April 2006

This time around, we'd like to ask for your help in order to expedite the publishing of your articles and reviews. We'd also like to recognize a few key contributors who have made a big difference in the Interview Center and welcome a crop of new writers. Please read on...

1. Article Formatting Tips
2. Your Published Work
3. Our New Look
4. AAJ Interviewers in Action!
5. New Contributors: Welcome
   
   

Article Formatting Tips

We've recently experienced a burst in article submissions. In order to save time and speed publication along, we've assembled a set of special formatting guidelines for the following article types, which (unlike regular CD reviews) are not automatically formatted for publication:

• Book Review
  
• Concert Review
  
• DVD Review
  
• Extended Analysis Review
  
• Multiple CD Review
  

We also placed handy links to these tips on the submission form.

Whenever you make your first submission in any article type, please take a moment to look over a couple of recently published examples, so you have some idea of how your piece should look.

We're asking for your assistance here because we're being stretched editorially by the volume of content we receive. Your words will be published sooner if you keep an eye on formatting.

Your Published Work

After you submit an article or review, the editorial staff reads it over and usually makes some adjustments to style and/or formatting. We would like to ask that you look carefully at your published work to see how it differs from the original submission.

This serves two purposes: first, it helps you keep an eye on our primary formatting and style concerns; and second, it allows you to offer any necessary feedback to the editors in a timely fashion—which is very important, since we need to stay in close touch with contributors at every step. If at any time you see something that doesn't look right, please get in touch with the appropriate editor:

• Nils Jacobson (CD Reviews)
• John Kelman (Interviews)
• Michael Ricci (Articles)

Our New Look

Over the last couple of weeks, Mike has been fine-tuning our appearance with the goal of a fresh, improved new look. If you've been to the site lately, you've probably seen the new layout, with a compact menu bar and several changes to the way items appear on the page.

We like to reinvent ourselves from time to time, which helps keep all the parts in proportion and ensures that readers can find what they're looking for with minimum effort. The new design has been thoroughly tested on several different browsers, but if you encounter any bugs, please let Mike know. We're also interested, as always, in your feedback on the changes and how they work for you.

AAJ Interviewers in Action!

We have been publishing more interviews than ever, thanks in large part to the efforts of three contributors:

• Paul Olson — Marc Ribot, Clogs, Andrew Hill, Ben Monder
• R.J. DeLuke — Terje Rypdal, Jenny Scheinman, Larry Goldings
• Clifford Allen — Dizzy Reece, François Tusques

That's Paul in the glasses and R.J. in the cap. Special thanks to all three contributors for making the magic happen!

Senior Editor John Kelman, who manages the Interview Center, plays a key role behind the scenes coordinating the interviews and making the stories look sharp.

New Contributors: Welcome

Since the start of 2006, thirteen new contributors have joined the staff. We'd like to extend a hearty welcome and encourage you to learn more about them:

Troy Collins, Jeff Dayton-Johnson, Jay Dunbar, Tom Dwyer, Karen Hogg, Judith Insell, Robert J. Lewis, Suzanne Lorge, Marc Medwin, Matthew Miller, Abe Pollack, Paul Ryan, and Joseph Vella.

As always, we welcome your ideas and input. Thanks for being a part of the team!

Best,
Mike and Nils