Writer's Guidelines
We welcome new writers to
Stop Watch because we want to keep a fresh perspective. We
especially welcome truckstop and travel plaza members and drivers to
submit their ideas. Our readers are truckstop and travel plaza
operators. They know this business well, and our writers should
too.
We work several months in
advance, so please keep that in mind when timing your story. For
example, a story about holiday gift items at a truckstop would need to
be completed by July.
Typical feature articles run
up to 2,000 and shorter pieces average 800 words. We follow AP Style
with a few quirks—for example, truckstop is one word
here.
If you’d like to write
for Stop Watch, the best way to familiarize yourself with our
style and content is by reading the past issues. Accuracy is crucial.
Our members know this industry and its key players, so please be sure
every date is accurate and every name is spelled correctly.
NATSO will pay writers for
their work upon publication and payment for unsolicited manuscripts will
be negotiated upon acceptance. We buy the First North American Rights to
each piece we accept.
Submit story ideas or articles
to Christine Schoessler at cschoessler@natso.com or NATSO,
Inc., 1737 King Street, Suite 200, Alexandria, VA, 22314.
Letters to the editor should
be sent to Christine Schoessler, Stop Watch editor, at cschoessler@natso.com.
NATSO is not responsible for
returning unsolicited materials.
Style Tips
Spell truckstop as one
word.
Please do not submit anything in Excel unless you seek
permission. Most documents should be provided in Word.
Capitalize proper nouns only. Do not uppercase everything in your
document.
Do not embed other files, photos or graphics (such as logos) in the
document. The logos or other graphic needs to be provided in
addition to the document.
Please check the spellings of company names and individual
contacts.
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