Infoline Submission Guidelines

In preparing to write for Infoline, it is important to be familiar with the product. Keep in mind that Infoline is a concise how-to publication and your writing should reflect this fact. You should be able to explain what your Infoline is about by completing the following sentence: "This Infoline will show you how to..." If you find that you need more than this one sentence to define your manuscript, you may need to reevaluate or narrow your focus. Please, feel free to contact us for a sample copy to help you during the writing process.

The following document describes each section of Infoline along with expected author requirements.

When using material from other sources, we will need to obtain permission to use this material from the publisher and in some cases from the author. To expedite this process, please provide the following:

• For magazine articles: Copies of the article and the masthead page of the magazine in which the article appeared.
• For books: Copies of the title and copyright pages as well as the pages you are using and/or adapting.
• For materials off the Internet/World Wide Web: Please provide a printout of the first two to three pages from the site, making sure the site address is clearly shown.
• For training materials owned by clients: Please provide a written permission from the organization for whom the material was developed. We’ll also need to know the date and copyright information of the material(s).
• For training materials you developed yourself: Please let us know if this material needs to be copyrighted for use in sidebars.

Table of contents: You do not need to worry about this; we create it here. What we do ask is that you provide brief autobiography, approximately 50-100 words.

Introduction: This part should run approximately 450 words.

Main text: Your running text should run 5,500 words. This word count does not include sidebars, case studies, tables, graphics, and so on (see below).

Sidebars or case studies: A typical issue contains six to seven sidebars and/or case studies. A single-column sidebar runs approximately 325 words, a two-column sidebar 600 words, and the occasional three-column sidebar 900 words.

Tables, charts, graphics, or worksheets: You also have the option of including any of these in place of sidebars or case studies. The total of both case studies and graphics should be six or seven. If you’re struggling to include one or two extras, include them, and we’ll make the decision on the basis of editorial layout. Please provide an introduction to the figure that explains its relevance to the main text. Even a single sentence will do.

References and resources: If you have a selection of references that you used to prepare your manuscript, please include these citations. If you used no sources in the preparation of your manuscript, please provide a selection of additional resources for readers to refer to.

Job aid: This is a reproducible element (and not under copyright) to help readers accomplish specific tasks associated with the topic covered in the issue. The job aid is how-to oriented and should be approached as such when you are putting it together. Please see job aids in previously published issues for examples.

The easiest way for us to receive your manuscript is via email. Send us your files electronically as email attachments to the following address: pbrotherton@astd.org. We will notify you if we have any trouble opening the attachments.

Save each element of your manuscript (introduction, main text, sidebar, chart, job aid, references, and so forth) as separate files.

Infoline authors have a variety of backgrounds. Some authors have written extensively for other publications, while others are first-time authors who wish to share their expertise or practice with other workplace learning and performance professionals.

ASTD neither pays a fee, nor provides authors with a royalty check for their Infolines. However, ASTD does send authors 20 complimentary copies of their published work. Authors may also purchase up to 100 copies of their Infoline at the cost of $5 per issue. Most authors use their status as an Infoline author to enhance their credibility and/or market awareness of a training and development practice, approach, or model. Others view Infoline authorship as a way to give back to the profession.

No matter what your reasons for wishing to be an Infoline author, the experience can be rewarding and interesting. The following guidelines will help you create a proposal to write an issue of Infoline.

Infoline Proposal

Some authors prepare a short proposal (one to two pages) for an issue of Infoline after discussing the suitability of a topic area with the acquisitions editor, while other authors prefer to get their thoughts down on paper before communicating with the editor. Either approach is acceptable. Answering the following questions will help you develop a formal Infoline proposal or prepare you for a conversation with an Infoline editor:

• What is the working title of the proposed Infoline?
• Will you be the only author or is the proposed Infoline a multi-author issue?
• Provide complete contact information, including your name, company, title, mailing address, phone, fax, and email.
• Describe your issue of Infoline in a two or three sentence summary and include the primary and secondary objectives of your proposed issue. Make sure to clearly indicate if your proposed issue is a how-to or trend issue. If your proposed issue seems similar to another Infoline please explain how your issue is different.
• Describe your qualifications (briefly) for writing the proposed Infoline.
• Provide an estimated completion date.
• Create a detailed table of contents describing the contents of each section of the issue.

Send Completed Materials to

Phaedra Brotherton
Editor, Infoline
1640 King Street  Box 1443
Alexandria, VA 22313-1443
pbrotherton@astd.org (Email)
703.683.9596 (Phone)
703.683.9591 (Fax)

Infoline is a structured publication. The content of each issue is delivered the same way each month. It includes a table of contents with the author’s biography, an introduction, the main text (with sidebars, case studies, charts and graphs, and worksheets), references and resources, and at least one job aid. Most authors find this structured approach helpful in the writing process.

Infoline’s written tone is non-academic. Short sections, bulleted information, and sidebars allow readers to digest information quickly and easily. The following tips may help you during the writing process:

 1.  Use bulleted lists for short entries. The list should be at least 3-5 entries long.

 2.  Use sidebar boxes to bring attention to items that fall naturally into the flow of the text.

 3.  You can mark text for open checkbox lists. These are for list entries that readers need to check off when completing tasks or projects.

 4.  Don’t spend too much time introducing a subject to readers (background, history, and so forth). The reason we’ve marked the introductory section as 450 words max is that’s all we really need. An Infoline is what we call a “slice of the training pie,” and you just need to JUMP IN and get to the point. 

 5.  If you need additional references to prepare your manuscript, let us know early on; we can get our Information Center to put a bibliography of recent sources together for you. 

 6.  If you use other individuals’ ideas and materials, you must provide an on-page citation to the material. It may end up that we edit out the citation from the text, but this is our way of knowing that there must be a reference to the original source somewhere in the issue. If you’re not sure whether to include a citation, do it anyway and mark the citation with a question mark (?)

 7.  If several sources have been used fairly exclusively, please let us know their titles when you submit your manuscript. Manuscripts are considered “original works” submitted to ASTD, and if most of your work is based on someone else’s work, we need to edit around that or get permission to use the material.

 8.  Readers LOVE worksheets, job aids, charts, case studies, and so forth. These are elements that really help them apply what you’re writing about.

 9.  To track your word count after you finish writing, most word processing packages have the ability to count your words. In Microsoft Word, for example, go to the Tool bar and select word count.

10. Always write more rather than less, but please don’t take this to an extreme. If you submit a 10,000 word manuscript when we’ve asked for 6,000, we’ll offer you suggestions on how to cut it, but we’ll also send it back to you. A good min-max standard is to have a final manuscript that is anywhere from 10 percent less than to about 15 percent more than the suggested word count. It’s always easier to cut than add words.

11. If you think a process or model could use a visual rendering, but have no idea how to create it, let us know about it when you’re writing. If you give us enough lead time, we can have our Creative Services department come up with something.