Dear Dan, How can I publish an article on your magazine? I have a pretty interesting story and theory regarding cannabis. Thanks! – Enrique B.
Dear Enrique,
We get this question quite a bit so I’m glad to have a chance to answer it in my own words. We have contribution guidelines on our website and they are fairly comprehensive about what we are looking for (and not looking for) as far as articles from contributors. Those guidelines are a great place to start. Simply click the link above to read the official guidelines for magazine contributions.
My personal guidelines for contributions to the cultivation department would be to first put your proposal in writing in an email to edit.grow@hightimes.com. Please be succinct and outline the subject matter you wish to write about clearly and with proper spelling and grammar. Also, we’re not looking for first person accounts of your cultivation experiences. You can save that for the online grow forums and such.
Our ideal grow articles from contributors would highlight a new growing technique, a step-by-step guide to solving a cultivation dilemma, a how-to piece on building grow equipment or a garden profile that takes the reader from start to finish of a harvesting cycle. Other pieces of interest focus on one particular aspect of growing and delve into them more deeply such as a detailed discussion of Nitrogen or a guide to better cloning practices.
As always, the photos are supremely important for the visual aspects of the article to shine. High resolution digital photos of the techniques and equipment described are a must. Beauty shots of lush green plants or trichome-covered buds ready to harvest also help with the visual aesthetics of your article proposal. You would be surprised how many story pitches come with blurry cell phone photos that simply cannot be printed in High Times.
One last note: I’m amazed how many times I’ve outlined these guidelines for people and never heard back from them. It’s important to follow through with your ideas in order to see them in the magazine but 99 times out of 100, potential contributors find the actual work of taking quality photos and putting their ideas into writing daunting. Here’s hoping more people decide to take the plunge and write cultivation content for our readers. It makes our jobs easier and lends more voices to the ongoing struggle to help people improve the quality of the cannabis they grow. Good luck!
