Pageantry magazine’s digital submission guidelines and materials deadlines

Dear Pageantry magazine enthusiasts,

Pageantry magazine is pleased to invite you to participate in the magazine by submitting your event and program news articles, letters, and photos.

You may send photos and captions to run in the following magazine sections: Patter, Personalities, Celebrity Spotlight, Pageantry Spirit Awards, Watching the Winners, and Talent Watch. Submitted articles run in the Competition Clips, Letters, and Pageantry Salutes sections.

With the widespread use of email, digital cameras, and fully-digital publishing technology, we would like to share a number of suggestions that will ensure the usability of your materials in Pageantry.

Please read the following guidelines and check that your materials conform to them.

I. Photo type, size & quality

A. Prints: A 4x6" glossy color print is preferred. Avoid other photo finishes that can make photos difficult to digitize. Please send only duplicates of photos; prints cannot be returned, due to the volume received.

B. Digital Photos: Digital camera photos or scanned photos must be created at a minimum resolution of 1200-by-900 pixels (1 megapixel), in RGB JPEG format, with JPEG quality set to "good" or "best." Typical file size for a good digital image will be 300 KB to 1 MB each. The image file itself should be named in this format: "MyPageantryPhoto.JPG," with your image name replacing "MyPageantryPhoto."

C. Tips: Images should be in focus and of good color, contrast, and composition. Slightly darker images, which can be lightened, are preferable to images that are too bright and have areas of no color (white), or are too dark and have areas of no detail (black). Don't use software to increase resolution or color correct after the digital image is made; instead, only send properly sized, properly exposed untouched files. When making photos, limit the group size per photo or set up your subjects into two or more rows in order to avoid overly wide-view frames, which result in faces too small to reproduce well in the publication.

II. Photo caption contents

Each photo should be accompanied by compete caption information, including:

A. Who is in the photo, from left to right, with pageant winners' titles preceding the name (eg., Mrs. Titleholder 2003 Firstname Lastname, 1st Runner-up Firstname Lastname, etc.).

B. What is the name of the event and the year? (eg., Eventname 2003).

C. When the event took place (Month/Day/Year).

D. Where the event took place (City, State, Public building).

E. All details necessary to explain the circumstances or any other aspects of the photos not obvious from the images themselves.

III. Formatting photo captions

How you handle captions depends on what type of photos you are submitting and how you are sending them to Pageantry. To help keep your text and photos together, please follow these guidelines:

A. Photo Print Captions

1. Write one caption per photo; print legibly on the back of the photo. If you have typeset the captions and printed them on a sheet of paper, tape each cutline to the back of the photo.

2. Alternatively, you may create a single caption sheet. Sequentially number the back of each photo, and then precede each caption paragraph with the corresponding photo number. Add double line return for spacing between each caption. Please be sure to include complete information in each caption, because your multiple photos may become sorted and separated, based on their intended magazine-section destination, during editorial processing.

B. Digital Image Captions

1. In a word-processing program, write one caption per photo, naming each caption with the file name of your digital images, followed by a period and the letters "txt" (eg., MyPageantryPicture.txt).

2. Save these text files to a folder on your computer hard drive, along with the associated digital images, for transmission. For instance, in the example above, you would have two files: MyPageantryPicture.jpg (the digital image file) and MyPageantPicture.txt (the caption text file).

IV. Formatting articles & letters

A. Competition Clips and Letters should be up to 500 words in length (about two double-spaced typeset pages).

B. For Clips, send one color photo of your top winners only, with IDs from left to right. Please describe the highlights of your event production, from start to finish, including details about judging criteria, entertainment themes, semifinalists, and winners.

C. For Letters, be sure to sign your full name and include your current title as well. You may include a duplicate of a head-and-shoulders self-portrait, if available.

D. For Calendar, please include the date(s) of the event, the city, the state, and the name of the event. For multiple-title events held on the same date(s), please list each title, separated by a slash, followed by your event name, eg., Miss/Miss Teen/Ms./Mrs. YourEventName.

E. Please provide a phone number and email address where we may contact you if questions arise.

V. Submitting your materials

You have two options for transferring materials to Pageantry: physical shipment or email.

A. Submitting by Physical Shipment (U.S. Postal Service, Fed Ex, UPS, etc.)

1. For Photo Prints and Paper Text: Attach each caption sheet to each photo. Use your printed caption sheets or cardboard to protect your photo prints. Mark your envelope "Photos: Do Not Bend."

2. For Computer-created Files on Disk: Copy the digital images and text files to a Zip disk or a floppy disk. Or, burn your word-processed files and digital images to a CD-ROM disk. Use standard ISSO formatting when burning the CD disk; in options, choose long-naming to preserve your file names as they appear on your computer.

3. Shipping Address: Enclose all materials in a protective shipping package, seal it well, and address to:

The Editor

Pageantry magazine

1855 W. State Road 434

Suite 254

Longwood, FL 32750

407-260-2262

B. Submitting Digital Files by Email: Please choose one of these two methods

.

1. Text in Email, Images as Attachments: Copy and paste your text from your word-processed file into the body of the email, add the digital photos (up to 3 photos per email) as email attachments, and send the email; or alternatively...

2. All in Email Attachment: Compose a brief email, add both the word-processed text document and the digital images as attachments, and send the email.

3. Include your event name in the Subject field of the email, and your contact information in the body of the email.

4. Send email to this address: editor@pageantrymag.com

VI. Editorial & advertsing deadlines

Pageantry magazine is published four times a year. In order to ensure your news is given proper consideration and your advertising arrives in time to process, please submit your materials so that they reach the magazine's offices by these editorial deadline dates: