My Light Magazine

Submission Guidelines
MY LIGHTis a Catholic Magazine dedicated to helping  children understand their faith. We wish to help them know God – not just know about Him – but to know Him spiritually. With the help of our generous and creative writers and illustrators, we can show the children how wonderful a real relationship with God can be.

MY LIGHT includes stories, articles, crafts, poems, and retelling of Bible stories.

PLEASE NOTE UPDATED GUIDELINE:

As of July 2009 please note the change in submission format.  When naming your manuscript or illustration please name it with the title of the piece and your name.

For example:
A file of a manuscript written by Karen Doe titled Jimmy’s First Day should be named “Jimmys first day Karen doe”.

A file of an illustration done by Mary Doe of “Jimmy”s First Day” might look like this “Jimmys First Day Mary Doe”.

This will help us stay organized and save time by not having to check e-mails when we want to verify the author or illustrator.

Stories: 3 in each issue. Topics include: examples of living the beatitudes, love for our friends as well as our enemies, respect for parents and teachers. The best main characters are ones that portray good Catholic values. Keep in mind that a good story always has a problem to solve–a conflict.

Articles: 3 in each issue. Fun, interesting articles which will engage our readers are preferred. All should be geared toward helping our readers understand God. The more the readers understand what God is about, the closer they will be to Him. A BIBLIOGRAPHY MUST BE INCLUDED.Submissions without a bibliography will be discarded. Some favorite themes are prayer, Jesus’ teachings, the Rosary, Mary.

Crafts: 2 in each issue. They should be religious in nature and simple to do. We will publish one for younger readers and one for older readers.

Poems: 2 rhyming poems in each issue. Topics should be centered on a religious figure.

Bible Stories: 2 in each issue. Bible stories should be appropriate for children and not include violence. FORMATPlease send your submissions via e-mail.

Be sure to include the word count, age group, a standard cover letter, short bio of 50-75 words, and any links you’d like for us to post. At this time, we are accepting submissions in both: the body of the e-mail and as attachments. Check the guidelines frequently as this may change.

DEADLINES:

Issue: Deadline:

August July 1, 2008

September 2008                   August 1, 2008

October 2008                       September 1, 2008

November 2008                    October 1, 2008

December 2008                    November 1, 2008

My Light does not plagiarize. Please respect other writers’ work. BY SUBMITTING YOUR WORK, YOU GUARANTEE THE CONTENT IS YOUR OWN AND YOU HOLD HARMLESS MY LIGHT IN CONNECTION WITH ANY SUCH ACTION.

At this time, My Light is a non-paying market. Therefore, we only request one-time electronic rights. Each published piece will be archived for one year. Although we are non-paying at this time, we want our contributors to know we support them. We will supply their bios and any links as a token of our appreciation on our monthly credits page. We couldn’t do this without the generous support of our authors and illustrators. Thank you for helping us in our mission to bring our children closer to Jesus.