Saudi Aramco World welcomes proposals from free-lance writers and photographers, who supply nearly all of the magazine's content.
What we publish: Positive and non-political stories of lasting educational value about aspects of the Arab and Muslim worlds, their arts, history, geography, biography, cross-cultural connections and trends. Look at the back issues on this website and our title index.
What we don't publish: Politics, poetry, personal memoirs, academic papers, fiction, travelogues and "destination" stories, as well as stories whose interest is primarily regional, local or for a specialized audience. Saudi Aramco World articles are generally not conflict-driven, and they must appeal both to readers who have no familiarity with the magazine's regions or subjects as well as experts.
That said, Saudi Aramco World is not a "formula" magazine. We welcome creative new ideas.
Length varies greatly. There are 500-word profiles and there are 5000-word features with multiple sidebars. Visual content can vary from two or three images to more than 20 in a photo essay.
Our readers are primarily non-Muslims living mainly in North America and Europe. They range from people with little or no background in our subject matter to highly trained specialists: For the former, Saudi Aramco World is a catalyst for curiosity; for the latter, it is a resource for broader knowledge.
Clear narrative focus and a peg are essential. The reader needs to know right away why this story was worth pulping trees to publish it.
Point of view: Saudi Aramco World regards "the Muslim world"—an increasingly blurry category—as part of a global "us," not as a "them." Our writers and photographers are in sympathy with their subjects and enthusiastic about them, while simultaneously maintaining a professional critical detachment toward them. Because we do not assume that our readers are either familiar with this point of view or already interested in our subject matter, it is up to our contributors to attract the readers' attention and arouse their interest. The best articles take into account a reader's culturally exterior point of view and bring him or her toward an understanding of an interior angle on the subject: How do the people who live in or work with the place or culture or topic at hand view their history, their experience? Is that similar to, or different from, how outsiders see it? Our contributors show aspects of the subject that casual outside observers might miss. They go beyond the visible and the superficial to make connections, point out implications, give reasons or make clear the historical background using credible--often local--sources. This all implies a positive take on the subject, and where the facts preclude that, we do not pursue the story. For example, we will not write about the Aral Sea drying up until we can write about efforts taking effect to prevent or reverse that catastrophe—preferably efforts initiated and undertaken by locals rather than outsiders.
Geographically we are unrestricted. Though all articles have a strong Middle Eastern, Arab or Islamic-world connection, this is often as much a cultural connection as a geographical one. We regularly publish on subjects from the Americas to New Zealand.
The contributor's background knowledge about the Arab and Muslim worlds is important, but even more important is his or her willingness to step beyond common Western stereotypes about Arabs or about Islam in both choice and treatment of subject. For example, on the one hand we regularly reject proposals for articles on the Indio, California, date festival, which features camel races and Arabian Nights floats. Not only is the Middle Eastern connection in this story exclusively in the minds of the promoters of the festival, but it also turns on precisely the stereotypes Saudi Aramco World hopes to bypass and even counteract. On the other hand, "Looking for the Khalasah" (July/August 2004) traced the history of California's date industry and its roots in North Africa, and the story mentioned the Indio festival, but only in passing, as a cultural by-product of a much larger economic, agricultural and historical story.
When a contributor does not have considerable background in the subject, a careful research and reporting plan is essential.
To frame a successful proposal, there is no substitute for knowing the magazine well. We are happy to send a handful of print issues to prospective contributors who request them. Also, browse our indexes to see whether we have recently covered your topic or a closely similar one.
Rather than unsolicited manuscripts or sets of photographs, we strongly prefer to receive query letters. The former are rarely successful. (But if you have a completed text, and you really think something could come of it in our pages, let us know anyway, please.) We publish only about 36 articles each year, most of them planned and commissioned from four months to two years in advance. At present, we accept fewer than one query in 10.
WRITERS
Your initial query should first introduce yourself, your writing and your relevant background experience. Attach a clipping or two or other writing samples, published or unpublished, aimed at a general, non-academic audience. Then sketch your story idea in two or three paragraphs, with a working title and a nut or thesis, and tell us what special approach or background you bring to it that would distinguish your work from other writers'. Tell us how long you think the article should be, how long it will take you to do it, and what travel would be required, if any. We buy all rights and pay a competitive fee upon acceptance of the finished article. The fee varies with professional experience, past work with Saudi Aramco World, and the length, difficulty and importance of the article.
Include sample photos (these need not be original slides), illustrations or ideas about sources we could tap for either. Remember that the more attention you pay to how a story might be illustrated, the less work your story is for the editors to plan and develop.
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Your initial query should do all of the above, keeping in mind the following additional points. Only in the most exceptional circumstances does Saudi Aramco World run photo essays that do not have an accompanying narrative text, and we do not run single ("wild") images at all. Thus a photo essay proposal without a narrative plan is an unlikely candidate for acceptance. In general, we contract assigned photography at midrange editorial day rates, and we buy stock (or occasionally contract assigned work) at standard space rates. For photos made on assignment, we buy either all rights or non-exclusive print and electronic rights, as we maintain an educational photo archive through www.photoarchive.saudiaramcoworld.com . See that site for further details.
Stylistically, we are more documentary than travel or pictorial. We look for a visual point of view consonant with that described above for writing. We look for insight and context as well as visual flair. Often an assignment turns on captions, which are essential to help our readers understand new subject matter. We look for photos that do not merely illustrate, but provide their own narrative that either complements the story text or uses the text to complement a photo-driven feature.
HOW TO SUBMIT QUERIES
First, do so with much patience. We receive more than 10 times as many proposals as we can commission, and this number may rise this year with the availability of this website. We formally review proposals once per two-month magazine cycle. Depending on when we receive yours, you may receive a reply within a couple of weeks, or it may take up to four months. If there is urgency to your proposal, we will make an effort to take that into account.
We cannot take responsibility for unsolicited texts or photographs , though we take normal care to safely return all materials when requested to do so.
Send proposals to the attention of:
Dick Doughty, Managing Editor
Aramco Services Company, Mail Stop 546
Box 2106
Houston, Texas 77252-2106, USA
Fax: (713) 432-5536
proposals@saudiaramcoworld.com
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