Information For New Writers
We welcome new writers. If you are interested in writing about birds, birding, and related topics (and only expect fame as a writer rather than payment), please contact us.
You can start with a guest post. This is a post written by you, with a brief self-introduction (in the third person, see example here) and at least one illustration or photo (we can help you find one if this is an issue). Before you start writing, please check the style guide below.
As for content, anything bird-related is possible. Here are a few examples of potential topics:
- Posts on individual bird species
- Posts on bird families
- Posts on specific birding locations or regions
- Posts describing interesting birding trips
- Posts on science related to birds
- Posts on bird protection or broader environmental topics
- Humorous posts about birds and birders
- Posts on birds and something else (for example, we had a series titled “Birds and Booze”
- Lists related to birds (e.g., “My 10 favorite birds of Albania”)
- Book reviews
As far as I can tell at the moment, there are only two things that we are not too excited about – posts only showing photos of birds without any writing (as this is not the idea behind 10,000 Birds) and posts written entirely by ChatGPT (we want personal perspectives, not AI).
After you have sent us a first post, we will put it up ourselves but will ask for your approval of the edited online version before publishing it.
Then, you can decide whether to contribute regularly (weekly, biweekly, or monthly – you would have a fixed slot and be listed on our writer’s page) or just via a single or several guest posts.
If you need more information, please contact us. We can also have a Zoom call or similar to address specific questions.
10,000 Birds Style Guide
Blog name: It is 10,000 Birds. Nothing else. Not 10000birds, not 10000birds.com, not ten thousand birds, not 10000 birds.
Software usage: If you write your post in Word and paste it later, please check whether there are any formatting issues.
Species names: Common species names are capitalized. The first time a species name is used in a post it is bolded. It is up to the writer whether subsequent usages of a species name are bolded. Latin names are always italicized.
Images: Include at least one image in a post. Please do not use images larger than a size of about 100-200 kb.
Promotion/Links: You may write on 10,000 Birds partly to promote your blog/site/business – fair enough. But do not repeatedly link back to your site. If you promote something in which you have a financial interest, you must first get clearance. The content must be original to 10,000 Birds, not posted elsewhere, and be interesting for our readers.
Content: We do not control content and will not generally edit content. If you are going to write something controversial, please check with us first.
Ownership: You keep ownership of your content but 10,000 Birds expects web exclusivity for your written content for 90 days after initial publication.
Copyright: You are responsible for any copyright issues related to your posts. This is particularly relevant for photos/illustrations. If you are not the copyright owner, it is your responsibility to get permission for use in your post.
