A List Apart

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Writing for A List Apart

We want to change the way our readers work, whether that means introducing a revolutionary CSS technique with dozens of potential applications, challenging disparate disciplines to work together better, or refuting common wisdom about, say, mobile devices. If your article can do that, we want to see it.

Your article should also:

  • Offer a clear argument, not just a list of tips and tricks.
  • Have a voice. We want pieces that are bold, interesting, and human.
  • Keep our core readership of working web professionals in mind. If your piece focuses on one discipline—say, backend development or content strategy—consider what people from broader fields can learn from it, and how you might include those readers, too.
  • Typically be around 1,500 to 2,000 words (though longer or shorter isn’t out of the question).
  • Be fact-checked, with citations if needed.
  • Follow our style guide, which details our preferred terminology, grammar, capitalization, punctuation, code, and other standards.

What we’re not looking for

There are hundreds of other places to find nifty JavaScript and CSS tricks, so we focus on what we do best. (See above.) We also do not publish:

  • Product pitches or press releases.
  • Extensions to articles we’ve published, unless they add significant new value.
  • Anything that has been published elsewhere, including your blog.

Why write for us?

You’ll love writing for us because we care…a lot. We want your story to be the best it can be, so you’ll get extensive feedback and editorial support. You won’t find that anywhere else.

Writing for A List Apart has also helped authors land freelance and staff jobs, speaking and teaching engagements, and even—if you’ve got the stuff—book deals. Thousands of colleagues will see your work published in a credible and respected forum, and many will visit the links you include in your author bio.

We pay $200 on publication, generally within a few weeks.

Submitting an article

Please e-mail us your article in one of the following formats:

  • HTML
  • Microsoft Word doc or RTF
  • Plain text
  • Google document

If you use HTML, please limit yourself to clean, simple markup. The h1 element is reserved for use as a page header, so please use h2 through h4 as needed in your article.

If you use Microsoft Word or plain text, please put link text in square brackets, with the URL in parentheses following your link text (or use Textile marks).

All code examples submitted for consideration (whether they’re presented inline within your article or as separate pages) must:

  • Use markup that validates to HTML5 or XHTML 1.0 Transitional or Strict.
  • Work in all modern browsers.
  • Degrade gracefully when images, JavaScript, and/or CSS are not active.

We’ll look for a variety of other good practices, but these points are non-negotiable. The more testing you’ve done, the better. Please see the style guide for markup and CSS formatting notes.

We try to review submissions once a week, but sometimes it takes longer. (Sometimes a lot longer.) Patience is a virtue.