Guidelines for Writers

Let's start by saying that this is pretty informal. The premise is that of a big juicy letter full of ideas from a gathering of friends. We jazz it up, turning it into the herbal confection that our readers have come to love and subscribe to over and over again. The magazine is not slick or colorful. It is crammed full of the things herbal enthusiasts are looking for - crafting ideas, recipes, medicinal lore, and interesting information.

The Essential Herbal magazine is always looking for instructions for interesting crafts, good unusual recipes, and medicinal uses of herbs. From time to time, we receive a lovely poem, an article musing on the beauty of the plant world, wild crafting, eating wild foods, or letters containing recipes for salves or culinary treats. And that is exactly the way we like it.

The emphasis is seasonal. Check Deadlines & Topics below for ideas.

Check and see if there is anything you would like to add. Send it by e-mail or regular mail, along with your name, and if you have a business, a bit about it. Blow your horn. Give us your shop name, address, and email/website, and we'll add it to the end of the article.

We will send you 3 copies of The Essential Herbal magazine when it comes out.

We use Microsoft Publisher to put the publication together, and prefer that program. Short articles can be inserted into the body of an e-mail if you are unsure of how to format. We prefer to receive articles in plain text (.txt) format. Length of articles is anywhere from 1/2 page to 4 pages.

Regarding photos and drawings: PDF is fine (usually that will fill a page, though, and it sometimes requires editing on our end). JPG, GIF or TIF are also acceptable graphic extensions. If your pictures are in another format, we can't always open them and they may not be included with the article. They must also have a resolution of 300 dpi. They may also be sent as camera ready copy to our office.

The deadline for each issue is 45 days prior to publication . If submitting something for the Sept/Oct issue, for instance, the copy must be to us by July 15. We prefer that copy be sent well before the deadline, but we've worked with "herbies" long enough to know that we all work best by deadlines. If we receive photos for an article on July 15 and they cannot be opened, there will be no time to remedy the situation and we will insert something of our choosing to fill in.

Articles and artwork may be posted with full credit on our blog or various social media for the purpose of promotion of TEH. If it is chosen for use in another form of publication we will request permission.

Deadlines & Topics

Here are our publication deadlines along with a basic idea of what is in each issue - we're based mostly on the seasons in how we put together upcoming issues. There has never been a shortage of new and interesting subjects, and people just keep coming up with new stuff on their own:

November 15 - Jan/Feb Edition: This issue tends to focus on crafting with dried botanicals, soaping or body care, staying healthy through the bad weather, and the new "herb of the year." 2010 will be dill.
January 15 - Mar/Apr: We start thinking about what we'll be planting in a couple of months, wildcrafting goes into full swing, crafts are most welcome, and there are those allergy issues to discuss...
March 15 - May/June & May 15 - Jul/Aug: Both these issues are full of recipes and crafts using all the stuff that's growing outside. There's wildcrafting to do and new plants to discuss. Body care and garden crafts are of interest too.
July 15 - Sept/Oct: This is the harvest issue. We're drying our bounty and finding ways to preserve it for the winter. Lots of crafts and recipes.
Sept 15 - Nov/Dec: Our holiday issue is full of recipes and crafts - especially things that we can make and share with our loved ones as gifts.

Need some other ideas? How 'bout these...

Aftershave, astringents, acne, bath salts, beads, bath herbs, body polish, creams, candied herbs and flowers, compresses, dip mixes, drying herbs, deodorants, essential oil blends, eye pillows, exfoliants, flower syrups, facial scrubs, facial steams and cleansers, gardens, garlands, gift baskets, heating pads, herb butters, hair treatments, hydrosols, incense, infusions, jelly, jar mixes, kitty litter sachets, kitchen witches, kitchen gardens, lotion, lip balm, liqueurs, lotion bars, love potions, milk baths, massage oils and lotions, no-salt herb blends, nosegays, nail care, ornaments, oils - flavored, prints from herbs, pressing, pounding, potpourri, powders, quince gel, rinses, rose recipes, soap, spritzes, spice clay, sachets, simmers, salt glow, spice recipes, tinctures, teas, urgently needed body care, vinegars, vine wreaths, vacuum cleaner scenters, wreaths, wildcrafting, wax pomanders, wine, xmas crafts, xtremely easy crafts, yule logs, youth restoring concoctions, zit zappers, zzzzzzhelpers.

whew!!! there's more, but that should get you started.