MilitaryHistoryNow.com welcomes bylined articles from authors, historians and content producers.
MHN is an ideal channel through which you can raise awareness of your book, film, app or project. We get at least 200,000+ visitors a month and have a Twitter audience of more than 50,000 followers. Our readers are thoroughly invested in military history and would make ideal buyers of your content. We are always looking for the following sorts of submissions:
SHORT ARTICLES
THESE WOULD BE be 750 to 1,000-word pieces that profile a specific person, development or historical event. We even take opinion pieces.
Here are some examples:
Profiles of people
“The Fighting Cartoonist – How Bill Mauldin’s Comics Brought Smiles to Soldiers’ Faces in WW2″
Analysis of a battle
Profile of a fighting machine
“Mustang Revisited – Did the USAF Really Plan to Modernize the P-51 In the 1980s?
Op/Ed-style piece
“The Myth of the Spartans — Were Ancient Greece’s Most Feared Warriors Overrated?”
Miscellaneous
“I Want YOU! – The Story Behind One of the Most Famous Wartime Posters in History”
TIPS: Web readers are interested in quick and lively articles that engage from the first sentence. We need to engage their attention fast and (especially with lesser known subjects) demonstrate up front why the topic matters, is timely, unique, often-overlooked or ties in with a well-known story.
LISTICLES
THESE ARE ‘click-bait’ style pieces with titles like:
10 Things You Didn’t Know About the Sherman Tank
9 Fascinating Facts About Rommel
7 Famous Generals Who Flunked Out of West Point
These are BY FAR the most popular articles on MHN. Listicles often ‘go viral’ on social media. They get picked up on Reddit and FlipBoard and shared on Facebook and can sometimes attract many thousands of readers in minutes.
If the purpose of contributing to MHN is to promote your book, you’ll want to consider writing a listicle.
Typically, these pieces are between 1,000 and 2,000 words (1,250 to 1500 words is the ideal). They feature pictures and bold engaging subheads, plus we load in lots of hyperlinks to help with search engine optimization (SEO). Any imagery that can be provided by the author is welcome (try to make sure the pics are at least 600 pixels wide). But if there are no photos available, MHN will usually be able to find something ‘public domain’ from the Creative Commons.
Here are some examples of some recent MHN listicles:
Napoleon’s Old Guard — 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Bonaparte’s Toughest Soldiers
Pickett’s Charge — 12 Surprising Facts About Gettysburg’s Notorious Killing Ground
The Huns – 10 Fascinating Facts About the Ancient World’s Baddest Barbarians
The Mi-24 ‘Hind’ – 10 Amazing Facts About the Cold War’s Deadliest Helicopter
TIPS ON HOW TO WRITE A LISTICLE:
Listicles conform to a very simple pattern.
They begin with a quick intro that sets up the topic and demonstrates to the reader why it’s interesting/timely/ironic/worth further study, etc. Also, audiences may not know much about the subject, so it’s important to explain it very briefly while highlighting its historical significance (ie. why it matters).
After the intro, transition into the facts. Each should appear as a simple one-sentence statement accompanied by two or three lines elaborating on the point.
The facts should be arrayed in some sort of logical or semi-chronological order. When selecting your facts, consider a mix of the following types of points:
Details on the origins of the topic. For example:
• The idea for the Stealth Fighter emerged from America’s air war in Vietnam.
• Rommel didn’t originally want to be a soldier.
Stats, numbers and figures that are interesting or surprising. For example:
• The P-47 Thunderbolt weighs as much as two Spitfires and could carry the same payload as a B-17.
• The V2 rocket could fly from Belgium to downtown London in less than five minutes.
• One out of every five firearms on the planet earth is an AK-47.
Ironic details. For example:
• Lafayette was a general in the Continental Army before he was 20 years old.
• The Red Baron wasn’t a particularly good pilot.
• Roosevelt’s famous Rough Riders actually charged up San Juan Hill on foot.
Legacy and remembrance. For example:
• There are only two Lancaster flying today.
• What happened to Doolittle’s Raiders after the war.
MULTIMEDIA
WE ALSO accept photo galleries, short films, audio podcasts, multimedia presentations, etc. Usually they are supported by a very brief introduction after which we embed the content directly on the site:
We hope this provides you with some ideas. Feel free to contact us anytime to pitch something. We’d be happy to help get you some free exposure.
NH Mallett
