Thursday, May 29, 2008

NewChristianVoices.com is looking for writers

New Christian Voices is a new non-denominational Christian humor and lifestyle website. This is not your typical conservative Christian website. Yes, we're clean. Yes, we're Christian. But what we want is for our readers to be able to both laugh and stretch outside their comfort zone as they consider their Christian faith in everyday life. We want non-Christians to stop here because they'll laugh and find something interesting to read, and then wonder more about who we are, what we do and what we believe.

In your writing, be real, be vulnerable, and connect with our readers in an honest way, warts and all. Strive to connect with readers who are not sitting in the church pew every Sunday or who do not live inside the Christian subculture. We should strive to maintain the sites overall light and amusing tone and treat sensitive issues with the utmost sensitivity and tolerance for all of God’s children.

One of the ways NCV promotes our website is through weekly email blasts to millions of subscribers and registered visitors. Our audience demographics are very broad, with a roughly equal split between males and females, and a wide range of denominations, geographies, and age ranges represented.


WRITERS GUIDELINES
Including rights and terms for writers



COLUMNISTS
We are not currently hiring any new standing columnists.


CHANNELS

We are currently accepting funny essays, commentary, editorials and column-like material for our channels:

  • Faith (in real life)
  • Society (ex: political, current events, social)
  • Entertainment (pop culture, movies, TV, books, music, etc.)
  • Relationships (ex: romantic, spousal, parent-child, sibling, neighborhood, congregational, on the job)
  • General Humor


Material must be funny, original and previously unpublished. NCV prefers to buy all rights but will negotiate first run rights with writers we want to work with.

The overarching goal of the channels is to amuse and entertain while offering valuable (or just interesting) spiritual insights. Submissions should range in words from 300-600 for channel pieces, and should be written to appeal to the online reader, with short paragraphs and avoiding blocks of long text.

Use personal anecdotes to highlight a larger truth. When possible, tie in a biblical or scriptural principle or insight, but don’t feel the need to hit the reader over the head with it. Make us laugh first, and then realize we’ve learned something later. If you can’t be hilarious, at least be interesting. If you can be hilarious, you’ll find steady work writing for this site.

DEVOTIONALS
We are in need of short devotional pieces of 150-250 words. These do not need to be laugh-out-loud funny but do keep the tone light. Communicate a biblical insight or principle that the reader can apply to their daily life, but don’t sermonize. We buy all rights to devotionals. Please send up to 5 devotionals in each submission.


BLOGS - COMING SOON!
Blogs will fall into two categories: Humor and Commentary . Humor blogs must be at least amusing and at best funny. Commentary blogs do not need to be funny but should spark discussion about topics ranging from faith and Christianity to pop culture and current events. If you are an outside-the-box Christian, a commentary blog is a great place to share your thoughts on faith, society, current events, the church, and more.

Blogs do not pay but we may purchase pieces that we think fit on the channels. Blog material must be new and original; the blogger must own the copyright to any material posted to the blog. Bloggers retain all rights to their material and can post as often as they like, but are requested to post at least twice a month in order to retain blogging privileges. The more you blog, the more your name is seen on the site.

NCV reserves the right to monitor the blogs and/or cancel a blog for any reason, including copyright infringement, misuse of the blog, or inappropriate blog content.

To apply for a blog, send an email to Editor@NewChristianVoices.com and put BLOG QUERY in the subject line. Please let us know if you’re requesting a humor or commentary blog.

Submission Guidelines

For channels, send complete to Editor@NewChristianVoices.com. In the subject line, put “QUERY” and the channel you think your piece fits. (For example, Query: Faith Channel) Include the entire copy in the body of the email. For interviews or profiles please query first with idea and please be sure you can score an interview before you pitch the story. (Please, do not send examples of previously published material so we can “see your writing style.” Write something new and submit it, and we’ll see if we like your writing style that way.)

Please include your name, phone number, email address and website address if applicable. Response time is from 1 - 4 weeks. Payment is upon acceptance and we reserve the right to refuse articles if they don’t meet editorial expectations. Pay is negotiable and commensurate with experience and quality of writing. Writers will be required to submit a monthly invoice for work we purchase in that month.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Pirate Parenting-- the movie!

Ahoy matey!

Pilfer a peek at the new movie about GUIDE TO PIRATE PARENTING, the award-winning book that will teach you how to raise yer little powder monkeys as REAL pirates!


Friday, May 02, 2008

A HUGE book giveaway

Do you love books? Do you like free stuff? Me too! So I'm really excited to announce a HUGE book giveaway. I've recently begun writing monthly devotionals, called "Faith Lifts: Deep Topics with a Light Touch." I'm having a lot of fun writing them, and I'd love to build my subscriber list. You can see the first devotional here.

So here's the deal: if you sign up for my devotional to come in your in-box once a month (just enter your email in the box on the top left of my website, I'll enter your name in the drawing for the giveaway. And I promise, I won't share your email address with anyone. Nope. Never. Not gonna do it. :)

I'll hold the drawing on May 25, and ship the books to the winner as soon as I receive their mailing address. Here's what I'm giving away:

Non-fiction:

A hot-off-the-presses copy of Heavenly Humor for the Woman’s Soul by Martha Bolton, Anita Renfroe, Patsy Clairmont and others (including Dena Dyer)

Fueled by Faith by Jennifer Kennedy Dean

Facing Every Mom’s Fears by Allie Pleiter

Let Your Life Count by Donna Partow

Building the Christian Family You Never Had by Mary DeMuth

Naked Fruit by Elisa Morgan

The Woman I’m Becoming by T. Suzanne Eller

Fiction:

Come, my Little Angel by Diane Noble

After the Leaves Fall by Nicole Baart

A Whisper of Freedom by Tricia Goyer

Quaker Summer by Lisa Samson

Fair is the Rose by Liz Curtis Higgs

Sweet Caroline by Rachel Hauck

Children’s media:

Two books in “The Adventures of Bailey and Canteen” series: Lost and Found and Canyon Rescue by Eddy Bolton, illustrated by Jerry Pittenger (books with read-along CD’s, which include 6 original songs)

Veggie Tales DVD (Where’s God When I’m Scared?) from their “Classics” series

SEEKING HUMOR WRITERS - REVISED 5/29/08

New Christian Voices is a new non-denominational Christian humor and lifestyle website. This is not your typical conservative Christian website. Yes, we're clean. Yes, we're Christian. But what we want is for our readers to be able to both laugh and stretch outside their comfort zone as they consider their Christian faith in everyday life. We want non-Christians to stop here because they'll laugh and find something interesting to read, and then wonder more about who we are, what we do and what we believe.

In your writing, be real, be vulnerable, and connect with our readers in an honest way, warts and all. Strive to connect with readers who are not sitting in the church pew every Sunday or who do not live inside the Christian subculture. We should strive to maintain the sites overall light and amusing tone and treat sensitive issues with the utmost sensitivity and tolerance for all of God’s children.

One of the ways NCV promotes our website is through weekly email blasts to millions of subscribers and registered visitors. Our audience demographics are very broad, with a roughly equal split between males and females, and a wide range of denominations, geographies, and age ranges represented.


WRITERS GUIDELINES
Including rights and terms for writers



COLUMNISTS
We are not currently hiring any new standing columnists.


CHANNELS

We are currently accepting funny essays, commentary, editorials and column-like material for our channels:

Faith (in real life)
Society (ex: political, current events, social)
Entertainment (pop culture, movies, TV, books, music, etc.)
Relationships (ex: romantic, spousal, parent-child, sibling, neighborhood, congregational, on the job)
General Humor

Material must be funny, original and previously unpublished. NCV prefers to buy all rights but will negotiate first run rights with writers we want to work with.

The overarching goal of the channels is to amuse and entertain while offering valuable (or just interesting) spiritual insights. Submissions should range in words from 300-600 for channel pieces, and should be written to appeal to the online reader, with short paragraphs and avoiding blocks of long text.

Use personal anecdotes to highlight a larger truth. When possible, tie in a biblical or scriptural principle or insight, but don’t feel the need to hit the reader over the head with it. Make us laugh first, and then realize we’ve learned something later. If you can’t be hilarious, at least be interesting. If you can be hilarious, you’ll find steady work writing for this site.

DEVOTIONALS
We are in need of short devotional pieces of 150-250 words. These do not need to be laugh-out-loud funny but do keep the tone light. Communicate a biblical insight or principle that the reader can apply to their daily life, but don’t sermonize. We buy all rights to devotionals. Please send up to 5 devotionals in each submission.


BLOGS - COMING SOON!
Blogs will fall into two categories: Humor and Commentary . Humor blogs must be at least amusing and at best funny. Commentary blogs do not need to be funny but should spark discussion about topics ranging from faith and Christianity to pop culture and current events. If you are an outside-the-box Christian, a commentary blog is a great place to share your thoughts on faith, society, current events, the church, and more.

Blogs do not pay but we may purchase pieces that we think fit on the channels. Blog material must be new and original; the blogger must own the copyright to any material posted to the blog. Bloggers retain all rights to their material and can post as often as they like, but are requested to post at least twice a month in order to retain blogging privileges. The more you blog, the more your name is seen on the site.

NCV reserves the right to monitor the blogs and/or cancel a blog for any reason, including copyright infringement, misuse of the blog, or inappropriate blog content.

To apply for a blog, send an email to Editor@NewChristianVoices.com and put BLOG QUERY in the subject line. Please let us know if you’re requesting a humor or commentary blog.

Submission Guidelines

For channels, send complete to Editor@NewChristianVoices.com. In the subject line, put “QUERY” and the channel you think your piece fits. (For example, Query: Faith Channel) Include the entire copy in the body of the email. For interviews or profiles please query first with idea and please be sure you can score an interview before you pitch the story. (Please, do not send examples of previously published material so we can “see your writing style.” Write something new and submit it, and we’ll see if we like your writing style that way.)

Please include your name, phone number, email address and website address if applicable. Response time is from 1 - 4 weeks. Payment is upon acceptance and we reserve the right to refuse articles if they don’t meet editorial expectations. Pay is negotiable and commensurate with experience and quality of writing. Writers will be required to submit a monthly invoice for work we purchase in that month.