Writing for CODE

Thank you for your interest in writing for CODE Magazine, a developer's magazine written by and created for software developers. Our process is pretty simple.

Proposing and Writing an Article

If you are interested in writing for CODE, here is what you need to do:

1. E-mail your article abstract to Editor-in-Chief, Rod Paddock (editor@codemag.com).
2. With your article abstract, please include a little about yourself. Please include info about where you work, if you are an MVP or RD, and links to other articles you have written. We don't require that you've written before to write for CODE. We have worked with numerous authors on their article for professional publication. But if you have, we are interested and want to take a look.
3. If your idea is accepted, we ask you to develop an outline and we'll send you the author's contract. You will also need our Word template which is a mandatory basis for all articles.
4. Upon acceptance of your outline, you can start writing your article.
5. Submit the article by our agreed-upon deadline. (For print articles, deadlines are usually the 15th of every other month, Feb, Apr, Jun, Aug, Oct, Dec. Deadlines for online-only or special issue content are agreed-upon individually).
6. We will edit the article and work with you to make things clearer. Remember to follow the guidelines for each article (see below) or we will return the article to you. You must provide a high-resolution photo of yourself (at least two inches by three inches and at least 300 dpi) when you submit your article for editorial review.
7. 7. We schedule your article for publication in various formats. (That may include some or all of the following: Print, web site, email newsletters, eBooks, ...). Note that there may be significant lead time between completion of the article and its publishing. This depends on the timeliness of the article submission, how it fits into our editorial calendar, and whether it is print or digital-only.
8. You become famous! ;-)

That's it! Pretty simple stuff. If you have any questions, please e-mail Rod at the e-mail address above.

Author's Tools

Writing an article is pretty simple. Most of our authors write their articles using Microsoft Word. In fact, we need you to submit Word documents (docx) so we can process them further. Some authors may write using a different tool, but then convert to docx.

Other tools you might find useful:

• Code Snippet Tool - Use this tool to format your code snippets according to our standards. Simply copy your code into the tool and out pops the same snippet properly colored. We even give you visual guides so you can easily tell how long individual lines can be and still fit properly into a printed magazine.

Types of Articles and Writer's Guide

CODE Magazine publishes a wide range of different articles both in print and digital. They generally fit into the following categories:

Technical How-To Articles

These are the most common articles in CODE, published both in print and digital. These articles explain a technique or technology in depth. We tend to focus on technologies that are either already available or "just around the corner". However, on occasion we also publish articles that look a bit further into the future. How-To articles typically have code snippets/listings and detailed instructions that the reader can follow. How-To articles can be any length (we don't put many limitations on article length) and tend to be "beefy.” These types of articles are the ones most commonly proposed by new authors.

If you are interested in writing a technical article, have a look at the Technical Article Writer's Guide.

Columns

Columns are articles that follow a certain theme, with the same theme appearing in every issue of CODE Magazine. (Example: The column on the last page of the print magazine). Columns tend to be "opinion articles" more than how-to articles. Due to the logistical overhead and required commitment, columns are generally only assigned to authors with whom we have worked previously. There is a limited number of columns we can print, and authors are always competing for columnist spots. Columns can be anywhere from one page to four pages in length.

PostMortem

Our Postmortem article series focuses on finished projects and what went well and what did not. They represent a great way to share experiences with certain technologies and techniques with our readers. Postmortems are written by different authors in every issue. They tend to be around 3-4 pages in length and include screen shots of the finished product. The more exciting the project, the better.

If you are interested in writing a Postmortem, have a look at the PostMortem Writer's Guide.

E-Columns

E-columns (a.k.a. "email newsletters") are articles published digitally only (not just email newsletters, but that is how they started out, hence the name). They are similar to regular columns but cover a bit of a wider range of topics. An e-column could be an opinion column, but it could also be more technical. Typically, a single author owns a certain e-column and writes the column once a month.