How to Submit a Blog Post to the Expert Forum
Thank you for your interest in contributing to the ACS Expert Forum!
The ACS Expert Forum welcomes blog ideas from the progressive and legal communities. If you would like to propose a blog post for Expert Forum, please submit a short summary of your idea (pitch) and a member of the ACS editorial team will be in touch with you.
Please submit your pitch to media@acslaw.org and include in your email:
- The topic of the blog
- Your main messages/points/arguments
- The ideal timing for publication (note any external events we should know about)
- Your title or affiliation, social media handles, and your relationship/experience with ACS
- Links to any prior articles you’ve written on the same or a related topic.
ACS Selection Criteria: ACS considers a variety of factors when determining whether to accept a blog for the Expert Forum, including:
- Timeliness of topic
- Whether ACS has run a blog post on a similar topic in the last three months
- The author’s expertise and background pertaining to the topic of the blog post
- Connection between the topic of the blog post and ACS’s mission, policy priorities, and values Compliance with ACS’s 501(c)(3) status, including, but not limited to, a bar on statements in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office or other partisan statements
- ACS seeks to represent a diversity of views on our Expert Forum, and therefore limits blog contributors to one unsolicited post per six-month period
- ACS will not accept content that is discriminatory or biased, or that has the primary purpose of criticizing a named person or organization.
Guidelines for Blogs: Once ACS agrees to your pitch, here are guidelines for writing your Expert Forum blog.
Length: Aim for 800 to 1,500 words. Maximum total word limit of 2,000 words.
Formatting tips for digital content: To help break up text passages, attract search engine traffic, and aid readers who scan, please consider inserting subheadings and bullet points for lists.
Citations: Do not use footnotes, endnotes, or parenthetical citations. Please do use hyperlinks to articles, reports, websites, etc., to substantiate any claims, cite original sources, or for other attribution purposes. Any blog submitted with footnotes/endnotes/parenthetical citations will be returned to the author for revision.
Proofread: Authors are responsible for the accuracy of their submissions. Please ensure that your blog has been proofread, your links/sources checked, and the piece properly edited and finalized, as you would if submitting an op-ed to the newspaper.
ACS may make additional edits to a submitted piece and publication may be contingent on the author accepting the edits or working with ACS to find a mutually agreeable revisions.
Images: Images help make a post more engaging and are used with every blog. Please make sure you have permission to use any visual elements you provide and include attribution. If you do not provide an image, ACS staff will select an image that aligns with the blog’s subject matter.
Promotion and Social Media Distribution
Once a blog is written and approved, ACS will then work with you to schedule the blog’s publication, considering other items on the editorial calendar and external news hooks (where relevant). Please be aware that blog publication dates often change in response to breaking news and shifting priorities.
ACS will promote your post on social media, which may include Facebook, Twitter, and/or LinkedIn. We encourage contributors to do the same. By contributing to the blog, you grant us the right to use your name in promotions and other publications.
Republishing and Repurposing Your Posts
Contributors to the Expert Forum may repurpose their posts elsewhere, with “American Constitution Society Expert Forum” credited as the original source and a link to the original post provided.