Submit Your Articles to the Journal or Newsletter

 

Guidelines for Contributors

 

The Wild West History Association (WWHA) is dedicated to facilitating and encouraging research, study, writing, presentation, and preservation of the history of the Wild West, providing publications and forums for the enlightenment and enjoyment of its members, and to recognizing and honoring those individuals and institutions which make significant contributions to the knowledge and preservation of its history and lore.

 

To achieve and further these aims, WWHA actively supports and seeks to publish research into all aspects of the history of the people, events, and places that made the American West "wild" in the last half of the nineteenth century: the lawmen, outlaws, gunfighters, frontier scouts, rustlers, vigilantes, feuds, shady ladies, saloons, cowtowns, and mining camps.

 

WWHA’s JOURNAL is published six times a year. Articles on all aspects of the history of the Wild West are welcome. All submissions should be sent in the first instance to Roy B. Young, editor of the JOURNAL. They will then be reviewed and assessed by the appropriate member(s) of the WWHA editorial board and/or a specialist(s) in the particular aspect of Wild West history involved within the article.

 

Editor, WWHA JOURNAL

Roy B. Young

P. O. Box 759

Apache, OK. 73006

(580)588-2093

royyoung@pldi.net

 

Editorial Board, WHHA:

John Boessenecker

Dan Buck

Robert DeArment

Frederick Nolan (Chair)

William B. Secrest

 

Letters of inquiry are welcome; advice and assistance always available. If you are writing or have completed an article on any aspect of western history and wish to submit it to WWHA for consideration, please read the guidelines which follow.

 

 

Getting It Right

 

Have you done some original research on frontier history that begs for a wider audience?  Have you discovered facts, photographs, fresh insights into the lives and times of such famous figures as Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid, Butch and Sundance or Wild Bill, or alternatively, unpublished details about some little-known but significant event in the colorful pageant of the American West? If so, the Wild West History Association wants to publish your findings.

 

Before you start writing, however, there are a few things you need to know.

 

First and foremost, you must write clearly. Tell your story simply and without adornment. Keep your sentences relatively short and to the point, avoid using words whose meaning you are unsure of, and, unless you are quoting someone’s actual words, avoid slang or profanity.

 

Critical or personal attacks of a hostile nature on another article or person will not be countenanced.  Submissions must always be based on documented fact.  Conjecture or supposition must be clearly stated as such.  Always remember, when considering what to write and how to write it, that you are addressing a sophisticated readership who may already know a great deal about the subject you are addressing. You will need to convince them of the originality and comprehensiveness of your research and the validity of your conclusions by citing your sources either in the body text or in the form of footnotes.

 

To ensure that your work is presented properly and readably, WWHA’s editorial board is and will be there to assist you, to help make your contribution as accurate, as literate and as accessible as possible. If you are contemplating writing an article or have a work in progress, but are uncertain of how to proceed or whether it would be suitable for publication, the editor will be happy to advise you or to refer your question to an appropriate member of the board. Our aim is and will be always to enhance and clarify your work; indeed, like no other publication of its kind, the WWHA JOURNAL guarantees you will always be given a final opportunity to review the edited piece before it goes to press.

 

 

For instructions on how to prepare and to submit your manuscript, please contact the editor.

Guidelines for WWHA Journal Book Reviews

 

1. Style: The style manual we use is Chicago Style.

 

2. Length: Shoot for 500 words; consider the importance of the book if you need to go longer. The editor may need to shorten longer reviews.

 

3. Review header: Title in italics and bold type, author, publisher, year, pages, price. E.g., Rodeo Madness by Charles Malty (Remuda Press, 2008), 328 pp., soft cover, $27.00.

 

The review might be nothing more than a lucid summary of what the book is about. You might mention other titles on the subject, working around to where the book under review fits. Quoting an excerpt or two is often useful, especially if you wish to offer an example of the author's writing style or theme. Which leads me to: If the book presents a theme, makes an argument, or offers a revisionist point of view, explain it clearly, even if you disagree with it. If you wish to take issue, do so reasonably, which is to say, plausibly.

 

4. Smiled on: Fresh, lively writing. Frowned on: Excessive nit-picking, snarkiness, and cliches. Avoid cliches like the plague, as Churchill once said, such as: This book belongs on the shelf of every/This book is required reading for. The review should make your commendation clear without dinging the reader on the head. Also frowned on, qualifiers and superlatives such as fascinating, iconic, amazing, infamous, and so on. If you think the book is full of fascinating anecdotes, give the reader an example. Show don't tell, as the adage goes.

 

5. Advice from E.B. White: Omit needless words.

 

6. Smiled on: Fresh, lively writing.

 

7. Frowned on: Excessive nit-picking, snarkiness, and cliches. Cliches especially frowned on: This book belongs on the shelf of every/This book is required reading for. The review should make your commendation clear without dinging the reader on the head. Also frowned on, qualifiers and superlatives such as fascinating, iconic, amazing, infamous, and so on. If you think the book is full of fascinating anecdotes, give the reader an example. Show don't tell, as the adage goes.

 

8. Advice from E.B. White: Omit needless words.

 

9. Conflicts: If there's a potential conflict of interest, negative or positive, let me know so we can resolve it. For example, the author of the book you have been assigned had previously written a harsh review of your book; the author is a personal friend of yours. You should not review a book because you are acknowledged in it, or wrote a blurb for it.

 

10. Inspiration: Check out reviews - especially the difficult art of the brief review - in the book section of The New Yorker, newyorker.com; The Atlantic, theatlantic.com; Financial Times, ft.com; and Publishers Weekly, publishersweekly.com

 

11. Finally, and most importantly, when you're finished writing the review, print it out and put it aside. A day or two later, read it over slowly. If it passes muster, send it on.

 

12. There are exceptions to every guideline, just make certain you have a good reason.

 

13. Please do not use your review as an opportunity to excessively recapitulate what you have written on the same topic.

 

P.S. You retain the copyright to your review, though we would appreciate it if you did not republish it elsewhere until three months after it appears in the WWHA Journal.

 

Make certain you contact the book review editor if you have a book in mind that you'd like to review. That way you can be certain he hasn't already assigned the review, and that the book falls within the subject matter of the Wild West History Association.

 

Email to Roy Young, book review editor, at roy.young@wildwesthistoryassociation.org