An exciting feature coming to you from HuntingPA.com!

The NEW HuntingPA.com online monthly magazine is now available! Just click on this link:  http://www.huntingpa.net to go to the latest issue of The BULLET.

Here at HuntingPA.com we’re convinced that among the ranks of Pennsylvania hunters are some of the best hunters anywhere. Most of you are not famous. You are not the regular contributors to the glossy magazines that populate the newsstands. But you’ve already proven you have a lot to offer one another and the hunters across America. So now it’s time for something new! Get involved in the best web site covering Pennsylvania hunting, and one of the best hunting web sites in the country:

Would you like share a story or describe a method you use? Here’s your opportunity to be an outdoor writer.

Are you an expert deer, turkey, coyote or bear hunter? Crows, woodchucks, rabbits? Here is the place where you’ll be respected for your expertise.

Do you have ideas about making your own hunting gear? You can share those ideas with others.

Are you into outdoor photography? Here is the place where you can share your photos and get noticed.

Not an expert? Lots of us aren’t, and we need that perspective, too.

The focus is on Pennsylvania hunters, but you don’t have to be from Pennsylvania to participate. As long as what you say is relevant to Pennsylvania hunters, we want you to have a part. And there are so many ways to contribute. But don’t worry about your writing ability. We’ll give your writers’ guidelines and tips to help you communicate in a professional manner.

We plan to launch the first issue in September, so if you have some ideas we want to hear them as soon as possible. Email the new editor, Steve Sorensen, at editor@huntingpa.com with your ideas, questions, concerns or suggestions. We’ll get in touch and help you help all of us get more out of HuntingPA.com by putting more into it.

Sign up here !!

Mission Statement, HuntingPA.com online magazine

The purpose of the HuntingPA.com Internet magazine is to be the authoritative source for Pennsylvania hunting information by providing a place where the HuntingPA.com online community of hunters can share information and ideas with hunters across Pennsylvania, America, and around the world. It seeks to give the common hunter a voice and a platform from which he can share his expertise, and to do this in a professional manner of which every participant can be proud.

Writers’ Guidelines, HuntingPA.com

WHY WRITE

Have you ever thought about being an outdoor writer? Today it’s more easily possible than ever before. You can become one by being a frequent contributor to HuntingPA.com. The rewards are many:

ü       The achievement of seeing your name and your ideas in a respected Internet publication

ü       The enjoyment of having your expertise recognized in a large community of hunters

ü       The pleasure of helping other hunters become more successful using your ideas and methods

ü       The fulfillment of knowing your contribution is appreciated

ü       The accomplishment of putting your thoughts into a meaningful written form

ü       The satisfaction of being viewed as an expert in the field

HuntingPA.com is a place that recognizes that some of the best hunters in America roam the hills and hollows of the Keystone State. It is a place that acknowledges the expertise of hunters no one has ever heard of – yet. It is a place that recognizes that the ordinary hunters of Pennsylvania have a lot to offer one another. Your contributions are important to the other members and help make HuntingPA.com a respected, mutually helpful community. Hunters from outside Pennsylvania are welcome to contribute, as long as the topic is relevant to Pennsylvania hunters.

HOW TO WRITE

Many good hunters can talk for hours about their ideas and experiences, yet they feel they can’t write well enough to submit an article. Write your article as if you were talking casually to a group of friends. Do the best you can, but don’t let concern about perfect spelling, punctuation, or writing style prevent you from writing. Write clearly, then reread your article several times and fix phrases that seem unclear. Have a friend or spouse read it and make suggestions. Remember that the key to good writing is re-writing. Our members want good information, so if you think you have something valuable to share with other hunters, we want to hear about it.

We would like to publish your articles telling fellow hunters your ideas and experiences. Here are some of the guidelines you should follow.

1.        Remember that it is more difficult to read content on screen than to read ink on paper, so Internet articles should be shorter than print magazine articles. Be kind to your reader and to yourself. Keep your article under 1200 words. A length of 600-800 words is ideal and will more likely be read than an article of 1500 words. Consider breaking a long article into a 2-part article. Short pieces of 200-500 words are welcome.

2.        Material will be edited to keep the grammar, punctuation and spelling to a professional standard. Long sentences may be broken into two sentences. Needless sentences will be eliminated. However, every attempt will remain to keep your words as much as possible.

3.        Write not so much to be understood, but to avoid being misunderstood. The secret to writing well is thinking clearly. The reader is trying to understand; don’t frustrate him.

4.        Be specific. Avoid vague statements like, "Position yourself near a good trail.” Don’t assume people know what that means; they may be reading your article because they don’t. What exactly is a good trail? What type of terrain features or vegetation help you identify it as such? What does “near” mean? Include enough specific detail to give the reader a complete picture. It is easier to edit out extra material than to ask you for more information to fill a topic out.

5.        Photos that help explain the article are extremely helpful, but articles will be considered without photography.

6.        When submitting an article, include a “thesis”, a sentence or two about what point you are making. This will give us a guideline when editing, and help us stay true to your objective.

7.        Give brief biographical information about yourself, including where you live and hunt, how long you have been a hunter, and any personal information that will be important to the members understanding your perspective.

WHAT TO WRITE

We’re looking for articles on all aspects of Pennsylvania hunting. Specifically, we want practical information that our members can apply to their own hunts. Articles on out-of-state hunts will be considered, particularly if they tell the Pennsylvania hunter how it was planned and arranged. We also want natural history topics, for example coyote territorial behavior, deer rut behavior, or any other animal behavior or habitat information that will increase the understanding and effectiveness of the HuntingPA.com members. Also, well-written philosophical pieces that make a point are in demand.

Other good topics are presenting a professional image, educating non-hunters, non-consumptive uses of wildlife, hunting ethics issues, and relating to officials and organizations. Often you will get ideas for articles while reading hunting magazines. Sometimes you may disagree with a writer in a print magazine. Take the opposite position and write your own article. Often you’ll read an excellent article, and can think of several ways that writer could have reinforced his point. Make those the subject of your own article.  Prove yourself a good writer with something positive and constructive to say, and you may be given assignments from time to time.

If you mention certain products, companies, books, Internet resources etc., be sure to include information on how to contact those resources. You may use a footnote to do this. Remember, our members are information seekers and will probably want to learn more about the product or topic of your article.

As time goes by, we will be developing regular columns that focus on specific areas. Possible areas for these columns include The Budget Hunter (dealing with things like making your own equipment, saving money and do-it-yourself projects), The Reading Hunter (offering reviews of the best hunting books and becoming a hunting book bibliography) The Hunter’s Tips (offers unusual methods and approaches), The Good Hunter deals with issues from an ethical point of view). If you show yourself an expert in one of these areas, or another area, you may become a regular columnist for HuntingPA.com. The length of such columns should be 200-500 words.

PHOTO GUIDELINES

Although photos and illustrations aren’t essential if an article contains good information, they help greatly. Send all available quality photos; we can use prints, slides or good digital photos. Both color and black and white photos are acceptable. Sketches and diagrams help too. Photo submissions, especially of live animals in their natural surroundings, are welcomed with or without an article.

Include your name and address on the back of the photo. Please do not use a ballpoint pen to write on photos as you will dent the photo. We are not responsible to return photos that do not have name and address attached.

If you send the photos by electronic submission, save them in a tiff format at least 600 dpi. They will be converted to a form and size that will load quickly. Good jpeg format photos are acceptable, but less likely to be high quality.

SUBMISSION AND COMPENSATION

Manuscripts should be typed and double-spaced. Information is our primary need. We prefer articles in both a Windows-compatible file and text file (Rich Text Format RTF) if possible. We accept articles by e-mail. If you send your article electronically, make sure your name and address are included.

We’d be glad to consider articles that have already been published in other magazines. One of the benefits of an online e-magazine is that it gives your writing a longer life than print magazines give. Your work will have a copyright shared by HuntingPA.com and you. This helps keep people from using your work, yet preserves your rights for future use.

Book Reviewers’ Guidelines

Book reviews on HuntingPA.com are not intended to be the final word on any book. Readers must ultimately make up their own minds. It is OK to tell whether you thought a book was good or not, worth reading or not, as long as you back up that opinion with good reasons. It is important to provide the reader with enough information to make a decision to buy or not.

To write a book review, click here to go to the book review form. Fill out the book’s vital statistics (author, title, publisher, date, number of pages, etc.) Write the body of the review in a word processing program, making sure you say what you want to say, then paste it into the book review form. Between 200 and 300 words is ideal. All reviews will be edited for clarity and the editor reserves the right to make certain editorial decisions, including the decision not to run a review.

“Read any good books lately?”

Writing book reviews for The Bullet

Here at HuntingPA.com, were just a bunch of ordinary hunters who like to talk about hunting. We also like to read about hunting, and talk about what we've read. It can be how-to articles, research on the best location, care and cooling of game, or just a good story. We all have something to say, and smart hunters keep their eyes and ears open so that they can learn from others. That's the whole purpose in coming to HuntingPA.com.

But there is so much to read, and so little time to read it. That's why hearing about what others have been reading can help you decide what you ought to read. You can’t be out in the field everyday. So naturally, hunters of every age realize that a good library of hunting books does several things for them:

1.      Books give you a way to pass the time when you’d rather be hunting. You can take them anywhere, and snatch some time for outdoor pleasure.

2.      Books are educational. They fill in the gaps in your experience by allowing you to gain the insights of hundreds of hours of the experience of others.

3.      While “book-lernin’” isn’t a substitute for actual experience, the smart hunter knows to take advantage of every opportunity for new outdoor insights. Books make you think. Many a hunter has discovered a new idea or method while in his Lazy Boy – or just as important, realized what not to do.

4.      Books are collectible. An entire collection of your favorite author’s work or a variety of books on your favorite subject is a possession you can be proud of.

Writing reviews for The Bullet is easy. Just keep a few things in mind:

1.      Be sure to give the book's publication information. This includes the author, title, publishing company, city of publication, copyright date, number of pages, and list price.

2.      Briefly tell one, two or three things you got from the book that make it worth reading.

3.      Give any insight that you have into the author's purpose in writing the book.

4.      Mention what is unique about the book, what makes it different from similar books.

5.      Keep your review to a limit of approximately 500 words.

6.      Include some biographical information, including the county or city you live in, what you like to hunt, and anything that you want the reader to know about you.

It may help to read reviews in The Bullet, or in print magazines, to see how book review authors make reviews interesting and relevant to the readers.

What could be better, when you can’t be hunting, than having a good hunting book in your hands? The only problem some of us have is in knowing how to choose among the hundreds of books available. As a member of HuntingPA.com, you have the solution to that problem. Short reviews of what we’ve been reading give you help in making good decisions. It’s like having the advice of a trusted friend. Feel free to read the reviews when making your own choices, and also let other members know what you’ve been reading and what you thought of it.

The Editor at HuntingPA.com

Steve Sorensen is the editor of the new online magazine at HuntingPA.com, your Internet hunting headquarters. Titled The Bullet, this ezine brings you the best content possible relating to the interests of the Pennsylvania hunter.

A lifelong Pennsylvania hunter whose favorite game animals are deer, turkeys, woodchucks and the elusive eastern coyote, Steve will be working with webmaster Gerald Hetrick to gather and produce information that will meet the needs of the Pennsylvania hunter and hunters across the country.

Steve’s writing has appeared in Fur-Fish-Game magazine, Pennsylvania Sportsman, Pennsylvania Game News, the Wall Street Journal, and a variety of other publications. He lives in Russell, Pennsylvania and is married with 2 grown children. He has been an avid hunter all his life.

Other Ezine Information

1. Disclaimer Liability – HuntingPA.com has taken ordinary and reasonable efforts to ensure that the information contained in this website is accurate; however, all information is provided "as is" without any express or implied warranties, including but not limited to the implied accuracy or correctness of the information. In no event shall HuntingPA.com or any of its contributors be liable for any special, indirect, punitive or consequential damages resulting from any use or performance of or content errors or omissions in the information, even if notified in advance of the potential for such damages. All access and use of the information contained in any HuntingPA.com website is at the user’s own risk. All users of the information agree that access to any use of the information is subject to the terms and conditions set forth on this "Legal Notices" page, as well as all applicable laws. These terms and conditions are subject to change from time to time without notice by updating or revising this "Legal Notices" page. The Bullet is published monthly by HuntingPA.com. The staff and management of and contributors to The Bullet and HuntingPA.com assume no responsibility for content, errors, omissions, or any other such representations made by the advertisers, editorials or other information included in The Bullet or on the HuntingPA.com website.

2. Copyright notice - Copyright notice for all pages on this website: all rights reserved. Any reproduction of these pages for commercial purposes or for distribution to other persons is a violation of United States Copyright law and may subject you to civil and criminal penalties. You may not modify, publish, transmit, create derivative works or in any other way exploit any of the copyrighted works of HuntingPA.com without first obtaining written consent from HuntingPA. You may not view, reproduce, print or otherwise use any of the content of this website for anything other than your personal, informational, noncommercial use. No logo, graphic, sound, image or text from this website may be copied, transmitted or used in any way othe4r than described above without the express written permission of HuntingPA. Any reproduction that is permitted must include the copyright notice set forth above. Any other use of excerpts or reproduction of the material from HuntingPA.com is prohibited.

3. Trademark notice - All product names, trademarks, service marks or other images in this website are either the property of, or used with permission by, HuntingPA.com, and any use thereof without the express written consent of the owner(s) thereof is strictly prohibited. All other product names contained on this web site may be trademarks or service marks of other persons.