TrepSess Writer’s Guidelines
Want to contribute to TrepSess? Here’s how to be considered:
So, you want to be a contributor to TrepSess — where entrepreneurs and success collide.
First of all, we don’t accept all articles or inquiries, and we pay special attention to those who pay attention to us (i.e. don’t pitch us any nonrelated subject matter stories). If you do, then we know you’re not engaging with TrepSess enough to understand what we’re all about.
Who We Are:
We’re a collective of marketing pros led by former and current journalists. We strive to be different from other similar digital magazines by keeping the stories and content authentic and based in journalistic integrity. This helps us to build more credibility for our clients and contributors, much more so than other similar publications.
TrepSess is a unique place for real stories on real startups and real advice from expert sources, like you, for entrepreneurs/CEOs of startups to small enterprises. Our collective vision is to be of service to our readers and followers.
Trepsess seeks to be inspiring, motivating and informational yet innovative. We’re looking for what matters to entrepreneurs right now and five years from now.
Content includes in-depth startup stories, company features, roundups, tips/advice, expert knowledge and our “Lists” section, in development. We welcome content in any of these areas and ideas for additions.
Why Guidelines:
1. We have day jobs and don’t have time to edit and rewrite your articles without pay.
2. Want your story or article to be considered, then this will ensure that your article could be approved for consideration.
3. It ensures that the people who write for us, and content they produce, is good, meaningful and well written.
4. In life, people who follow the rules mostly make the cut. However, as journalists and marketing pros, we like people who follow the rules but walk to the beat of their own drum. This creates an opportunity for fun content.
5. We really want this to become a sustainable, credible magazine and we can only do that with people who follow our guidelines.
6. It sets us apart. Believe it or not, if you’ve read to here, you’re probably someone we want writing for us.
What to Do:
Know our audience. Understand our audience and bring a fresh new story, advice and voice to the audience.
Please follow the Trepsess channel and read articles to get a feel for our preferred content style.
Write a story that flows and is easy to read, understand, digest and walk away feeling better, good, hopeful, knowledgeable, motivated, inspired and more.
Follow the AP Style of journalism writing — or at least the basics, which you can learn in a quick search.
Spell real good.
Make a list of compelling stories/articles that fit our unique model for consideration and make sure they are fresh and newsworthy — you are a great resource for content with your unique way of thinking, expertise and perception.
Be someone we want writing for us — well done, you’ve continued to read!
Be engaging!
What Not to Do:
Submit any political content. We do not post anything political and anything we do post will be approved under the guidelines that it is apolitical in nature and informative information relevant to our audience. We anticipate this will be rare. This is not a place to debate politics, politicians or policy.
No Eeyores welcome here! If you have to look that up…
Be too opinionated. There is a difference between experience and opinion and truly opinionated. We’re journalists and we know the difference.
Stay away from generic, it’s-been-written-thousands-of-times-already stories or headlines. We want new, fresh information and compelling stories that draw readers in.
Plagiarize or steal content from another writer without credit. We’re journalists and have no tolerance for this.
Send the same article that’s already been published elsewhere. This is spamming and it’s not fair to the original outlet that posted your article. Be kind and thoughtful. It might be the same subject but we want an original article. We’re journalists. We do our homework.
If you’re still reading, then you’re definitely ready to read the next section.
Writers’ Tips
Your article should be at least 1000 words.
Make it an interesting story/article and ensure that it is streamlined, meaning the story is not fragmented without connection between paragraphs or theme. The story must make sense.
Use facts, studies, statistics to make the argument for your article.
Please select and include graphics to accompany your article. You can easily find free, general stock photos on Google Images or on Unsplash.
Make it Engaging: Please generate links within the content. For instance, if you reference something everyone should read or listen to, include a hyperlink to that title.
PROOFREAD — check all grammar and spelling. We recommend writing in a Word format document. A quick use of Spell Check should remedy this.
Read, read, and re-read to ensure the story flows and makes sense. Invite someone else to read it to provide feedback for changes before sending.
Include a contributor bio with links to your website, book, etc.
Know that we adhere to Medium’s Distribution Guidelines.
If you’ve read all of this, we’ll know…good luck!
