Thank you for your interest in contributing to BoomTribe.com.
Please take a few minutes to read through our guidelines before you submit an
article. If you haven’t done so recently, we also encourage you to take a
browse through our website. We are a new website in a fast moving industry, and
the better you understand who and what we are, the better chance your great article
has of being published.
Back in the summer of 2000, the original BoomTribe DJs had
just won their second UWI DJ Mix-Down in a row and were preparing to graduate. Additional
team members were brought on board and we formed ALT Entertainment which, among
other activities, provides services for clients interested in marketing to the
growing BoomTribe following.
With tremendous in-house talent, including graphic design,
project management and digital media marketing and with creative concepts like “Carni
Gras” and “Tappa Kegga Becks”, we grew our monthly theme events from house
parties into Barbados’ most talked-about and imitated events! This was
accomplished using no mass marketing - relying only on email, the Web and word
of mouth.
Our long term goal is for BoomTribe to be recognized
globally as a youth brand and icon that is essentially Caribbean. The goal of
BoomTribe.com, our Caribbean youth culture website, is to define a unified Caribbean youth culture.
BoomTribe aims to provide in-depth, timely information on
current developments within the youth-oriented Caribbean entertainment
industry. Our written coverage includes Caribbean music and artistes, the party
scene, our TV shows, the latest mobile phones and content and our virtual
community.
BoomTribe seeks innovative features, news, reviews,
interviews, event photography and other material that explores the many aspects
of Caribbean youth culture. Our approach is to use humour to break down
barriers and get across our point.
Generally, we will be accepting articles with 500 to 800
words; however, we welcome articles of any length, on any subject related to
Caribbean Music, Parties, Mobile Phones, and topics addressed in our Shows or
our online Community. Please contact the editor (team@boomtribe.com) to discuss potential subject matter and to
receive information on article submission
Steps involved in submitting an article to BoomTribe are
outlined below. To better ensure your chances of publication, we recommend that
you read all the criteria contained in this section of the website, as well as
apply the guidance contained in the style manual.
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Select a relevant topic of interest to BoomTribe members and
young Caribbean people. The topic should primarily entertain, but should also
develop the reader personally and as a community.
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Write an outline to organize your work. Put the bottom line up
front and write clear, concise introduction and conclusion paragraphs.
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Follow the Style Guide - you can understand a BoomTribe article
in a single rapid reading and is generally free of errors in grammar, mechanics
and usage.
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Maintain the active voice as much as possible. Write “The DJ
selected the right song” rather than “the right song was selected by the DJ.”
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Write as if you were telling someone face-to-face about your
subject: use conversational tone; “I,” “you” and “we” personal pronouns; short
sentences and short paragraphs.
-
Enter the article directly into the Publisher Editor, a process
that is covered below.
There are two sides to Publisher, which controls our
written content:
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the area that display the articles and
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the area where articles are submitted and edited.
The entry point to the former is
http://www.boomtribe.com/cgi-bin/members/publisher.cgi,
while the entry point to the latter is
http://www.boomtribe.com/cgi-bin/members/publishereditor.cgi.
Once you’re the editor area, you will be asked to login, if you are not already
logged in.
You can go directly from an article to the parallel
Publisher Editor category and submission form. So, if this is your first time
contributing to BoomTribe.com, this is the process you should follow:
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Read through the articles that are currently available on BoomTribe.com
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Identify the kind of article you want to contribute eg. Music
Interviews, Parties Reviews etc.
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Click “Submit Article” on the page of the kind of article that you wish
to contribute
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Enter the “Headline” that will appear with the article. E.g. “Interview
with Sean Paul”.
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Enter the “blurb” for your article, which is a brief one sentence
description of your article
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Copy/paste your article into large text area provided
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Upload up to 5 related images to go along with your article
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There are several other additional fields which can be completed,
although there will be times when they may not be relevant or necessary. These
include:
·
Related web pages. E.g.
www.seanpaul.com.
·
Select keywords to be highlighted and searchable by
readers/members, e.g. “gimme the light” or “Sean Paul”.
·
Related forums e.g. “Dancehall/Reggae” forum.
·
A field to ask the reader a question about the article or any
other related topic.
·
A poll about the article, allowing the reader to interact with
the article directly.
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Click “Save” at the bottom of the screen, which will submit the article be
reviewed by an editor. You will be able to click on a link after saving to see
how the article will appear.
If you don’t have access to publish the article online it
can be emailed directly to
team@boomtribe.com, unless
advised otherwise.
An article is published only after it is thoroughly
examined by an editor. The article is subject to grammatical and structural
changes as well as editing for style.
Articles should be original and unpublished, and not being
considered for publication elsewhere. Please do not send a manuscript to us and
to other websites or printed magazines at the same time.
Material accepted for publication, including photos and
artwork, becomes our property.
Behind-the-scenes stories: straight-ahead interviews and party
reviews are fine (they will be our stock in trade), but we’d like to see more
intimate stories about the people who work out of sight-and the places in which
they work.
In addition to news, reviews, features and interviews, BoomTribe.com
has many fixed columns. Some of those will be delegated to regular columnists (interested?). What follows below are the
areas in which we do accept submissions, the guidelines and the editor to
contact. Please pay close attention to these details.
Please note that if your article lacks an entertainment or
community development focus, this will delay or “kill” your article’s
publication. Articles on events that fail to entertain or do not contain a
community-development emphasis may be adapted as news briefs.
The feature is a special or prominent article that may
highlight an artist, show, music or event. The writer should attempt to give a
complete picture of the past, present and future of the subject matter. The
feature should use a conversational style and accompanied by photos.
Member submissions accepted. Word count: 600-1000. Please
submit detailed query. Contact:
team@boomtribe.com
A balanced review paints a picture in the mind of the
reader. It should be accompanied by photos to increase the involvement of the
reader with the artist’s performance, show, music or
event. The reviews should take a conversations style.
Member submissions accepted. Word count: 250-400. Contact: team@boomtribe.com
The interviews provide unique insights into the
inspiration, vision and hard work that go into the event, performance and/or
lifestyle of interviewee. It brings fans closer by introducing them to
up-and-coming artists. The interview should take a question and answer format.
Member submissions accepted. Word count: 500-800. Please
submit detailed query. Contact:
team@boomtribe.com.
We publish timely and objective news articles, often times
based on direct relationships with promoters, nightclubs, record labels, the
various Caribbean student associations worldwide and many others. News is
written in the third person, and uses short sentences and short paragraphs.
News writing quotes the most important people connected with the story for
information whenever possible, and ALWAYS uses some direct quotations for the
source of the news.
Our news is fair, balanced and accurate and must have some
value to BoomTribe members. Most importantly, news stories are written in
‘inverted pyramid style’. This means that the most important or principal facts
of the story are in the FIRST sentence—which is called the lead (pronounced
with a long “e”). The most common questions that the news reported must answer
in the lead sentence are WHO, WHAT, WHEN, AND WHERE.
Member submissions accepted. Word count: 100-300. Contact:
team@boomtribe.com.
If you are unsure of a fact (date, name, spelling, title,
circumstance, etc.), please advise us at the beginning of the article under a
note heading. We can then try to qualify what you have written. If it is an
isolated fact that would be hard to prove, avoid using it at all. If an
interviewee makes some outrageous statements in an interview, please supply us
with a dubbed copy of the tape from which you transcribed your interview. This
will protect us, and we can, in turn, stand by you in the event of any future
problems. Never do an interview without a tape recorder! (We reserve the right
to request interview tapes and notes at any time.)
The word BoomTribe is one word with a capital ‘B’ and
‘T’. The only time it is not wrritten in this format is when it is part of the
website URL. In this case, it is written in all lower case, as in:
http://www.boomtribe.com.
Solicitation of record labels, promoters, artists, and
publicists on behalf of BoomTribe.com must be done directly through this
office. If you want to pursue a story or review a concert and need to use the
name of our publication for access, please authorize it with Andrew Payne or
Larry Evans directly.
