Writers’ Guidelines

home/school/life is an independently published, ad-free, secular homeschooling magazine published four times per year. Founded in 2014, our mission is to provide homeschool families with the tools, information, and resources they need to build their just-right homeschool — and to provide support and community to help navigate the many joys and challenges of homeschool life. We strive to reflect the diverse voices and experiences of homeschool families, and inclusion (particularly of often-marginalized voices) is very important to us. We are committed to representing people of color, folks of varying abilities, body sizes, and orientations in our pages, both in photography and illustrations and in the authors and creators who work with us.

PAYMENT

We pay all of our writers! We negotiate pay with writers individually, depending on the scope of their assignment and their experience. Expenses such as phone calls, mileage, meals, and trips are generally not reimbursed.

How TO PITCH

If you are interested in submitting your work, we encourage you to familiarize yourself with past issues to get a sense of the kinds of articles and essays we publish. See the FAQ below for more specific information about queries and submissions. Email all submissions to hello@homeschoollifemag.com.

We try to respond to every query, but we are a small staff, and it can take time for us to get around to reading queries when we have a backlog. Feel free to follow up with us via email if you want to check on the status of your pitch.

RIGHTS

We purchase exclusive one-time print reproduction rights for a period of 90 days from publication and all online/electronic distribution rights.

Frequently Asked Questions About Writing for HSL

How do I submit my work?

You can submit your query or the first three paragraphs of your proposed work IN THE BODY OF AN EMAIL (please don’t send as an attachment) to hello@homeschoollifemag.com. Include a little information about yourself, especially your connection to homeschooling, and (if applicable) your publication history.

What kinds of submissions are you looking for?

Homeschooling is as much a lifestyle as an educational choice, and our name reflects the intersection of living, parenting, and learning that we’re interested in exploring in our pages:

  • HOME Strategies and ideas for making your home a space that supports learning and growth (and the endless stream of food that homeschoolers require!)

  • SCHOOL Secular curriculum reviews, organization and record-keeping, routines and rhythm, lesson planning, stage-by-stage advice, navigating transitions, getting started, going back to traditional school, roadschooling and travel, unit study inspiration

  • LIFE Balancing homeschool duties with your own work and me-time, big-picture thoughts on what homeschooling means, the emotional side of being a homeschool family, finding friends and community

  • If you are interested in writing a feature for us, note that we do expect writers to do original journalistic reporting (including interviewing multiple sources) for our features and trend pieces.

  • We are also interested in columnists who would be willing to write about their personal homeschool experiences in most issues.

Do I send a query or a completed article?

In the past, we’ve asked authors to send queries so that you don’t spend time writing an article for us that isn’t a good fit. You are still welcome to send queries, but we also review completed submissions. If you are submitting a query for a feature, note the kinds of sources and reporting you would use.

What length article are you looking for?

We typically publish pieces from about 500 words (for a short department piece) to 2,500 words (for a full-length feature). Columns (about personal homeschool experience) usually run 1,000-1,300 words.

Do you accept previously published material?

We do not.

Do you accept simultaneous submissions?

Of course! We appreciate if you let us know that something you’ve sent our way has been accepted elsewhere, but we definitely don’t expect you to wait on us.

Do you accept recipes, craft patterns, projects, illustrations, etc.?

We do! This is new to us, but we’re actively looking for more of this kind of content for the magazine. You can send a proposal of the project as your query — you do not have to send the full write-up to be considered.