How to Submit Guest Content to Hacking Christianity

Over the past few years, this blog has become a niche outlet for guest content for progressive Christians, nerd theologians, and United Methodists. I’m incredibly thankful for the trust that guest bloggers have given this blog to handle their content with the same care that I handle my own. Indeed, some of our most popularly read content has been from guest posts by folks who don’t otherwise have a blog and wanted to contribute to the conversation.

In a recent discussion on this topic, a person asked for a style guide or for some guidance for how to submit content. I realized I didn’t have any, so here’s the guide!

0. Why would I want to submit content?

Exposure to new readers: Content posted on Hacking Christianity is distributed to 3,700 Facebook Fans, 4,000 Twitter followers, and 400 RSS subscribers (soon Apple News too). For United Methodists, it is often picked up for re-publication by UM-Insight, Ministry Matters, and other sites.

Engagement of post content: Rarely do Facebook posts each have a reach lower than 2,000 people with 50+ engagements (likes, shares, comments). The website has over 7,200 comments on 1,100 posts, which is a great ratio for user engagement.

1. Who can submit content?

Hacking Christianity is a community that engages in conversations about faith using the lenses of progressive theology, technology, and geek culture. If you share one or more of those lenses, then your content will be considered.

In addition, this blog has become a clearing house for United Methodist Church writers, usually from the progressive end of the spectrum. That content will be considered as well.

Content that does not fall into those categories will not be considered. There’s many outlets for religious writings online, so we keep the message focused on these here.

2. How should it be formatted?

I’m a nerd so any format (Windows, Mac, HTML, Office, Email) is acceptable. PDF is not appreciated as it is harder to extract text to make a blog post.

Hacking Christianity edits guest content for style and spelling/grammar, not for content.

When we edit for style, there’s four major style elements that we tend to apply for both readability and visibility:

1. Section Headings on articles longer than 500 words. If you do not provide them, then I’ll break up the section arbitrarily and make the section heading replicate the idea in the section as best I can.
2. Bolded main ideas. In most paragraphs on this blog, you’ll see one or more bolded segments of sentences. While some people find it annoying, in our data-clogged culture, it’s helpful for people to be able to skim key phrases when scrolling a post. If there isn’t a bolded segment in a longer paragraph, I’ll add it as faithfully to your content as I can.
3. Lists. In an argument, supporting information that looks at multiple instances or perspectives often can be put in a list form. This allows the content to be more readable and frames it as “supporting” and not the convictions the content tries to express.
4. Header Image. Every post must have a header image associated with it. If you provide your own image and can prove the rights for it, we’ll use it. Otherwise, I’ll select one to use.

3. Who owns my guest content?

All content on this blog is licensed Creative Commons 4.0, which has these terms here. Basically, it allows the blog content to be quoted or reposted with attribution to you as the author and a link back to the website. For churches, this means they can quote all or part of a post without asking permission–but again, with attribution.

If you desire your content to be copyrighted to you alone, this is not the site for you. If you plan on using your material in a copywrited way in the future, you would be able to under the conditions of the CC license.

4. What about Anonymous or Ghost Content?

Anonymous content is a post submitted where the author desires to remain anonymous. An example of anonymous content can be found here. This content is acceptable under the following condition:

• You must be a known person to me. I am a pastor and honor confidentiality, so you can feel comfort in knowing you can inquire or ask as a real person. Content written by LonelyJedi13 or a pseudonymous/anonymous account will not be considered.

Ghost content is content written to be used by another person, not the original author, as their own content. Often this is an argument that the submitter wants out there or just wants to contribute content that is in line with Hacking Christianity’s scope of work without attribution. This content is acceptable under the following conditions:

• You must be a known person to me. I am a pastor and honor confidentiality, so you can feel comfort in knowing you can inquire or ask as a real person. Content written by LonelyJedi13 or a pseudonymous/anonymous account will not be considered.
• You may not lay claim to the content after it is posted.

5. Miscellaneous

A couple of notes:

1. Affiliate links may be added to books or media items on Amazon.com, as appropriate.
2. I reserve the right to not post your content for any reason.
3. If I receive a DMCA takedown request (meaning you are accused of posted material that wasn’t yours), I will consult with you before replying. My webhost has the same arrangement, so trolls won’t be able to harm you in this way.

6. Ready to send it in?

Email: umjeremy@NOSPAMhackingchristianity.net (remove the NOSPAM before emailing–you’d be surprised how many people don’t note this)

Facebook Message: https://www.facebook.com/HackingChristianity (click on “Message”)

Questions? Either of the above or comment below!