PokerPages Writer Guidelines

Writing Guide:

PokerPages.com is always on the lookout for talented, knowledgeable authors. Those interested in being published at PokerPages.com must take note of the following policies and procedures when submitting content.

PokerPages in an online poker portal, that caters to a broad audience. While much of our demographic is made up of players ranging from novice to expert, they are committed to learning about the world of poker and improving their play.

We encourage diversity in the works that we publish, including novice-specific information, playing strategies, trip and tournament reports, analysis, fiction, interviews, professional player profiles, and features. Of course, we welcome any original ideas for submitted content.

PokerPages Policies:

1. PokerPages works hard to maintain a constructive and unbiased relationship with all of our industry participants. To this end, works including language designed merely to promote specific online gaming sites are not permitted. Non-promotive usage of website URLs (such as mentioning an online gaming site for a purely newsworthy reason) is permitted solely on a discretionary basis. PokerPages reserves the right to remove any references to specific online gaming sites as is deemed necessary.
2. PokerPages will not publish works that fall into any of the categories below:
   • intended only to advertise a product or a service for sale, including affiliate links
   • defamatory, abusive, harassing, insulting, threatening, that could be deemed to be stalking, or constitute an invasion of a right of privacy of another person
   • bigoted, hateful, or racially or otherwise offensive
   • violent, vulgar, obscene, pornographic or otherwise sexually explicit
   • illegal or encourage or advocate illegal activity or the discussion of illegal activities with the intent to commit them
   • infringe or violate any right of a third party or any domestic or international law, rule or regulation including, but not limited to:
     • (i) copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret or other proprietary or contractual rights
     • (ii) right of privacy (specifically, you must not distribute another person's personal information of any kind without their expressed permission) or publicity
     • (iii) any confidentiality obligation
3. PokerPages strives to maintain our stance as being the “independent voice of poker.” With that in mind, we welcome opinion pieces, but will not permit works that defame the character of any business or individual without proof.

Submissions:

1. Submission length can vary as we are not under the same constraints as print media outlets. However, articles should generally run from 1,200 to 2,000 words. Articles of significantly longer length than 2000 words should be considered for a multiple-part article or series.
2. PokerPages' current format uses a picture (ideally of the writer), the title of the article, and an article lead-in to be displayed on the front page. This lead-in will be selected by our editing staff. As the lead-in may quite often be drawn from the first few paragraphs of an article, writers are encouraged to develop the first two sentences as a "hook" for the rest of the article.
3. Inquiries should be made using the form at http://www.pokerpages.com/contact/contact-write.htm. Remember that your inquiry will tell us a lot about the quality of your work, so it is recommended you proofread your inquiry just as you would any submitted content.
4. Completed articles for consideration should be submitted to editor@pokerpages.com. Please include a photo.
5. All submitted content must be the work of the person submitting the piece. No submissions of another author's work will be accepted.
6. When possible, submissions should be made as an attached Word document (.doc) or text document (.txt), with Times New Roman, font size 12.
7. Submission does not guarantee acceptance.

Style:

PokerPages has few guidelines on style, as we appreciate a diversity of voice and perspective.

1. There are few absolutes in poker. As the poker advice adage goes, "it depends." When discussing or analyzing poker strategy, "never" and "always" situations are rare. Stating a strong opinion relative to strategy is encouraged, but representing a strategy as irrefutable or an absolute rule is discouraged.
2. The internet is not capitalized. It has become a "major media" and is treated the same as other major media: television, radio, newspaper, and the internet.
3. Do not underline or make text bold for emphasis or formatting. On the internet, underlining is used to signify a link. Placing text in italics for emphasis is accepted.
4. Specific versions of the game of poker are considered proper nouns, and should be capitalized appropriately. For example: Texas Hold'em, Hold'em, Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo, 7-Card Stud, Pot-Limit Omaha, etc.
5. Use hyphens and other punctuation where appropriate. Some common examples:
   • “check-raise,” not “checkraise”
   • “pre-flop” not “preflop”
   • “all-in” not “all in”
   • “Hold'em” not “Holdem”
6. For guidance relative to terminology, a good resource can be found at Michael Wiesenberg's The Official Dictionary of Poker at http://www.poker1.com/mcu/dictionary/
7. Our editors reserve the right to edit any article at our discretion, though we do not make a habit of arbitrarily changing words or the meaning of a sentence. Edits may include but are not limited to: spelling, grammar, syntax, word usage, punctuation, and style. Authors will not be given final approval of such edits.
8. Your submission may be edited, without notice, to conform to these standards.

Terms:

The following governs the use and terms of submitted content. Submission of an article to PokerPages.com indicates an acceptance of these terms in their entirety:

• While the writer retains ownership of their work, the writer grants PokerPages the rights to post, publish, and archive their submission(s) on PokerPages.com, and to redistribute their submission(s) as needed (with authorship noted), for perpetuity.
• PokerPages.com also maintains the rights to utilize, reproduce, and promote the writer's name, likeness, photograph, and biography in connection with promoting the features/offerings of PokerPages.com.
• PokerPages.com retains editorial rights to submissions.
• The writer retains ownership rights to use and reuse submissions in any form, manner or media.
• Submissions must be the writer's original work. The writer also affirms that they have not sold, granted or conveyed the right to their work to any other person or entity. If it is determined that an author has submitted content that has been previously published, PokerPages reserves the right to refuse payment for that work.

Payment:

There is no set rate of payment for articles. Payment will be determined on a case-by-case basis. Payment will be issued via check only, without exception, at the end of the month in which an article was published.

Submit Content

Submission of content to PokerPages.com does not guarantee acceptance or payment.

To submit an inquiry, please access our Inquiry Form.

Completed articles for consideration should be submitted to editor@pokerpages.com. Please include a photo.