Thank you for your interest in contributing to LovingNow,.

Please note that following the guidelines will increase your chances of being selected. Following the guidelines will aid clarity for the reader and help achieve better SEO scores. This in turn generates more traffic which will than what you’ve put all that time into writing.

At LovingNow, we value diversity and encourage articles that support, inspire, and celebrate relationships. This concept can be applied broadly – to partners, friends, communities, and even to onesself.  

High quality, well-researched pieces and articles that offer ‘a gift for the reader’ are what we look for.

By submitting an article to us you are agreeing to our terms and conditions – which include that the ownership of the article goes to us, that it won’t be promotional in nature, and that you will actively share the LovingNow link to your article, should it be selected. 

We reserve the right to sub-edit the article, which we do in order to make it more readable and fit better within our guidelines below. 

1. Why write for LovingNow?
 

LovingNow is a new direction of Living Now Digital Media, which is connected to a publishing history that extends back over 30 years as LivingNow. Writing for the magazine gives you, as an author, the opportunity to expand your reach and authority. A well written, informative, and inspiring article not only benefits the reader, but sends a clear message that you have experience and expertise in your field of endeavour.

While our editorial policy restricts you from being commercially promotional in your article (this works to inspire trust throughout our content), we can instead offer that you purchase a separate display ad, to run alongside the article. This allows your promotion to capitalise on the trust established from within your article, while still ensuring editorial independence.

In order to create the most enjoyable, impacting and educational experience possible for readers, please make sure that you adhere to the following when preparing your submission.

2. Content & style

If you’ve read LovingNow, you’ve got a pretty good idea of the sort of content we publish.

Our chief focus is on personal growth and relationships. By relationships we mean this in a broad sense – not just personal relationships, sex, and sexuality, but relationships with and within the community, the environment, enterprises, and  relationship to self. Topics might include:

• Romantic relationship
• Partnership
• Friendship
• Community
• Love
• Sex
• Sexuality
• Gender and gender politics
• Kink and erotic exploration

 If you have something to say on these topics or others that fit within the broad outline of relationship and relating, we’d love to see your article. 

We generally prefer a more personal approach – one that helps the reader connect with you as a person. Hence a more idiosyncratic/individual style, humour or personal anecdotes all work well. 

Remember, we are a magazine about relationships, and that includes the perspective of you establishing a relationship with the reader.

3. Exclusivity
 

Due to Google’s algorithms, it is important that your article is exclusive to LovingNow.

We may consider republishing articles. If we do, it is essential that the original source be provided so that we can reference it. Please talk to us about this.

If you want to showcase it on your personal site, here are two alternatives:

1. Wait for us to let you know that the article is on our site. Then put a teaser on your site linking to ours (which would have more traffic than most people’s individual sites anyway!)
2. Wait another two weeks (until the bots have caught up) and publish the entire article on your own site. At the bottom of the article say: First published in MONTH, YEAR, on www.lovingnow.com.au/yourarticlelink

If the article is already on your site, submit a different version!

4. Preparing your submission

• Please email us your article in a Word or Pages document, to hello@lovingnow.com.au
• Include 10-25 words of introduction, or preamble, to whet the appetite of the readers – try to include the key word (focus of your article) in this introduction.
• Include a list of 5–12 key words (not for publication, but for our team to use for SEO purposes).
• Submit your article with sub-headings approximately every 280/300 words, and make sure each paragraph does not exceed 150 words.
• Sentences should be shorter where possible (avoid long, rambling lines 😉 ) so that the SEO filters rank your article well.
• In a separate file attach a head shot to go along with your biography (additional info below). Please use subject line: ‘Article submission – category’ (rather than your title of your article, as this may change).

Author biography

• Include a 30-60 word biography at the foot of your article.
• Please note that your biography must NOT be promotional in nature or promote your business, book, website, etc.
• You may include links to your website, and social media if you’d like to.
   

Author photo 

• Author photo is required.
• Preferred format of photos is JPEG, attached directly to the email – never embedded in the document.
• Please name your image: Firstname-Lastname-author-image.
• Minimum requirements 300DPI, 512×512 pixels.
• Aim for a well-focussed head shot with good light and contrast.

Article images

If you have photos to illustrate your story (not necessary but nice if you have them), please send them in a medium resolution – as a rule of thumb they would be between 200Kb and 1Mb file size. Provide the source / photographer’s details. If you have taken the photo yourself, describe it as such, eg "photo by author".

Adding references – format

If you’ve done some research for your article you are very welcome to include references.

As a general rule, if there are no more than four references, use in-article citations; if there are are more than four references, list them at the end of the article, ideally with references formatted as links with corresponding numbers in square brackets in-text – not as superscripts. However, please bear in mind that LovingNow is not an academic journal, so avoid a dry writing style.

5. Word counts for articles

Want to know something? We actually don’t care about word-quantities; it’s the QUALITY that counts! 😉

• We accept anywhere between 300–3000 words, so the key is to think about what is going to be of the best value to the reader.
• Some short articles are too brief, others are sweet and wonderfully-to-the-point. Some long articles are great and full of detail, while others drag on… So really, we are not going to be looking at the quantity of your words, but the overall gift to the reader; the quality.

6. Copyright

Upon submission of your work, you acknowledge that we, LovingNow, have permission to publish the article in whole or part in any or all of our business media platforms, e.g., our website, apps, ebooks, blogs, social media, e-newsletters, and other forms of digital promotion.

Note that your submission will be edited prior to publication, and we cannot allow for author approval of edits prior to publication.

7. Our articles are for kudos, not commerce

Our articles are for kudos, not commerce.

There should be no form of promotion in articles (unless you have specifically bought a promotional, sponsored article, which is a different process!) – no hooks for the readers to get the rest of the story in your workshop, your book, or your services.

If your need is a promotional article, talk to us about our ‘write-up’ / sponsored article options. Please note that we do not pay for articles.

*IF* your article is accepted: You agree to promote your article (with the link/s we will send you) to your community, as a way of supporting the WHOLE LovingNow community.

8. Sending us your submission

Email us the submission to: hello@lovingnow.com.au with confirmation that you have read these guidelines and agree with them.