Writer's Guidelines
The Old Schoohouse® Magazine, LLC
Thank you for your interest in writing for The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine (TOS), a publication of The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC. TOS is available throughout the United States. We can be found at Borders Bookstores, Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Hastings, and a number of Christian booksellers. TOS is also available by subscription. TOS has acquired a valued reputation as the publication homeschoolers can trust.
As the largest, highest-quality homeschooling magazine on the market, TOS is always looking to expand its coverage with fresh content addressing and exploring all facets of home-based education. We are interested in articles and stories that educate, inspire, and encourage our family of readers. Areas of particular interest include articles and anecdotes about vital aspects of homeschooling and family life: living in God's strength, involving fathers, encouraging mothers, joyful parenting, creative homemaking, improving organization, raising children, and getting it all done. We also welcome academically oriented pieces such as conference information and reports, applications or methods for teaching academic subjects in the homeschool environment, state and national homeschooling trends, political affairs, and international home education news. Research pieces and professional or technical articles relating to homeschooling and education are especially welcome.
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Fall 2010
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Each issue of The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine focuses on two themes, one historical and one academic, although published articles may include additional topics or themes. We appreciate queries that demonstrate an understanding of our magazine and our target audience and strongly suggest that interested writers familiarize themselves with our content, subject matter, and style. For instance, our Storytime column is geared toward both children and stay-at-home mothers and should be interesting and informative to both audiences. Storytime articles are generally original works of fiction with a junior or adult focus. Storytime tales specifically written for children should contain a maximum of 900—1,000 words, preferably accompanied by original color art or graphics. Storytime pieces for moms should have "goose bumps appeal" and a maximum of 1,500 words. Articles exploring the history, current status, and character of the homeschool movement always get our attention, as do works offering insight into higher education, such as interviews with university representatives and homeschool graduates or pieces that offer new ways to approach colleges and gain college credits while finishing high school. We also consider academic unit studies on appropriate educational topics. Unit studies contain approximately 2,000 words, plus sidebars and graphics. Please query us with a well-structured article proposal that includes a catchy lead, a summary of the article (including approximate length and sidebar ideas), and appropriate details. Users of HomeschoolBlogger.com should note their usernames on their query. Links to clips and portfolios are of assistance as well. All query and other submissions are subject to the Terms of Submission posted on our website. Query letters should be submitted electronically using the forms provided on our website. We strongly discourage multiple submissions of query letters (sending the same query to several publications at once). Queries to TOS should be written specifically for our publication. We will acknowledge receipt of your query and attempt to make a decision to accept or decline the proposed article as quickly as possible. The review process normally takes between four and six weeks, but may be longer at times. Our editors will contact you if we decide to accept a queried article. Publication of accepted materials may take from three months to more than a year based on our needs and publication schedule. Terms of publication vary based on article length and content. At TOS, we slate authors' work for future issues as far in advance as possible, sometimes as much as two years before the issue will be published. Therefore, if you are interested in submitting a query, please do so immediately, so that your query may be carefully reviewed and considered prior to upcoming submission deadlines. Please note the following standard submission DEADLINE dates for each of our quarterly issues:
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An expanded Guidelines for Writers, which provides a variety of detailed information for TOS authors and potential authors, is available here.
