Truth, Inspiration, Hope.

Vision Times reaches a large audience with meaningful, informative, and entertaining stories every day. Vision Times is a not-for-profit organization, looking for original stories that support our mission of creating a better world.

Our stories come from our talented writing team, and also from a host of high and low profile contributors from around the world. We are always looking for good-quality writers to contribute to our website.

Please note that this is a professional website; this means your work will go through an editing process, and may be published in a slightly amended format. This will also include our choice of headline, final copy, images, and links.

We publish stories on many topics, however all our stories have a fundamental desire to fight wrongs and right injustice, and to make the world a better place.

Also note that we get pitched a lot of stories, and are not able to use everything we receive. Recognize that sometimes we have to decline stories because of their content or quality.

Submit content

We do accept unsolicited material; however, it must be polished and fit the tone and style of the website. It must also be clearly targeted at a particular section of the website.

Because we publish fewer articles than other online publications, our focus is on making those we do publish more comprehensive and colorful stories.

Although we’re based in the U.S., we accept submissions from authors all over the English-speaking world. When submitting a story for the first time, sending links to any previously published work is a good idea.

Important note: As an international publication, we are unlikely to accept stories that have a specifically local focus. We only accept submissions through email; please do not post anything to us, as it will not reach the right people.

Please note: We do not publish poetry

What we look for

We recommend (in fact, expect) that you read stories from Vision Times; every publisher has a different style of writing. If you take the time to discover what we publish, you’ll find it much easier to decide what to send us.

Articles submitted for consideration should be of interest to the readers of Vision Times, have a tone that is appropriate for Vision Times, and be written by a person, not by a PR department. We like articles that engage our readers — think op-ed rather than content marketing.

What we look for is stories that help put a human face on all the issues we cover. Whether it is news, investigative journalism, or light-hearted pieces, the vital thing is clear writing and a compelling human perspective.

Serious topics need to be written in such a way that they keep the reader interested — we encourage first-person, experience-based pieces; dry, fact-laden reportage, or an over-reliance on comments by “experts” and an overly intense writing approach are to be avoided.

The length of our stories is generally short (usually less than 500 words). Our preferred length is between 300 and 700 words. However, in very exceptional circumstances, we would consider longer pieces if we feel they have strong public appeal and would be capable of retaining the reader’s attention.

Try to keep your sentences short and choose shorter words. If you’re unsure, run your article through a readability index tool (like this one).

Always provide links and references (preferably to primary sources or credible institutes) to back up any claims; links should always send our readers to the source or to a credible institute. If the link directs to any other page, it will be removed.

Try to include as much image, graphic, and video content with your story as possible; tweets are also welcomed! Please also attribute the sources of your multimedia and license details.

Lively, polished writing that balances research or news with fun and memorable anecdotes, or examples that help illustrate your point of view, are what we look for. While we encourage drawing from your own experiences, over-the-top self-promotion (of yourself, your company, or your website) lessens the chance we will publish your article.

You will need to write a short bio of 2-3 sentences, written in the third person, with a high-resolution profile picture (headshot) placed at the bottom of each story.

Ask yourself whether your story is:

Meaningful

  • If a million people saw this story, would it make the world a better place?

Visual

  • Are there enough visual elements to engage readers who might be skimming on a phone?

Shareable

  • Would you share it? Would your friends share it? Most importantly, would your mom’s friends share it?

Submitting your story

Please email your story as a Word Doc attachment to the email ([email protected]). Don’t forget to include your full name and contact details.

Because we receive a large number of submissions, contributors who provide clean, well-written stories will not only save us time, but will also receive priority for publication.

Copyright and other third party rights

You warrant to us that you are the author of the material you submit to us and that you are the owner of, or otherwise entitled to exercise, the copyright over the material that you submit to us for publication. You warrant that our publication of the material will not infringe any third-party rights.

By submitting your material, you agree that we may authorize third parties to publish, reproduce, modify, and edit your material for the purpose of publication in Vision Times (in hard copy, on our website, or in any other medium). You also grant us a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, unrestricted, worldwide license to publicly display your material on Vision Times.

We accept material for publication in Vision Times on the basis that it has not already been published (either online, a hardcopy publication, or in any other medium) and that it will be first published by Vision Times. By submitting any material, either unsolicited or commissioned by us, you represent the material has not been previously published in any form anywhere in the world (this includes publication on an author’s own website).

If your material is selected for publication, you may have it re-published in part or full elsewhere, after it has been published by us for three to five business days. Provided that any subsequent publications of the material credits Vision Times using the words “first published by Vision Times,” or words to that effect, with reasonable prominence and a link back to the original article on Vision Times.

What to expect if we accept

Submissions are reviewed once a week, with the process being selective. Due to the amount of submissions, we’re often unable to respond to everyone. If you don’t receive a response within two weeks after submitting, it would be safe to assume that your story was not selected for publication.

For those that were selected:

  • All articles are subject to editing.
  • Headlines and subheads are subject to change.
  • Content may be edited for style, tone, or substance.
  • Links may be added or removed for context.
  • Images/video will be added at the discretion of Vision Times staff.
  • Articles may or may not be promoted across Vision Times’s family of sites, on our homepage, in our newsletters, and via our social feeds.

Note: Headlines that are supplied by you are working titles and will usually not be used as the title of the piece, if published.

The most important thing is do not to be disheartened if your first ideas are not used; we don’t publish a story unless we are confident that it would suit our readership.