Writing for Sonus

Sonus is an independently-run journal that calls its own shots. We realize that you don’t need to be an ultra-qualified academic or a technically-proficient prodigy to make great music, and we believe great writing is the same way. Our vetting process is simple: if we like it, we’ll publish it. Thus, we neither expect nor require our writers to have any prerequisite skills or talents — all you need is an awesome piece.

That being said, we want to make sure potential writers know what this site is for. Like any publication, we have a set of parameters that guides what we choose to publish. Here’s a brief overview of what we expect a Sonus piece to be:

• A Sonus piece is inextricably linked to music, whether by means of personal narrative, critical engagement, or some other form of commentary. This isn’t the place for news stories or your take on the latest Donald Trump tweetstorm. Talk about music — and if you can tie a recent musical development back to politics, feel free.
• A Sonus piece is not self-promotional in nature. We’re sure your band’s new EP is great, but this is not the place to brag about it. Instead, if you’re here to get some good pub for your musical project, email us some of your work. We might brag about it, and that would be a lot better for you in the long run anyway.
• A Sonus piece is relevant to music fans today. If you want to write about something that happened in music more than 5 years ago, you need to also communicate why that thing should matter to the modern listener. This isn’t very hard to do (“‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ is a great song for the end of your workout!” or “Motown music in the ’60s is a huge influence on the modern hip-hop scene”), but it’s certainly worth mentioning here.
• A Sonus piece is readable and grammatically correct. While we will value your input throughout the editing process, we won’t budge on the rules of the English language or the functionality of your verbiage. If you write “This question will be answered by me,” we’re going to change it to “I’ll answer this question.” If that’s a dealbreaker for you, we will respectfully decline to publish your work.

If you have a piece that fits within these parameters, and you’re proud of it, we will happily consider publishing it. Reach out to us at sonus.commentary@gmail.com and put “Writing Submission” in the subject line. We will get back to you as soon as we can.

Happy writing!