Submission Guidelines

Here at The Geek Show, we believe that anyone can be a geek about anything. This translates deeper into our business practices, we are a platform for people to write and podcast with an industry recognised outlet. If you have a passion for anything geek, we’d love have you join us here at Geek Show towers (metaphorically speaking, we don’t have a tower… yet). So whether this is to develop your voice as part of a career goal or you just want to express your love for things that you wouldn’t have the oppurtunity to do otherwise. We are an equal opportunities outlet, so everyone is welcome. If you are interested,  email us at info@thegeekshow.co.uk

COMMUNITY STANDARDS

We don’t impose any style of article or writing style on you, we want you to find your own voice and we are happy to guide you along the way. However, with accessibility being one of our core ideas there are certain things that we stray away from. Firstly, no swearing, people of all ages visit the website. Secondly, if explicit content is included or referenced in a piece you have written, please practice a little bit of censorship. Not Video nasty censorship, we’d much rather be playful in our use of language rather than going for anything draconian like the BBFC did. No nudity in still images. Respect copyright. (If you are the copyright holder of material featured on The Geek Show and it has been posted without your permission, please contact us at info@thegeekshow.co.uk)

WORD COUNT

Simple. The happy spot you should aim for is between 500 and 1,400 words. Special circumstances do exist around that, so you can write something shorter or longer but that depends on the context of any given piece. 

SUBMISSION

There are two methods to do this. Method 1 – email the article and a collection of relevant pictures to info@thegeekshow.co.uk. Method 2 – when you join the team you will be given an account and login details, once you have added the personal trimmings, upload your article, save it as a draft and then email that same email address notifying the site editor that you have finished and are ready for your piece to go live. We operate a first come first served system, so articles go live in the order we receive them.  

TAGS

At the end, or beginning, of any submission include a series of tags for the SEO optimisation of your article. This is a little jargon-heavy, all it means is a series of words related to the title or issue in question to increase visibility online – so directors, actors, the label it is released on, and any references you make to similar things. Other technical details will be filled out by the editor. For the sake of reference, here is what was included in an article of the 1987 film – The Gate.

“88 Films, Aardman, Amblin, Arrow Video, Blu-Ray, Christa Denton, Coraline, Evil Dead 2, Fantasy, Film Review, Gateway movies, Gremlins, Horror, IT, Joe Dante, Laika, Lionsgate, Louis Tripp, Michael Nankin, Paranorman, Poltergeist, Randall William Cook, Sam Raimi, Stephen Dorff, Stephen Spielberg, Stop Motion Animation, The Boxtrolls, The Gate, Tibor Takacs, Vestron Video, VHS, Vestron Video The Gate, The Gate 1987, The Gate 1987 review”

IMAGES

If you use a Windows computer, install PAINT.NET or use Photoshop if you have access to it. Paint.net is, however, free, open-source software.

Then “file-save”. Whatever the image, if it is to be used on the site it should be 650 wide (with whatever it changes the height to) with the maintain aspect ratio box ticked. Banner images are a bit more specific, they absolutely have to be 600 wide and 338 high, to keep in key with the websites established design. 

EDITS AND REWRITES

This sounds more severe than it actually is. Sometimes we can’t see the forest for the trees, as good as it reads after you’ve finished there is always going to be some detail, some bit of grammar, something that you missed. The editorial process is there to clean up things like that, to make your content as good as it possibly can be. However, if there are a few too many issues for the editor to fix and keep the original author’s voice intact, we reserve the right to send a follow-up email asking for a rewrite. This isn’t an insult to the quality of your writing, more that there is a very real risk that the tone of the article comes to resemble that of the editor more than the original author. And, this is the last thing anyone wants. 

EXCLUSIVITY

Any article written for thegeekshow.co.uk can appear on this website only. We appreciate that you may have your own blog or social media presence and that is fine, we have no problems with that. Instead of copying the article onto your own outlet (an act which will hurt both articles as part of Google’s ever-complicated algorithms), use a “read more” link featuring the first paragraph-ish and post that and that alone of your own personal channel. Double dipped content hurts all parties and sources involved.  

PAYMENT?

We have received emails about this in the past, asking whether you will be paid for articles published on our website. Whether this is on a pay per click basis or rate per article system, we have to state that no – we cannot pay. The Geek Show are a voluntary outfit. Additionally, our organisation is a non-profit one set up as a means for people to get experience writing as an acknowledged member of the press for people that live outside of the major cities like London and Manchester – or have disabilities, social difficulties or other conditions preventing them from such. Or, for people who want to express themselves on the side without any of the pressure generated by the trappings of the industry, this is our place in the world. 

We will never say never, as who knows what the future holds.