Guidelines for Writing Grapevine Articles
With these guidelines, we'd like to welcome you to the pages of the AA Grapevine, where we hope you feel at home. The Grapevine is your magazine, and nearly half of every issue us written by AA members who have written for the Grapevine before.
With a little willingness and a desire to share, AA members around the world have been submitting there personal stories, their sorrows and joys, their ups, downs, and in betweens to the AA Grapevine since 1944. So why stop now?
Without your written experiences and opinions, the magazine cannot continue to be an effective tool for sober living and a vital, accurate picture of the Fellowship as a whole. So, if you've hesitated - thinking you can't do it - why not consider joining AA's meeting in print? You might just keep coming back!
As you plan your article, keep in mind AA's singleness of purpose, you might want to leaf through a few old issues to get an idea of the sort of articles most often published. Then close the magazine, and do your own thing! Say what you want to say, not what you think we'll publish. And don't be timid about branching out; we're always looking for a change of pace, as long as it relates to AA experience.
FORMAT If possible, manuscripts should be typed, double-spaced, with generous margins. If you don't have a typewriter or word processor, though, don't worry about it. Just write clearly and legibly, on one side of the paper only. If you quote from AA literature (or another source) in your manuscript, please give the correct name of the source, along with the page number.
LENGTH Maybe you heard a one-liner in a meeting that you'd like to pass along, or maybe you just want to relate one short but sweet incident, or maybe you really want to go in-depth on a particular subject - no matter how short or long, the important thing is that you say what you want to say. The average contribution varies from one to five or six typed pages, but if the editorial staff feels that much cutting is needed, we will seek your permission. Normally our editing is very slight.
What We Do Not Publish Poems, personal prayers, tributes to individual AAs, drama, anything not related at Alcoholics Anonymous (such as articles about the field of alcoholism treatment, legislation, medical advances, etc.).
Where to send it: Send you completed manuscript to The Grapevine, Editorial Department, P.O. Box 1980, Grand Central Station, New York, NY 10163-1980. You will be notified whether or not the piece will be published, but since we work several months in advance, the length of time between acceptance and publication can vary from a couple of months to over a year. Your notification of publication will a complementary advance copy of the issue in which your article appears. Good luck, and welcome home!