Writer Guidelines
Each month, hundreds of readers visit our site in search of community news, ideas, and inspiration. Sharing your thoughts, experiences, and problem-solving techniques is a great way to help others.
What do we look for?
“‘Blah, blah, blah,” Mayor Hogsett said in an interview with the Indy Times.”
Editorial judgment
Indy Times reserves the right to edit all content submitted for publication, including grammar, formatting, headlines, and length.
We reserve the right to reject content for any reason.
We reserve the right to remove any links or content we consider offensive, harmful, or overly promotional.
What do we look for?
- Distinctive message: Search the site for the topic you are interested in writing about. Make your piece unique. Please use more than one example to illustrate your point (i.e., avoid any press-release-type promotion of one business that reads like ad content).
- Trustworthy resources: Embed links to sources of information (studies, stats, etc.)
- Correct length: Pieces typically run about 700-1,000 words. More expansive pieces that run over 1,500 words are welcome.
- Inclusion: Writers should be conscious of representing the diversity found in our community.
- Originality: Plagiarism will result in removal from the platform.
- Appropriate sourcing of quotes: This means that quotes should be attributed to a source, for example:
“‘Blah, blah, blah,” Mayor Hogsett said in an interview with the Indy Times.”
- Other items related to your topic: Anecdotes, quotes, academic/think tank studies, data points. These must all be sourced or linked to their sources.
- Proofreading and spell-check the document: Spell check and grammar check before submitting it.
- Factual accuracy: Check the spelling of individuals and company names. Make sure to confirm facts with several sources.
- An absence of formatting: This means no bolded text, no italics, no all-caps words, etc. We will format in our style.
- Photos: Please add captions to photos and credit the photographer.
- Lead time: Please expect 1 to 3 weeks before your story gets evaluated. Please keep this in mind if you are writing about timely topics like holiday seasons.
Editorial judgment
Indy Times reserves the right to edit all content submitted for publication, including grammar, formatting, headlines, and length.
We reserve the right to reject content for any reason.
We reserve the right to remove any links or content we consider offensive, harmful, or overly promotional.