nsmb.com Submission Guidelines

Article format
Reviews
Article length
Style
Spelling
Photos
Questions

Article format - Trail Tales, News, People etc.

  • All articles should be submitted to cam@nsmb.com as a Word (or Notepad) document ONLY
  • Articles should be text only and NOT include embedded images
  • Submit articles and images as email attachments
  • Images should be high-resolution files that have NOT been cropped or resized
  • Documents should be unformatted, with the exception of section headers in bolded text or any other styles that are necessary.
  • Please put URLs in brackets after the relevant name, i.e. Norco Performance Bikes (www.norco.com) rather than embedding them in the text. This makes it a lot easier than having to search for a URL while coding the article.

Reviews

  • All reviews and Gear Shots pieces should be submitted to stuart@nsmb.com and CC'd to cam@nsmb.com as a Word (or Notepad) document ONLY
  • This type of content should be text only and NOT include embedded images
  • Submit text and images as email attachments
  • Reviews on nsmb are intended to provide an objective assessment of a particular product. They shouldn't hype it up or slam it. Instead, they should provide a solid explanation of why the product is good, great, or comes up short. In other words, you shouldn't be writing the kind of sentences that use exclamation marks (either because something is good or bad).
  • Reviews should include the following information:
    • a performance/durability/functionality rating (out of 5)
    • a features/quality rating (out of 5)
    • a price rating (out of 5)
    • some other relevant rating that may be specific to this product (i.e. 'traction' for tires), also out of 5
    • two to four Pros about the product
    • two to four Cons about the product
  • Gear Shots content is designed to be informative only, NOT a review, and should provide a brief overview of the features and highlights of a particular product, and if it isn't obvious, its relevance to the Shore scene

Article length

  • Web content shouldn't be excessively long, because not everyone likes to scroll forever to get to the end of an article.
  • Below are some rough guidelines for article length. Please keep these in mind when you're writing, because if the article is way longer than it needs to be, we will be editing it down. And information that you think is important may get edited out. Save everyone the grief by sending us an article that is the right length.
    • Trail tales / rider experience stories – 1,000 words
    • Shore news – 800 words
    • Product reviews – Gear Shots - 300 words; Small items - 800 words;
      Larger items - 1,000 words

Style

  • Writing style is very personal, but you should be submitting a well-written piece that is readable, entertaining / informative, and uses proper grammar.
  • Don't try to sound too cool, because it usually doesn't work. That means go easy on the slang, profanity, and don't be too casual with the writing. Our goal is to entertain and inform, but still be professional.
  • Please proofread all articles before submitting. You'll catch errors you made while writing the article, and it means less work for us as editors.

Spelling

  • nsmb is a Canadian Web site and uses Canadian spellings, which are different from American or British spellings.
  • Please spell check your articles before submitting them to ensure there are no typos or spelling mistakes.
  • To change the dictionary to Canadian English, use the following steps:
    • In MS Word, select all the text (Ctrl-A), go to Tools >> Language >> Set Language >> English (Canada)

Photos

  • nsmb needs high-res .jpg or .tif image files, or .gif graphic files for posting.
  • Images often need to be resized during the design process to fit with the content – DO NOT CROP IMAGES PRIOR TO SUBMISSION
  • Send images as an email attachment. If you are sending several very large images, break them into batches of two or three photos and number the emails, i.e. 1 of 3, 2 of 3, 3 of 3, etc.
  • Photos for reviews should clearly show the product in question, being used in the application it is designed for. Close-ups showing features of the product should be included, as well as whole-product shots and action shots.
  • Action shots should be included with every type of article, if possible. We're all about riders and riding, so let's show people how this stuff in action.
  • Include photo credits and specific information about the shots – who is in the picture, where it was taken, what it is of, etc. This information can go in the body of the email.

Questions?

If you have general or specific questions regarding article submission to nsmb, please contact Cam McRae, Editor or Stuart Kernaghan, Associate Editor / Technical Editor PRIOR to submitting content.

*** Last but not least, we can't promise that we will publish unsolicited content. But if you follow the guidelines above, you stand a much better chance of your article being run on the site.

Thanks for helping make nsmb the best freeride site on the Net.

- The nsmb.com Editorial Team