BABBA Magazine    Edit Date 940315
Author Guide

BABBA magazine welcomes articles written about specific technology topics,
product reviews, and opinion pieces dealing with topical technology. 
Articles must cover a specific topic and be informational for our 
general readership.

We want interesting articles. Readers want articles about technologies that
are current, that touch their lives, or are local to the Bay Area and 
Northern California. Even the most technical article should include the
human aspects. Quotes and anecdotes are encouraged, where appropriate.

BABBA readers are persons of many ages and many backgrounds, but all share a
common interest in computers, bulletin boards, and technology. 
Do not assume our readers know as much about a topic as you do.
Your technology article or opinion piece must include enough background
information, and be written in an interesting manner, to make your
story interesting to our readers.

We encourage detailed "how-to" articles for readers who are new to the 
online world, as well as technical articles for our experienced readers. We
don't usually encourage purely humorous articles because they are so 
difficult to write.

All articles will be edited to BABBA standards, or to fit 
available space. Our standard copyediting and proofreading cycle 
includes one major edit, one copyfitting edit, and one proofreading edit. 
Authors will be contacted after the first major edit, but will not
be contacted after the first major edit. You may put suggested
working titles on your article,
but all headlines and subheads will be written by editors.

At this time, BABBA does not usually pay cash for articles. Sometimes we
can offer ad space as compensation.
If we print your article, you can include a short byline, an 
"about the author" contact statement, and you get a 12-month subscription 
to BABBA.  BABBA reserves rights to first printing on all articles 
submitted to BABBA for publication.  Because we edit articles, we share
in your copyright on any printed article. 

BABBA reserves the right to sell individual reprints of any article
of BABBA. BABBA does not reserve the right to sell your article to any
other publication or electronic distribution source. In the event your
article is requested by another source, you will be contacted for your
permission to do so.  In the event the edited version of your story
appears in another publication, it must carry a "Reprinted with
permission of BABBA magazine" message.

You may resell your article *after* we either print it or reject it. If we
reject your article, we will notify you.  Acceptance of an article
does not mean BABBA will print it. BABBA does not guarantee placement 
of your article in a specific edition, or on a specific page. 

Due to short advertising lead times, editorial space availability for any
issue may change at the last minute. 

Submit articles to BABBA BBS electronically, in text-only format.
Illustrations and tables may be submitted in a file format agreed upon with
the editor.

You can use a pseudonym, but you must identify yourself to the BABBA editor.
We require your true name, occupation, home address, email address and voice
phone number before we will print your article. There are no exceptions to
this rule.

BABBA does not print rumor or urban legend, especially in opinion pieces. 
Back up your claims with provable facts.

If you submit articles from the Internet or a BBS, be sure to obtain
permission from the author. Include contact info. for verification. 
We do our best to spot plagarism, and may challenge
authors of articles of suspicious origin to prove their authenticity.

Style Guide
Preferred word usage:

BBSs not BBS's (plural)
BBS's or BBSs'  (possessive or plural possessive)
Sysop 
BABBA
email 
online 
logout (noun or adjective)   (The logout prompt flashes on and off.)
log out (verb)    (Type L to log out.)
login (noun or adjective)   (Type your name on the login screen.)
log in (verb)   (Log in at the prompt.)
kilo
kilobit or kilobyte (300 kb)  (k = kilo, which is lowercase by international
metric convention.)
Mega (prefix added without hyphen)
Megabyte (20 Mb)
multi  (use with no hyphen, as in multiport, multinational)
bits/s or bps,  not baud 
PC, not pc
ASCII, not plain ASCII text (by definition, ASCII is both text AND plain)
CompuServe
Internet addresses always in lowercase: babba@rahul.net
V.32
V.32bis
V.32terbo

No fluffy writing. Avoid passive voice. No deadwood! 
We edit to Strunk & White's  Elements of Style.

Use active verbs in the present tense. 

In opinion pieces, use "I", not the unnamed "we."

Indicate words to be set in italic text like so:
 *italics*

Indicate words or a phrase to be set in a different font like so:
<different font for empasis>

2 spaces after period.  (Yes, we know 1 space is the "strandard")

comma example 1 (for a simple series of items):
All of BABBA's modems connect at 300, 1200, 2400, 9600, and 14400 bps.
(Yes, we know the last comma is "not supposed" to be used")

Identifying modem speeds: use decimals above 14400 bps:
300, 2400, 4800, 9600, 14400, 28.8 kbps, 57.6 kbps, 115.2 kbps

Trademarks and service marks should appear only on first mention in 
an article or product review.

Note to copyeditors and proofreaders: After proofing/editing, return the 
article in text-only format.  Try to preserve formatting or lack of
formatting.  Do not use tabs.

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