Donate An Article Below

We welcome contributions from guest experts and freelance writers.

If you'd like to donate a guest blog post, craft tutorial, recipe, review, or article on writing, business, or parenting, please follow the submission instructions below.

It's real easy to contribute an article to The Dabbling Mum, but you may want to read the bottom of our Writers' Guidelines to get a better understanding of what we're looking for.

Please take the time to send us your best work. If your work is written half-heartedly, our readers will know and that does not benefit you, or us.

When you share your best work, you maximize the potential of getting our readers to click on your byline and visit your site.

Submission Form

Make sure you copy and paste, and answer, ALL the bullets below. They should appear before your submission. If they do not, we will not look at your submission.

Your full name:
Your email address:
Your complete street address:
How did you find us?
Do you own the copyrights to submission and can you legally distribute it for publication?
Are you offering online exclusivity or non-exclusive online rights to this piece?
Do you agree to allow The Dabbling Mum to print your submission online without monetary compensation—now or in the future?
Do you agree to allow The Dabbling Mum to archive your submission online indefinitely and without further compensation?
Do you understand that by "submission" we mean photos and written text?

Paste Submission In The Format Below (no attachments) :

What center does your article fit?
Article Title:
Body of Article:
(Either your prewritten article or a query with a sample of your writing)
Your Byline:
(Name, 2-3 sentence description with mention of published book & website.)
Headshot: Provide a link or let us know you can provide one on publication (gif or jpeg). Headshot is not needed for recipe center, but IS REQUIRED for other areas.
Supporting Photos: Crafts and recipes require photos, other areas it is optional.

Include The Following Information Based On Article Type:

Craft Tutorials:

Is the design and/or pattern from the tutorial your original?
Did you receive any of the items in your craft project as a review or for a design team? Please specify when, where, how.
Did you include a completed project photo?
Did you include step-by-step photos for difficult craft projects?
Is your image at least 500 pixels wide? We can resize ourselves, but this is the minimum size required.
Is your image a close-up?
Does your image use proper lighting?
Is your image in focus?
Did you remember to remove any background noise from your image?

Recipes:

Did you remember to include a personal story about the recipe, along with the recipe?
Did you include a completed recipe photo?
Is your image at least 500 pixels wide? We can resize ourselves, but this is the minimum size required.
Is your image a close-up?
Does your image use proper lighting?
Is your image in focus?
Did you remember to remove any background noise from your image?

Book Reviews:

Did you receive the book as a free sample (and from whom), did you purchase it, borrow it, or was it a gift from a friend/family? Please specify when, where, how.

Deliver Submission

Send your email to: * subs {at} thedabblingmum.com *

Subject line: Article Donation / Guest Post

If you don't hear from us within 8 weeks, please email us to make sure we've received your submission.

All attachments will be DELETED without being read unless we specifically requested them from you.

Important Submission Facts

We require donated articles to follow our format and guidelines and to meet the needs of our readers.

Bylines

Please note the format of our bylines. We require a headshot of the author of the article. And because we create an image file using your byline information and headshot, we canNOT hyperlink to specific words in the text of the byline. Instead, we hyperlink the name of the author, and the bylined image.

Worried the way we link won't result in clicks to your blog or website? You have nothing to worry about! Since we've redone the way we link, we've actually noticed an increase in clicks from readers leaving our publication to check out the writers' sites.

Links

Please be advised that we reserve the right to refuse links that we feel are not in cooperation with the philosophy of The Dabbling Mum.

While we may allow a link to be placed within the body of the article (provided the link is relevant to the topic at hand), we will not publish your affiliate links, link to a sales page, or link to the homepage of your blog, website, or online store within the body of the article.

In other words, if the link is in the body of the article, it MUST be an additional resource. For example, an article about putting together a baby shower may mention the idea of creating a baby mobile. A link to a page on your site that tells our readers how to create a baby mobile would be acceptable, provided we don't already have that article on our own site.

Exclusivity

If you're offering exclusive online rights to your article, and we don't like it, we'll let you know within 4 weeks of submission so that you can either modify the article to meet our needs, or use it elsewhere.

Craft Designers, Manufacturers, And Book Authors Wanted

We accept donated content from the following, provided we are allowed non-exclusive indefinite archival rights. And if your book or product is sold on Amazon, we'll even include an image and link in the side panel of the article.

Craft tutorials from manufacturers.
Tutorials from a published arts 'n crafts book.
Book excerpts from art, parenting, marriage, business, and/or writing books.

If you provide an arts 'n crafts tutorial, we reserve the right to write a unique introduction to the tutorial or request that you write one for us.

Book Excerpts & Adaptations Wanted

Book excerpts or adaptations are a welcome treat because they allow our readers the ability to see what's inside your book―making it easier for them to make an informed decision on whether they should buy your book or not. However, if your publisher only allows one year archival rights, we cannot use your excerpts or adaptations. We don't have a system to automatically remove your submission nor the manpower to keep up-to-date on such contracts.

If you cannot provide an excerpt or an adaptation with indefinite archival rights, consider donating an article or essay on the theme of your book. That way, you don't break your contract and you still help promote your book.

Submissions should be between 500 and 1,500 words. Submissions should be self-contained. In other words, submissions should be able to be read without feeling as though you've just walked into the middle of a conversation or as though you've been left with a cliff-hanger.

We do not publish prefaces, book synopsises, or entire chapters. We are looking for stand-alone excerpts, adaptations with excerpts from your book, or articles written on the premise of your book. We want to provide content that gives our readers―your audience―a favorable impression of your book and/or you, the author.

We do not pay for adaptations or book excerpts, but we will link to your book using our Amazon affiliate id, along side your submission. That means that every sell we make earns this publication a few cents to cover hosting fees and maintenance while it increases both your royalty checks and your numbers with the publishers.

If your book is self-published and not in Amazon's database, we won't be able to include it in our sidebar, but we can still include a link back to your sale page--via your byline.

We will also include a 3-4 sentence byline at the end of your contribution which will include information about you, the author. Your name, your expertise, your book's title (complete with link to Amazon), and a clickable link back to your website.