What is an article?

An article is a “written work published in a print or Internet medium. It may be for the purpose of propagating the news, research results, academic analysis or debate”, according to wikipedia (which doesn’t publish articles, by the way, just “entries.”) The article could be about anything you think is interesting enough to be published.

How long is an article for you?

It should be about 1,500 words.  But good luck finding an article that short; people here usually take twice as long as average to say what we want to say. Somebody should write an article about this phenomenon. (of course, using 1,500 words or less.)

But does anybody nowadays read the whole article?

Hmmmm.  That’s why you should structure your article that you place your most important points in the first few paragraphs.  It I also helpful if you provide your email address so readers can give you feedback.

Does Balkanchronicle edit articles?

Most likely we will choose a heading for the article.  And we may conduct minor edits, but no re-writes.

Besides the written word, can I submit contributions like audio, cartoons, video, etc?

Definitely yes, of course!  With this caveat: we take a hardline position against copyright violations and art that is in poor taste.  If you have an audio or video, post it to youtube first, than provide us the link. We can also host your video, audio or photos, but first send us an e mail and ask how, and we’ll arrange for you to upload it.

What do you mean by “poor taste”?

We know it when we see it.  Hint: that picture of Milosevic & Co. with horns and dracula fangs, and blood dripping … that is really in poor taste.  It is not like we like the guy, but come on, a little creativity goes a long way.  Elevate the art if you can; if you can’t, nothing wrong with taking the time to practice.   

Why don’t you communicate with the people of the Balkans in their own languages? What is the point of publishing in English, a language which is alien to most in the Balkans?

Yes.

I am serious!

Well, we occasionally translate articles from other languages, but only occasionally. The chosen medium for our site is English—at least until the Google webbots learns well our languages. Those who want to push Muslim and Islam out of the Balkans and Europe have had many decades head start on propagating its false narrative about Muslims and Islam; we are playing catch up. In 4 years we barely have made a dent; we will need more time to offer a counter-narrative, the real true story if you want, that cannot be avoided by scholars and all others who are researching and want to know about Muslims and Islam in the Balkans and Europe. You are most welcome to translate our English articles, news pieces, editorials into your language, and you don’t need our permission for it.  Just volunteer for the task and be nice enough to mention where did you find it, if you want.

What are your criteria for publishing and/or rejecting articles?

Articles that are well-written, relevant, insightful will be chosen over articles that are poorly-written, terribly short, terribly long.  We’ll love if articles that have been submitted by the author to us are not also sent to another websites, but that is not absolute rule. We’ll publish articles published elsewhere too, even older ones, if they are still relevant. Remember we wish to serve as a web platform for and about Muslims in the Balkans and everything relevant to them.

How soon does an article get published after it is submitted?

It depends. Some might take a few hours, some few days. We will try hard to publish it as soon as possible, sometimes that might take longer than you think.

What happens to articles that are rejected?

Nothing. We do not notify the author why it wasn’t published: generally, it is because it was too long, too short, too poorly written, irrelevant, too sweet, too bitter, or full of ad hominem attacks… But don’t be discouraged to send us everything. We’ll read it, and you never know... We might collect all of them and one day publish it under the title “The Worst Of”

Where do I send my article to?