1. Family Chronicle's publisher and editor is Halvor Moorshead publisher@familychronicle.com (888) 326-2476.
   
   The mail address is: 505 Consumers Road, Suite 500, Toronto, ON, M2J 4V8
   
   Do not be afraid to phone.
   
   
2. Family Chronicle is published six times a year (January/February; March/April; May/June; July/August; September/October; November/December) by Moorshead Magazines.
3. Family Chronicle is available by subscription, on some newsstands and a few genealogy bookstores. The current circulation is about 32,000 (independently audited). We print at least 40,000 copies.
4. Family Chronicle is based in Toronto, Canada. However over 90 percent of the circulation is in the US with the balance in Canada. We sell very few copies outside of North America and make no pretence that we cover other regions.
5. US based authors are paid in American funds; Canada-based authors are paid in Canadian funds. Authors from other countries are normally paid in US dollars but this is negotiable. Payment is made as soon as we receive our advance copies from the printer - this is usually 2-3 weeks before the official publication date. (For example: an article in the Sept/Oct issue will be paid about 10 August).
6. Unless otherwise agreed, author payments will be for first world serial and electronic rights. Authors (unless they are employees of the magazine) retain copyright.
7. Family Chronicle pays for articles. Payment is usually by the published page (this includes visuals provided by the author - if no visuals are provided, the fee is based on amount of published page space occupied by the submitted text). Payment varies: however it is not less than US$55 per page and the average is considerably higher. Factors leading to the higher rates include:

• Second or subsequent articles by the same author published in the magazine.
  
• The expertise of the author (authors of related books and those who regularly lecture may qualify for higher rates).
  
• The degree of work involved. For example a good review of a piece of software may involve hours of additional work.
  
• The amount of work necessary by Family Chronicle editors. Some manuscripts require hours of work, correcting spelling and English - we pay a lower rate for such material - if it is accepted at all. All Editors are familiar with authors who "pad" the text, as they believe it will lead to higher payment. In such cases the text is heavily edited and the article will be paid at a lower rate.

What is your deadline? We NEVER schedule articles from first-time authors until we have the manuscript. The reality is that only a fraction of people who promise us articles actually come through. We also work well ahead. For example by the time one issue goes to the printer, we have pretty well tied up the content of the following issue. If you are a first time submitter, send us the article when it is ready - do not worry about deadlines.

How would you like it submitted? We much prefer e-mail submissions - send a covering e-mail with the manuscript as an attachment and any illustrations as low-resolution images (if we accept we can ask for better resolution images later). If you have some reason to use regular mail, send to our Canadian address with a printed manuscript and a disk. There is no need to send an SASE or International Reply Coupon. We prefer Microsoft Word or RTF (rich text format) formats but we have yet to receive a format we cannot read.

How long do you want it? This is tough to answer as it depends on many variables. Our average article is 2,000 words but rarely they are up to 7,000 words. We wish we had more submissions of 7-800 words (with a picture this is a page) - if the information is useful and well presented, an article of this length is likely to be accepted. Many writers seem to believe that their great idea is "worth" a lot of words; an article's popularity bears little relationship to its length.

What types of article are you looking for? A problem with this question is that we haven't thought of the topics of some of the best articles - that is why they have not been done yet! Family Chronicle is generally a "how-to" magazine. Most articles should give clear information about how the reader can conduct their research. Just because we have already covered a topic does not mean that we will not do this again - but only if it was some time ago and/or a new slant is put on it.

What articles do you NOT want?

1. An article telling us how popular genealogy has become.
   
2. Personal family histories that involve no unusual or useful techniques.
   
3. "Academic" theses with loads of footnotes.
   
4. 7,000 word articles that could be covered in 1,200 words.
   
5. Highly specialized areas of research that belong in specialist publications.
   
6. Articles written on subjects of which the author has only a passing knowledge.

If in doubt, ask. We LOVE receiving good submissions while bad ones are boring - so we have a vested interest in helping you get it right.

Why Articles are Declined

We have to decline quite a lot of articles that are submitted. Often an article is submitted on a subject that has recently been published or one that is coming up. In this case, we always tell the person the real reason for rejection.

It is not easy to know what to say to when you reject manuscripts that may have taken the author many, many hours. We usually say that we are unable to use the article and leave it at that - yes, it is a bit cowardly; we just want to avoid unpleasantness.

However, here are the most common reasons that articles are declined. If we have turned yours down, maybe the answer lies here:

1. Ignoring our Author Guidelines and/or not bothering to read a copy of the magazine.Boring. We try to read fully all the material that is submitted to us but this is harder than it seems. If we find ourselves longing to get to the end, falling asleep or not enjoying it, we have pretty well decided that this is not something we wish to publish.


2. Complexity. One of the most common reasons for rejection is when the author is describing people and their relationships. These can be VERY difficult for people, other than the author, to follow and should be kept to a minimum.Obvious errors. If a manuscript contains obvious errors, a red flag goes up quickly. Names being spelled differently in various parts of text, general spelling errors and factual inaccuracies are quite common. When we see these, we know the author is careless, at least in this area. Sure, we can catch the obvious errors but has the author also been careless in sections of the article that we might not catch? A single error is not, by itself, a reason for being rejected. Authors can usually avoid this by reading their submission, and getting someone else to read it, before submitting it to us.


3. Including personal opinions unrelated to the article. If you believe that artificial sweetener Aspartame is a deadly poison or that President Bush has a low I.Q., keep your opinions to yourself when writing about genealogy - we are not interested in your crusade, even if we agree with you.


4. Articles which are written to demonstrate what a great writer the person is. We suspect that these people have taken a writing course and are showing off their style. Good, even great, writing is irrelevant if there is no substance to the article. Don't misunderstand - we are not against good writing, in fact, we love it, but we shouldn't have to ask "Where's the beef?"


5. Don't write about things you know nothing about.

Please understand that we are not trying to catch you out. Our overwhelming concern when we are reading an article is "Will the reader find this interesting - will it help them in their own research?"

We are looking for reasons to accept your work, not to reject it.

Why Articles are Declined

We have to decline quite a lot of articles that are submitted. Often an article is submitted on a subject that has recently been published or one that is coming up. In this case, we always tell the person the real reason for rejection.

It is not easy to know what to say to when you reject manuscripts that may have taken the author many, many hours. We usually say that we are unable to use the article and leave it at that - yes, it is a bit cowardly; we just want to avoid unpleasantness.

However, here are the most common reasons that articles are declined. If we have turned yours down, maybe the answer lies here:

1. Ignoring our Author Guidelines and/or not bothering to read a copy of the magazine. Boring. We try to read fully all the material that is submitted to us but this is harder than it seems. If we find ourselves longing to get to the end, falling asleep or not enjoying it, we have pretty well decided that this is not something we wish to publish.


2. Complexity. One of the most common reasons for rejection is when the author is describing people and their relationships. These can be VERY difficult for people, other than the author, to follow and should be kept to a minimum.Obvious errors. If a manuscript contains obvious errors, a red flag goes up quickly. Names being spelled differently in various parts of text, general spelling errors and factual inaccuracies are quite common. When we see these, we know the author is careless, at least in this area. Sure, we can catch the obvious errors but has the author also been careless in sections of the article that we might not catch? A single error is not, by itself, a reason for being rejected. Authors can usually avoid this by reading their submission, and getting someone else to read it, before submitting it to us.


3. Including personal opinions unrelated to the article. If you believe that artificial sweetener Aspartame is a deadly poison or that President Bush has a low I.Q., keep your opinions to yourself when writing about genealogy - we are not interested in your crusade, even if we agree with you.


4. Articles which are written to demonstrate what a great writer the person is. We suspect that these people have taken a writing course and are showing off their style. Good, even great, writing is irrelevant if there is no substance to the article. Don't misunderstand - we are not against good writing, in fact, we love it, but we shouldn't have to ask "Where's the beef?"


5. Don't write about things you know nothing about.

Please understand that we are not trying to catch you out. Our overwhelming concern when we are reading an article is "Will the reader find this interesting - will it help them in their own research?"

We are looking for reasons to accept your work, not to reject it.