Dear Freelance Writer –

We appreciate you!  Your talent and creativity add tremendous value to our publication and helps us produce a high-quality magazine for our readers.  Thank you for your interest in writing for us.

In addition to submissions, we are seeking to establish relationships with great freelance writers who can contribute on a regular, assigned basis.  We are growing our team and want you to be a part of it.

We look forward to your contributions!

Sincerely,

Jeff Wiehe, Publisher

EDITORIAL GUIDELINES

Play Ball is a new, multi-platform publication targeting parents and families who are raising young athletes.  The online blog is updated regularly while the magazine is published 4 times per year.  Our editorial is focused primarily on an adult audience, but we do allocate up to 15% of each issue’s content to the kids themselves, who range between the ages of 5 and 18.

Our motto is “We all want to see our kids reach their full potential – both on and off the playing field.”  As such, we value writing that highlights youth sports and its holistic impact on the lives of the athletes, parents and coaches who participate in it.

We are launching Play Ball in the Atlanta market; however, many of the benefits, issues and topics surrounding youth sports are universal in nature.  As such, we value locally-sourced research, interviews, subject matter experts, etc. from locales all across the country.  It’s likely that a particular topic has as much relevance to a family in Phoenix as it does in Atlanta.  So please do include and reference locally-sourced material when appropriate.

When writing for Play Ball, please keep this phrase front and center on your keyboard –

“If it’s about my kids, I’m interested in it.”

In other words, submissions should directly appeal to parents, mentors, coaches and/or their sports kids in order to be considered for publication. 

For example:  September is National Youth Soccer Month.  An article on the popularity and growth of youth soccer is interesting, but not relevant in itself to our reader.  An article on how this growth has impacted the access, enjoyment and development of youth players is much more relevant.  The former is a general overview piece; the latter educates and influences a parent whose son or daughter wants to play soccer.

TOPICS & SUBJECT MATTER

We are open to submissions on sports parenting, parent-athlete dynamics, parent-coach dynamics, life lessons learned through sports, coach-athlete dynamics, youth sports psychology, young athlete performance optimization, injury prevention and safety, age-appropriate training, fitness and nutrition, and sport-specific topics of interest.

Below is a sampling of topics to get the creative juices flowing.  These are not necessarily intended as specific topics in and of themselves (although some could be); rather, are ideas to convey the scope of potential subject matter.  It’s our hope that the writer identifies a unique, compelling and useful angle from which to present a narrative relevant to youth sports parents, coaches and/or athletes:

  • The role of parents in their child’s youth sports journey
  • Keeping youth sports in proper perspective
  • Life lessons learned through youth sports
  • Coach and parent partnerships
  • Fostering potential and performance in young athletes
  • Game day conduct (from an athlete’s, coach’s or parent’s perspective)
  • Motivational strategies (from an athlete’s, coach’s or parent’s perspective)
  • Defining success in youth sports (from an athlete’s, coach’s or parent’s perspective)
  • Dealing with failure, disappointment or losing (from an athlete’s, coach’s or parent’s perspective)
  • Handling anxiety, nervousness or high expectations (from an athlete’s, coach’s or parent’s perspective)
  • Sports-specialization vs. sport diversification for young athletes
  • Young athlete injuries – sport-specific injuries, injury prevention, injury treatment, rehabilitation process
  • Young athlete health & safety – sleep, recovery, heat exposure, hydration, lightening, first aid/emergency protocols
  • Young athlete nutrition – tips, strategies, game day recipes, nutritional supplements, energy drinks
  • Age-appropriate fitness and training techniques
  • Student-athlete balance
  • Topics around seasonal sports events – Super Bowl, Olympics, World Cup, etc.

STYLE

Youth sports are intended to be fun and a positive influence on kids – and our editorial voice reflects those sentiments.  Our style is more conversational than literary.  And although we often address the challenges and problems inherent to youth sports, our content reads in a positive tone, and at a minimum, concludes with potential solutions, upsides and references where the reader can find additional information.

A few requests on style that make for a better reader experience.  These may seem a bit picky but saves an enormous amount of time for our editors and greatly enhances the chance of acceptance:

  • Please write from a 3rd person point of view, and stick to it! – Certainly lean on your own experiences, but also utilize external research and expertise that can tell the story.
  • Please write primarily in active voice and limit the use of passive voice whenever possible.
  • Please do not use rhetorical questions as a mechanism to move your writing forward.
  • Please keep your submissions tight, tight, tight….did I mention tight?  Tightly-written, grammatically-correct and logically-sequenced copy without extraneous verbiage has a much better chance of acceptance.
  • Please include magazine-quality photos relevant to your submission whenever applicable.

MECHANICS

  • Please email all writings to Submissions@PlayBallYouthSports.com.
  • Please attach all submissions in Microsoft Word.
  • Please format the email subject line with “ARTICLE SUBMISSION – (The Topic of the Writing)”
  • Please include your full name, email address and phone number.
  • Please include a 1-2 line personal bio and headshot.

PAYMENT & small PRINT

  • Payment is 2.5 cents per word for first publication rights in the magazine.
  • In addition to payment and publication, we also seek to establish relationships with great freelance writers who can contribute on a regular, assigned basis. We are growing our team and want you to be a part of it long-term!
  • We do not consider previously published material.
  • All writing is submitted on speculation, paid upon publication and the editors assume unrestricted editing rights.
  • We reserve the right to publish all material in both the magazine and on the website and do not pay twice based on exposure in multiple media.
  • We unfortunately cannot acknowledge receipt of submissions, respond with acceptance/rejection letters or return any original materials. If we have interest in your submission, we will contact you.

If you’ve read this far, we sincerely thank you for your interest in Play Ball Youth Sports Magazine and look forward to receiving your submissions.

All The Best –

Jeff Wiehe, Publisher