Before You Write
Before you start writing an article, take a moment to contact us with yoru idea. You can save both of us time by making sure we didn't just publish an article on the subject you wish to write on or that we are interested in your particular topic. Often times we can direct you toward a modified angle or slant on your article before you write to save considerable editing.

Letters to Extreme Rocketry
Write to us and let us know what you think about our publication. We will publish as many letters as possible in each issue.

Reader Photos (with captions)
We'd love to see your photos. The more interesting, the better. Remember, the name of our publication is Extreme Rocketry. By extreme, we mean different and unique. So, please make sure your photo is unique and interesting in some way.

Product Reviews
Would you like to review a product for the magazine? We are looking for high quality reviews to publish. By high quality, we want impartial reviewers--so if you work for the manufacturer, or have close association with them, you are most likely the wrong person to do the review. Also, it will help if you are familiar with similar or competing products with the one your are reviewing. This way you can point out strong points and weaknesses in comparison. At the end of the review we would like a 15 word 'pros' listing, and about 15 words under a 'cons' listing. And finally, an over all rating of 'awesome,' 'great,' 'ok,' or 'needs work.' Product reviews should be about 800 words in length.

"How To" Articles
One of the highlights of each issue of Extreme Rocketry are the "how to" articles. We recommend you write articles like: "10 ways to make cleaning your rocket motors easier," or "12 easy steps to fiberglass a rocket". Be sure to include photos and drawings along with your article!

Interviews with Rocket Celebrities
Everyone wants to know the background of various rocket celebrities. For instance, how old was Gary Rosenfield, the founder of AeroTech, when he designed his first rocket motor? Or, how did Vern Estes, founder of Estes Rockets get started in rocketry? We prefer that these interviews be unrehearsed and very informal. Please don't try to trick the interviewee into talking about sensitive areas. We will clear the final draft of all interviews with the interviewee before publishing the article. We suggest you provide a rough guideline of the topics you wish to discuss with the interviewee. Give them a few days to go over your list. The list should NOT be a list of the exact questions you will ask--only the topics you wish to discuss. Then, when you do the interview, use a tape recorder to tape it. Ask you questions one by one and encourage the interviewee to answer without referring to written material. After the interview, type up your interview and edit it to smooth out any awkward gaps. Submit the article along with several interesting photos. We'll help you with any further editing we feel is necessary and clear the final draft with the interviewee. Interviews should be about 2800 words in length.

Project Reports
If you have a unique or "extreme" rocket, we'd love to see a project report of how you built it and how it performed when it was launched. Be sure to include construction drawings and final photos including a lift off shot if possible. Try to keep the length under 2800 words.

Launch Reports
Most people hate a launch report that is just a long list of flights. Reports for Extreme Rocketry should focus on the launch experience rather than a log of all flights. A more interesting report address questions like:
-what was the site like?
-what was the local club like running it?
-any interesting weather or other things happen?
-avoid long lists of flights
It is best to focus on a handful of interesting rocket projects:
-who were the people that built these rockets
-what did they have in mind building the rocket
-a bit about the people themselves
-avoid long lists of names, vendors, etc.
-get launch report and photos submitted asap so they can be published asap
-include authors and photographers name in launch report

Article Formats
All articles should be submitted in RTF format (look under saveas or export). Remember not to 'imbed' photos in your RTF file (it makes for a big file and isn't useful to us). If you have math formulas with sub or superscripts, or fancy diagrams, please include a PDF version of your article along with the RTF. We'll use the PDF to see what formatting you intended and apply it as we do our layout for publication.

Submitting Photos
There are two basic types of photos out there now. Digital and old style film prints.

35mm Film Prints
We can scan film prints, slides or transparencies. The only things we can't work with are prints from a computer to a ink jet or laser printer. Prints from computers contain minature dot patterns that simply don't scan well (they produce moiré patterns).

Digial Photos
Digital photos are extremely easy to work with. The only challenge is making sure they have enough dots or pixels. Typically you'll need a 6 megapixel or better camera in order for the end file size to have enough dots for printing on a professional printing press. We print at 300 dots per inch. This means you photo must have about 2400 x 3300 dots in order to be printed as a full page photo. We can blow things up slightly by stretching them or sharpening photos, but by going much below a 6 megapixel camera the photos will be blurry or jaggy no matter how much we work with them. Photos should be sent on a CDROM in JPG or TIFF format. Don't worry about color correction or other changes. Our monitors are calibrated to our printing press and we do all corrections on this end. Ideally, file names should contain the name of the person in the photo. It is also helpful to have a separate TXT file containing photo captions.