Submissions Guidelines

Who We Need	What the Job Entails	Skills Needed	Points to Note	Samples Needed
'Reporters'	Writing quick, short, snappy and humourous accounts of important, interesting or unusual local events. You may notice that our reports are often about fictitious events. However, they mirror or exaggerate actual events. This is what makes satire work.	Don't worry if your English is not brilliant. We can pass your reports to writers who can jazz up your material. (Of course, if your stuff is great, we'll print it as is!) What we need from our reporters is the ability to take note of the facts and details, and extrapolate them humourously.	Attention to the little details is what gives a report its kick.	Send us a sample of your reporting. Write a humourous account of a recent event, using any "news" item in the News & Features page as a guide.
Feature Writers	Features are extended pieces discussing or analyzing a specific issue, event or topic.	Features tend to be more in-depth, and the level of writing needed is often more sophisticated.	Check with us first about the topic you want to write about first, before submitting a feature.
Columnists	Writing a regular article expressing your views on topics or issues. We'd like people to help write our Dear Ah Beng, Lim Peh Ka Li Kong, On The Ball and Have Free Bag Will Travel columns. We're also open to brand new columns.	An individual and consistent style, as well as the ability to keep coming up with story ideas on a weekly basis.	Do not attempt a column unless you're sure you can keep it coming every week.	If you want to help write one of our regular columns, send us a sample following the style of the column you wish to write for. If you want to write a brand new column, send us a sample.
Cartoonists	At the moment, we want people to write and illustrate either one-page comic strips or single-panel gag cartoons. In the near future, we're planning to accommodate multi-page comic strips.	You needn't be a Rembrandt. A funny or clever storyline is more important than how beautiful your artwork looks.	Your cartoons should come to us in *.gif form. If you're scanning them, make sure your resolution is not above 100dpi, or else the file will take a si beh long time to download.	Send us a sample strip. Either mail a photocopy of it to us (no originals, please!) or scan it and email it to us.
Reviewers	Write what you think about a movie you've seen, a book you've read, a CD you've heard, a theatre performance or other event you've watched, or a makan place you've eaten at.	This is the one space in TalkingCock.com where you needn't be especially funny or frivolous. (But well-chosen humourous touches always help.) Reviews are meant to help people decide what they want to do. Usefulness is the priority. Also, don'tch worry too much about your English. We can touch it up for you. What we need most is the info.	Don't just write "I like it because I like it" kind of reviews. They're useless. Give reasons! Analyze! Don't be afraid of revealing your biases. And try to be original. If you want to contribute to So Tonight Eat What?, TalkingCock.com is especially partial towards reviews of hawker stalls and/or tzer char makan places.	Review something following the relevant formats in our Reviews page and send it to us.
Other Contributions	Surprise us! We're open to ideas. Poetry? Short digital films? Animation? Run it by us!
Cocksters	Can't write but still want to help out? We'd like to establish a network of people to help us organize 'real-life' events. (At some point in the future, we want to organize a few events, maybe concerts for local bands, or poetry slams, or even special movie nights.) We also occasionally need folks who can help us do some fact-checking - to see if an address or telephone number is still in use, or who the latest contact person is, or what the latest opening hours of a restaurant are, that kind of thing.	Common sense and organizational ability, and creativity in choosing venues or devising events. Knowledge of what permits/licences, etc. are needed would be useful. At the very least, just believing in our mission, and wanting to help out.		Just drop us an email, telling us stuff about yourself, your experience, what you like, how you think you can help, yadda yadda yadda.

Mandatory Stuff

All submissions, regardless of post sought, should come with the following information:

Name:
Address:
Telephone No:
Fax No: (optional)
Email address:

We'll keep all these details completely confidential if you wish, of course.

Legal Stuff

You'll be credited for any article of yours that we deem fit to publish. We will also jointly own the copyright to your article. What this means is that you can reprint it anywhere else, but so can we. We cannot afford to pay our contributors at the moment, but we're offering you a unique and valuable platform for your work to be seen.

Please note that because of the tightness of our deadlines, our editors have the right to make any amendments to your article that they see fit in their absolute discretion, without notifying you first. Sorry, but sometimes we gotta do what we gotta do.

Pseudonyms

Many of our contributors wish to use pseudonyms, mainly for comic effect. At TalkingCock.com, we make it a policy for all contributors to adopt a chicken-related pseudonym, e.g. Big Cock, Coq Au Vin, Cockster, Breastman, The Hen of God, Cockanaden, you get the idea. Once you've received confirmation that we've chosen to publish something of yours, we'll also contact you to come up with a TalkingCock pseudonym of your own.

Good luck! Hopefully, you'll soon be talking cock with us!

Big Cock
Editor in Chief