Sending us articles

We print most articles we are sent if they:

  • don’t go against our aims
  • are relevant and interesting to Sawston residents
  • haven’t been sent to anyone else.

If they have been used in other publications (press releases, for instance), we will use them if we have space; we may edit them heavily, to give more space for contributions that have been written specially for us.

To get an idea of the kind of articles we print, please read the magazine… In general, village organisations and businesses send us news and reports of what they have been doing. If your copy reads more like a political manifesto, a sermon, or a marketing brochure, we may not be able to use it. Here’s a sample article with a PDF of how it appeared in the magazine.

Please check our copy deadlines and sign up for reminder emails.

W O R D S
If in doubt, write more rather than less: we can cut but we can’t pad! The question to ask is: “Will readers find this interesting?” We find that the most effective copy is from a personal point of view rather than a corporate one; case studies and real-life examples are often useful. We don’t print advertorial.

For contacts, please give a full name, phone number, and email address.

Please send copy within an email, especially if it’s short, or as a Word file. We strip out formatting, so don’t bother about it – and please don’t use Microsoft Publisher. When you send copy:

A half page of copy is about five hundred words, and a page about a thousand words; every picture takes up the space of about 75 words, so a one-page article with two or three pictures would be about 750 words; a double-page spread with a heading and three or four pictures might be 1,600 words.

Please note that we will edit your copy to match our house style and to fit the space available.

P I C T U R E S

  • Send them as attachments to your email: don’t put them inside Word files.
  • Send them as PNGs, JPGs, TIFFs or GIFs (we can’t use .heic files)
  • Make sure they are at least 6cm wide or high and 300dpi, or that the file size is about 400Kb, or they won’t be good enough for us to use; if in doubt, send the biggest versions you have. For a cover, the file size needs to be at least 1.5Mb.
  • Tell us who took them, so we can credit them.
  • Copy your email to our Pictures Editor at pictures@sawstonscene.org

C O P Y R I G H T
Anyone whose work is published without payment in Sawston Scene retains copyright in their work, whether it’s copy or pictures. If we have enquiries about reproducing your work or getting copies of pictures, we will forward them to you.

We are always pleased when people are excited to be featured in the magazine, and we will send you a PDF that you can share with friends or relatives too far from Sawston to see a copy. But PLEASE do not post the article on social media instead of letting your friends know that they can buy a copy of the magazine! 

N O T   S U R E   W H A T   T O   S E N D ?
If you’ve got an idea for an article but you’re not sure what to write, please contact the Editor, Beck Laxton, at editor@sawstonscene.org, or our Copy Editor, Yasmin Emerson, at copy@sawstonscene.org – either of us will be happy to discuss different options with you.

If you’ve got an interesting story to tell or event to cover, but nobody to write about it or take pictures, we may be able to help – please ask!

Finally, if you send us an article but get no acknowledgement, please get in touch – if you send stuff in the week after production week, it may well get missed.