NOTICE: We are a "virtual office," so all queries and submissions must be by email (editors@spiritualityhealth.com). Materials snail-mailed to publisher's office will not be fowarded to editors. If you wish to send snail mail, "pitch" it first via email, and if one of the editors wants to receive it, he or she will email you an address. Please read the following Writers, Publishers, Artists/Photographers, and advertorial seekers guidelines carefully.

Spirituality & Health is a nondenominational bi-monthly magazine that reports on the people, practices, and ideas of the spiritual renaissance in contemporary society and their impact on personal and community well being. It provides readers with practices to aid them in their own spiritual formation and strives for journalistic objectivity in the presentation of stories about specific religions and denominations.

Our audience is made up of seekers who may or may not be traditionally religious. They:

• share the desire for a life that’s meaningful;
• are fascinated and encouraged by new, often barrier-breaking ways of thinking;
• appreciate having a guide to help them navigate between those who claim to have absolute answers and those for whom any answer will do; and
• are eager to explore practices that bring deeper connectedness and greater meaning to all their activities, and that can energize whatever existing religious or spiritual commitment they may have.

We look for articles that are:

• useful to our readers (i.e., they can relate the material to their own lives)
• educational, giving our readers insights into the ideas, discoveries, practices, and traditions that are shaping spirituality today (always with an eye toward usefulness)
• a forum for the great thinkers and the average person, where barriers between disciplines can be broken down and new avenues explored and critiqued
• rich in new information (dates, contacts, web sites, etc.) about events, resources, media, research, people, and activities
• personally meaningful through stories, anecdotes, and humor.

Recommendations for unsolicited submissions:

FOR WRITERS:

Short items in our Updates & Observation department are the best way to let us get to know you. They run 50 - 350 words. For a sense of what we use, please read the U&O department. Shorts should be news that will be current with a 4-month lead time. Since they are so short, it is usually best to write them rather than pitch an idea. Send them as Word for PC document attachments. The editors have query meetings only once every couple of months, so please be patient with our response time.

Features may run from 800 - 2,500 words (or, occasionally, more — if it’s really that interesting). Best to pitch the idea rather than send a manuscript.

Familiarize yourself with the magazine before querying. Past issues are available on our website. Search key words to see if we have already done an article very similar to your pitch before you send it.

Note the following rules and tips:

• All media (book, dvd, music) reviews are written by our media editors.
• We do not accept poetry submissions.
• Please do not offer to do a column for us.
• We publish news, research, fact; we publish personal experience, material about religious and spiritual beliefs and traditions; we DO NOT PUBLISH personal experience or beliefs presented as fact. We provide information; we do not tell people what to think about it or what to do. For instance, do not pitch a piece about chakra anatomy, stating that using its principles will make you healthy. This would be a belief presented as fact.
• We do not publish articles about specific spiritual or alternative healing modalities unless they have been scientifically tested and peer-reviewed. We are interested in new (within the last six months) reputable research studies on such modalities for Updates & Observations. Read the section to see what we use.
• Most profiles are staff-written.
• Body practices are staff-written; see PUBLISHERS (below) for submission information.
• We are not New Age. We are news, research, and study-based.
• We applaud people healing through writing, and we encourage you to write your experiences for that purpose, but we are inundated with personal essays about how people healed from various diseases, and we discourage submission of these. We believe they are a worthy personal exercise, but generally not right for S&H features.
• Professional credentials matter. Our features are written by experts in their fields. Expert credentials include Ph.D., M.D. and other academic degrees, publication of books on a subject, a background as a teacher or practitioner. Life Coach generally is not an acceptable credential for writing about psychological subjects, nutrition, medicine, etc.
• We are a virtual office with editors in various home offices around the country, so email is the only way to contact all of us. No phone calls please.

SEND QUERIES AND SUBMISSIONS TO editors@spiritualityhealth.com. Please start with a brief query. Tell us what you’d like to write about and why we should run the story. Tell us why you’re the right person to do the article. If you have certain experts in mind, name them. If you have the inside track on a new study, let us know. Be open to our asking you to do a short item for us. We need a lot of them covering a variety of topics, and they’re a great way for us to get acquainted.

Fees are negotiated on a per-story basis, based on length, experience, complexity, etc.

FOR PUBLISHERS:

If you have books, audiotapes, CDs, or videos or DVDs you would like us to consider reviewing, please contact our media editors:

Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
15 West 24th Street, 10th floor
New York, NY 10010
brussat@spiritualityhealth.com

Because the Brussats receive hundreds of review copies, they are unable to give publishers or publicists "status" reports on your titles. Please do not email or call them to find out if something has been received or if it is being considered for review. They will contact you if something is chosen for review in the magazine and will send tear sheets.

Body Practice books, videos, and DVDs should be sent to:

Jennifer Derryberry Mann
5901 Morgan Ave. South
Minneapolis, MN 55419-2008

No follow-up emails or calls to Mrs. Mann. She will contact you if she decides to feature your material.

NO MUSIC ACCEPTED FOR REVIEW. We review such a small number of CDs that the music reviewer prefers to go through private channels for his selection.

Books for first serial rights should be queried 8 months before publication to:
Steve@SpiritualityHealth.com or Louise@SpiritualityHealth.com. They will contact you if they want to receive a galley.

FOR ARTISTS/PHOTOGRAPHERS

Art queries and "picture features" along with Internet links to samples should be directed to John Goryl at B&G Design Studios, john@bgdesignstudios.com.

FOR ADVERTORIAL SEEKERS

We don't do product editorial, and sample submissions sent to the publisher's office will not be forwarded to the editors who work in home offices around the country. However, if you have a REAL news angle, feel free to send a press release to editors@spiritualityhealth.com.

http://www.spiritualityhealth.com/newsh/items/blank/item_9852.html