SSA has several restrictions which are used as guidelines for all submitted magazine material. No "party line" is enforced - reasonable people may disagree on the best, safest, or most effective way to teach or accomplish something. Also, SSA does not try to suppress one well-reasoned view in favor of another. But all views, particularly those that are of a controversial nature, should be well supported with facts.
Articles can be as short as 500 and as long as 3000 words. In general, succinct is better. We edit all submissions, and frequently work with an author to refine an article prior to its publication.
Additionally, by submitting material to the SSA you are agreeing to the SSA's policy on Release of Copyright which can be found at the bottom of this page.
How to submit an article
SSA is happy to accept articles in almost any form convenient for the author. If an electronic form
of the text is available, it should be included along with a printed copy. We tend to use Microsoft Word,
but can accept many common formats.
We assume that your article is original and not previously published. Please make it clear if this is not so. We acknowledge all submissions but generally make no advanced promises about publication. Space is limited so some good contributions must go unpublished.
In addition to the text of the article, you should include:
Articles should be sent to the SSA Office, P.O. Box 2100, Hobbs, NM 88241. The electronic form of the text can be sent on floppy disk or by e-mail, to magazine@ssa.org.
Deadlines
Layout, production, proofing, printing and mailing take time. The last day on which material can be
changed is typically 45 days before the first day of the issue month. Thus, the deadline for the
October issue would be August 15th.
But editing also takes time and the content of an issue is planned well in advance. Only rarely can an article submitted less than a month prior to the issue deadline be published in that issue.
Photographs and illustrations
Illustrations add much to the appeal of an article. You should plan to include plenty - more than you
think necessary. Sometimes magazine layout requirements are a constraint and it can be helpful to have
a selection from which to choose.
Great photos of soaring subjects will be considered for the front cover. The process utilized for good soaring photographs could itself be the subject of an article. Briefly, you need a camera with a quality lens that reliably makes good exposures. Good air-to-air photos have great appeal, but are not easy to take. Photos are better if shot against an interesting background, which often complicates things. You will rarely get acceptable results if you try to shoot through a canopy.
Digital cameras are becoming popular, and can be more convenient than those that use film. But even the highest-resolution digital image is hard-pressed to match the quality of a photo shot by an inexpensive film camera. As a rule of thumb, a photo printed in a magazine should have at least 300 dots per inch. Thus, a 1280x960 digital image can be printed no larger than about 4"x3", and may not look sharp at that size See our Photo Guidelines for more details.
The best form in which to submit a photo is as a color print; slides and negatives also work well.
We like to give credit for photographs, so you should make it clear who took the photos you include with your article. To facilitate this all submitted photos, including digital files, should be identified with the name of the photographer, the date taken and a title. An example of a suitably named digital file would be "Joe Smith - 123105 - L23 Blanik.jpg".
SSA Release of Copyright Statement
It is a condition of submission to and acceptance by The Soaring Society of America, Inc. (SSA) that all material submitted for consideration and/or publication (including photographs and text), whether submitted as a result of a request by the SSA or not, is submitted on the basis that the SSA has the right, without payment or compensation, to reproduce and sell or distribute freely, and to authorize third parties who are engaged in the dissemination of information relating to the sport of soaring to reproduce and sell or distribute freely, such material. By submitting such material to the SSA for consideration and/or publication the submitter represents that they hold the right to grant a release of copyright in respect of such material. If the submitted material is clearly identified (in the case of material in electronic form, identified in the filename) with the name of its creator suitable attribution of its source will be given.