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MILITARY MONEY and militarymoney.com WRITER'S GUIDELINES

Thank you for your interest in MILITARY MONEY magazine and accompanying militarymoney.com website. MILITARY MONEY's mission is to become the leading national personal finance and lifestyle magazine specifically created for today's military servicemembers and their families.

MILITARY MONEY is published by the InCharge Institute of America, a non-profit organization. Currently, the magazine is published quarterly and distributed through selected United States-based military bases, commissaries and family centers. It is available free of charge. Circulation is approximately 250,000.

The following guidelines should assist you in presenting article ideas for editorial consideration.

We are interested in informative yet entertaining perspectives about personal finance or lifestyle issues that will entice military families to read your story. We are not necessarily looking for themes that are "patriotic" or "militaristic" - whatever those terms mean. Military families must cope with many of the same problems faced by their civilian counterparts, plus their own additional set of unique challenges.

Most MILITARY MONEY readers are spouses of enlisted servicemembers - typically 18-to-35-year-old females.

The magazine and website cover a variety of financial-related topics, including:

MONEY - personal finance concerns such as saving, investing, budgeting, banking, retirement planning, military pay and entitlements, taxes, insurance, mortgages, and more
CREDIT - anything to do with debt issues, as well as credit cards, credit reports and credit repair
HOME - deployment and moving, home purchase or rental, home improvements, health care, children and parenting
SUCCESS - includes advice on career advancement, entrepreneurship and education opportunities, in and out of the military
LIFE - consumer issues and purchase of material goods: cars and car care, technology purchases, leisure travel, entertainment

We welcome articles from professionals in the topics you discuss, but your ability to write clearly and concisely and the knowledge you demonstrate are more important than your credentials. In fact, we especially want contributions from military members and spouses - you're more qualified to speak to our readers than anyone!

We prefer original material, but will consider reprints. Do not propose fiction, poetry, or fillers.

Though many articles and queries will have merit, we can only publish work that precisely meets our editorial needs and standards.

How to Submit Your Proposal to MILITARY MONEY:

Format: Submit in a Word-compatible file via e-mail to csurran@militarymoney.com, or a typed, double-spaced manuscript sent regular mail to:

MILITARY MONEY Magazine
2101 Park Center Drive, Suite 310
Orlando, Florida 32835
ATTN: Carl Surran

Provide your e-mail and postal addresses, as well as a daytime telephone number. Mail sent to MILITARY MONEY without this information will not be processed. Please include a one- or two-sentence biographical statement as a tagline.

Deadlines: Arranged on a case-by-case basis, but we are constantly looking for worthy material. Depending on our needs, we may print an article one month after submission, or we may wait several months.

Queries: We accept unsolicited manuscripts or detailed queries with copies of published clips. However, MILITARY MONEY is not responsible for unsolicited materials. Do not send valuable or irreplaceable items.

Style: Use Associated Press style. Avoid excessive military jargon - our readers get enough of that already. Try to maintain an optimistic, upbeat tone.

Length: Up to approximately 1,200 words. Most articles we publish range from 650-750 words.

Graphics: The use of graphs, charts, sidebars, photographs, cartoons, etc. to enhance the article is welcomed and encouraged.

Payment: We are a non-profit organization - in other words, we don't earn a profit from MILITARY MONEY - so we simply can't pay for most work we would like to publish. Occasionally, however, we make case-by-case exceptions based on article quality, writing experience, and our editorial needs.

Terms: For paid original contributions, we require first-time, multiple-use rights. The content becomes the copyrighted property of MILITARY MONEY, and may not be reprinted without written permission of MILITARY MONEY. For unpaid contributions, no further rights are implied, and outside inquiries about usage are referred back to the author.