Welcome to the ZATZ Writer Guidelines. Please follow the instructions on this page and also those throughout AuthorPower. It'll improve your chances of getting published and make our jobs as editors much easier (and this is always a good thing).
New ZATZ Authors: You'll want to read Getting started as a ZATZ author. It'll answer all your basic questions about writing for us.
Writing style
Be sure to use first-person rather than third person. I do that in this message. I don't write to you and say "the prospective author should use first person." I say "You should use first person." Be personable and warm but try to avoid being silly. Also, if appropriate, you can often substitute the use of "I" in a set of steps with "you," and it'll feel much more personal to the reader. Remember that while these journals cover technical topics, you don't need to be stiff in your writing.
Try to avoid being too cute with articles. With only twelve pages, we don't really have space for you to create cute characters or back-stories. You can certainly be warm and personable and use examples, but remember our job here is to give people real meat to chew on and use, not pure entertainment.
Writing menu references
We have a very specific style for menu references. The form is "select <item> from the <menu-name> menu". For example, you might say "Select Open... from the File menu." Always use the term "select" rather than "click" and be sure that if the menu item has an ellipsis, you include it in the copy. If the menu is multi-level, use the -> arrow to describe the item, as in "Select User Setup->Change Password... from the File menu."
Preparing and referencing figures
Do *not* embed illustrations or screenshots in the articles. Instead, keep them as separate external files.
Name your images Figure A, B, etc.
For each image you use in your article, we need a short (less than 10 words) caption that's a complete sentence. Further, we need a callout in the article itself that tells us where the figure is located. Here's an example:
Don't forget the captions! They must be complete sentences. Beginning authors always leave out the captions, and we have to use considerable restraint to keep from ordering their execution.
Some other ways to refer to figures are "as shown in Figure A," "as you can see from Figure A," "if you look at Figure A, you can see that," "as is clear from Figure A," and so forth.
Please don't use multiple figure references per paragraph. If you reference a figure, you should then show the figure, and go on in the next paragraph to show the next figure. A great example of this is how Figure B and Figure C are split out in the article at http://www.dominopower.com/issues/issue200403/00001237001.html.
If you draw a diagram, please make sure it can image well as a GIF image. We're not able to redraw what you provide, so if it's not clear, it just won't run. Also, avoid the use of logos or other "self-promotion" in your illustrations. They won't fly either. We've gotten some great articles from writers whose illustrations weren't all that neat, and we've had to send them back for rework.
Other guidelines
Don't use boldface or italics anywhere in your article. Our style is that most words are printed in a plain typeface.
Don't turn program code into a screenshot. Instead, either inline the code with the rest of the article or create a sidebar containing a short introduction to the code and the code itself. Include it in the main body of the Word file.
Please divide your article into bite-sized chunks by using section headers. We can go two levels deep in headers, but don't get too carried away.
Turn off smart quotes and other typographic tools (like bullets done by typing Option-8). When we render to the Web, we'll need to get rid of these. And it always works better when the articles arrive without any special formatting.
Always be sure to properly credit source material. If you're not sure what the right approach is, read How to credit source material.
Image formats
Where possible, be sure your screen shots are full-color JPEG or GIF images without compression (and, also, without compression artifacts). Please send us full size images. Don't try to resize them to fit the screen. We have special processing macros that will format images properly, or split them into a large images and thumbnails if appropriate. Finally, please don't embed them in the Word file, send them as attachments or ZIP everything together into one file.
Include your bio
We often try to include a bio at the end of an article. You've got about ten words, of the form: "Bill Johnson is Senior Engineer for Widgets, Inc. He can be reached via e-mail at bill\@widgets.com." If you have a particularly relevant history with the topic of the journal (one of our authors wrote the forms that ship with cc:Mail, so of course that's in his bio), feel free to include it. If space is available, we'll always try to include your Web page address.
Sending us your article (file formats)
Please prepare all articles in Microsoft Word format. To be sure we can receive it, please save it in RTF format and then email it to us (editor@zatz.com, or jbooth@zatz.com).
Need more help?
If you want more help, feel free to contact us. You might also want to look at The big list of editing tips.
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