling an Asian Carp out of the lake, if it’s relevant to the Great Lakes and you can get it onto YouTube, we can feature it on Great Lakes Echo. Video submissions only need to include the link to your work on YouTube, and a brief description of what the video contains.