Freelance writing, Neurology Now Magazine, pays $0.75 per word

NEUROLOGY NOW is a bimonthly direct-to-consumer publication of Lippincott Williams & Wilkins/Wolters Kluwer Health, co-sponsored by the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) and with a circulation of about 500,000. Our readers are patients who have neurological conditions as well as their families and caregivers. We are distributed in neurology offices across the U.S. and by individual subscription.

The editorial focus is primarily on (1) providing advice for patients and caregivers on coping with neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease/movement disorders, migraine, neuropathy, epilepsy, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease/dementia, ADHD, ALS, chronic pain, brain and spinal cord injury, sleep disorders, and others; (2) offering tips on general wellness and lifestyle changes; (3) reporting the latest findings from investigational and clinical trials; and (4) featuring inspiring stories of people living with neurological disease or promoting awareness and research.

Word Length/Payment

Neurology Now uses freelance writers to write features and articles for departments, which include Living Well, Penny Wise, Eye on Therapy, New Frontiers, Waiting Room, and Speak Up (personal essay, poem, or artwork about living with a neurological illness). Stories range in length from 600 to 3,000 words at $0.75 per word. Speak Up essays and poems range in length from 600 to 800 words (artwork should be able to be reproduced onto a single standard-size page). We pay a $100 honorarium for Speak Up.

Payment is on acceptance. Your checks will be mailed from our Philadelphia office, and usually arrives in your mailbox within four weeks after you submit an invoice. If you have not received your check within six weeks, please let us know so we can determine whether there is a problem.

Please submit an invoice via e-mail after I have told you that the article is officially accepted. Don’t submit it when you send the article because you might have to add copy. The invoice should indicate the date submitted, the title of the article, the fee, your Social Security number (for tax purposes), and your full contact information (mailing address and telephone number).

We expect to pay for and use all assigned articles. In rare situations where we consider an article to be unsalvageable because the writing is stylistically substandard or medically inaccurate, the research is deficient, or the focus didn’t adhere to the agreed-upon topic assignment, we pay a kill fee of 25 percent of the previously agreed-upon fee for the article.

Writers will receive one complimentary copy of the issue in which their article appears. If any of your sources would like a copy and do not subscribe to Neurology Now, send me their addresses when you file your story, letting me know to send them a copy of the issue as well.

Editorial Policies

When we approach you to discuss your interest in an assignment on a specific topic, please inform us up front whether you are writing an article on a similar topic for another publication. We generally avoid assigning to a writer who is writing an article on a similar topic for a competing publication.

When we approach you to discuss your interest in an assignment on a specific topic, please inform us up front of any potential or actual conflicts of interest, particularly if

(1) you have been employed by or done freelance work for an institution or a corporation that will be mentioned in the article or

(2) an institution or a corporation is paying you to attend a medical conference, or reimbursing your travel expenses to attend. We do not accept articles that are “placed” by writers paid by pharmaceutical companies or other third parties. If we find out after the fact that this was the case for a writer who knew about our policy, we will no longer work with the writer.

Article Requirements

Please include a suggested headline with all articles—not just a statement of the overall topic, but what you think is the most important point—as well as a subhead.

Double-space, paginate, and indent first line of each graph.

Please interview and use quotes from at least two sources, even for a short article.

Include section headings every page or so.

We prefer primary literature sources. For instance, if an article from the New York Times about research published in the New England Journal of Medicine is cited, the original journal article should be cited as well.

We try to inform readers about upcoming clinical trials when possible, so if there is a clinical trial that relates to a neurological condition you are covering in a story, please include a sidebar with info on how to participate.

We prefer that you record your interviews, but at least make sure that you take extensive notes and save the backup.

Before filing your story, send quotes to your interview sources to have them checked for factual accuracy (not for style).

Editorial Style

Avoid medical jargon as much as possible (always explaining the term in lay language, if it must be used), and use acronyms and abbreviations sparingly (always spelling them out on first reference, if they must be used).

We prefer generic names for drugs; you can include the brand name in parens on first mention.

We list degrees and titles on first mention, rather than just “Dr. X of such and such an institution.” We use M.D. and Ph.D. with periods. After the first mention, you can use “Dr. X.”

We attribute quotes in the present tense (e.g., “Dr. X says…”).

Submitting Articles

Please submit articles by e-mail to Mike Smolinsky at Mike.Smolinsky@WoltersKluwer.com.

We need contact information for all the people mentioned in each article so that we can call them to check facts and request photos.

Any leads on photos and images are greatly appreciated.

Please see our Writer’s Agreement for additional information.

We appreciate the effort, thought, research, and skill that go into writing a good medical news or feature story. We value your hard work and your contributions to the success of our publication, and look forward to a long and continuing relationship.

Mike Smolinsky
Managing Editor, NEUROLOGY NOW
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins/Wolters Kluwer Health
Phone: 646-674-6560
Fax: 646-674-6500
E-mail: Mike.Smolinsky@WoltersKluwer.com

Contact Information:

For inquiries: Mike.Smolinsky@WoltersKluwer.com

For submissions: Mike.Smolinsky@WoltersKluwer.com

Website: http://journals.lww.com/neurologynow/