Guidelines for writing for Reform

Thank you for your interest in writing for Reform. Please take note of the following guidelines:

First, pitch an idea

• It is advisable to pitch an idea for an article, rather than writing the article on spec. There are many reasons why we might not publish an article – including having published similar articles too recently, having a similar article planned already, or having a high volume of other submissions – and we prefer not to waste your time.
• If you have already written the article, we will consider it for publication, but no more or less favourably than an unwritten idea.
• To pitch an idea, email it to reform@urc.org.uk.
• The Reform office is often very busy, so please be patient, but feel free to chase up your email if you do not hear back.   

What we are not looking for

• We rarely publish poetry or fiction, except from professionally published collections.
• We do not publish articles in reply to other articles in Reform – the letters page is where we print such responses. If you do submit such an article, we may suggest publishing it as a letter, edited down to the appropriate length (up to 300 words).
• Similarly, comments on the internal politics and policies of the United Reformed Church are more likely to get an airing on the letters page than as an article.

What we are looking for

• Local church stories, please. Reform can never get enough interesting stories from local churches, especially good news stories. Have you found an innovative way to meet the needs of the local community. Are you presenting the Gospel in a way in way that connects with people? You don’t have to write such articles yourself – if you have a story, we can interview you about it over the phone and may write it up for you.
• Strong opinions: when writing to our letters page, don’t just tell us what you liked or disliked, tell us why, and how passionately.

Length

• Feature articles for Reform are generally between 750 and 1,000 words in length. Submissions much outside these parameters are less likely to be accepted for publication. 

Forward planning

• The content of Reform is often finalised at least a month before subscribers receive the magazine. For example, the December/January issue might be finalised by the end of October. Please bear that in mind when pitching articles related to the Church year, current affairs or anything particularly topical.

Multiple authorship

• Reform does not publish articles by more than one author – unless they are writing in dialogue with one another.
• You are welcome to get advice on your article from others, but we will only attribute one name to it.

Submission

• Please submit the article by email to reform@urc.org.uk.
• We prefer to receive articles as a word processing file, rather than on paper or saved as a pdf.