Overview

Trail & Timberline is read by 10,000 members of the Colorado Mountain Club.

The majority of people live in Colorado, but Trail & Timberline is also sent to people in every state of the union, as well as abroad.

The mission statement of the club, written soon after its founding in 1912, continues to inform and guide all aspects of the club's life. This includes editorial decisions about the content of the club's magazine:

The Colorado Mountain Club is organized to

• Unite the energy, interest, and knowledge of the students, explorers, and lovers of the mountains of Colorado;
• Collect and disseminate information regarding the Rocky Mountains on behalf of science, literature, art, and recreation;
• Stimulate public interest in our mountain area;Encourage the preservation of forests, flowers, fauna, and natural scenery; and
• Render readily accessible the alpine attractions of this region.

Trail & Timberline is published bi-monthly. Recent issues have numbered 48 pages, half of which are in color. Approximately thirty percent of the magazine is advertising. Priority of acceptance Articles written by members of the Colorado Mountain Club that are congruent with the club's mission statement are most likely to be published. The publications committee of the CMC produces an editorial calendar listing topics for future magazines. The editorial calendar generally guides the content of any particular magazine; however, the editor has final authority to make exceptions. News items about organizations and events outside the club that may be of interest to club members are considered for publication on a space-available basis.

Deadlines Submissions are due in the Trail & Timberline office six weeks prior to the first day of the month of publication. For example, the deadline for the November-December edition of the magazine is September 15. This deadline is negotiable for articles in progress; however, under no circumstances will an unsolicited manuscript received after the deadline be considered for publication.

Manuscript preparation

The CMC and Trail & Timberline ordinarily do not pay for manuscripts unless prior arrangements have been negotiated. Feature-length articles for Trail & Timberline have an optimum length of 1,000-2,000 words and are accompanied by illustrative color photographs. Submissions are preferably prepared on a word processor and submitted electronically on computer disk or as an e-mail attachment. Mss. also can be typed and mailed or faxed to the club. Most standard word-processing programs are acceptable submission formats. Check with the editor when in doubt. Trail & Timberline does not accept hand-written mss. under any circumstance.

Photographic standards

The CMC and Trail & Timberline ordinarily do not pay for photographs unless prior arrangements have been negotiated. Photographs submitted to Trail & Timberline for publication, either as illustrative accompaniment to an article or as stand-alone items, must be captioned. All people in the photograph should be identified by name, and the date of the activity should be indicated, along with the photographer's name. Submissions may be negatives, slides or color or black and white photographs printed preferably on glossy paper. If the photograph shows printed copyright information, usually the copyright symbol or the word "copyright" followed by the copyright holder's name and date, a written release must be included with the submission for every photograph granting the Colorado Mountain Club and Trail & Timberline world rights for one-time, non-exclusive, non-commercial, use of the image. It is not necessary to do this if the image does not have written copyright information on its back (if a photograph) or on the slide holder (see "Copyright" directly below for more information).

Copyright

In the absence of an overriding written agreement prior to publication, all articles submitted to Trail & Timberline become the exclusive property of the Colorado Mountain Club, which retains all reprint rights. Manuscripts submitted to multiple journals will not be considered for publication in Trail & Timberline. The magazine normally does not reprint articles that have been previously published elsewhere. Unless other arrangements have been made prior to publication, photographers submitting images to the magazine retain copyright, but grant unlimited non-exclusive domestic and world rights to the reproduction of their images for non-commercial journalistic purposes.

Return

Submissions are not returned unless accompanied by a SASE. Submissions may also be picked up personally at the Trail & Timberline offices in the American Mountaineering Center in Golden.

Send manuscripts to:

Acquisitions Editor,
Trail & Timberline,
The Colorado Mountain Club,
710 10th Street, Suite 200
Golden, CO 80401.

E-mail: beckwt@cmc.org

Questions? Contact the acquisitions editor at (303) 794-6411.