Sporadically, we at Nextbop will send out a call for new contributors to the site. This is one of those instances. Nextbop is, and has always been, an open submission website meaning anyone, no matter how devoid of experience, is welcomed to collaborate posts and we will do our very best to nurture you as a writer. These contributions are, at this time, unpaid and on a volunteer basis, as even we do not profit from our work for the site and the revenue we are earning from banner ads is being saved up for a website redesign. So if you or someone you know is passionate about our mission statement of bringing jazz to the masses and feels their voice on the matter merits being heard, we strongly urge you to reach out to us, whether you’re a writer, a photographer, a videographer, a graphic designer or anyone else who might help us on this mission.
So, where to begin? A good first step would be to check out our writer guidelines and take some time to browse through our blog to see what we’re all about. Keep in mind, we generally adhere to Nextbop being a collective of voices and we maintain a light editorial hand, so if you’re really passionate about something, just write about it.
Typically, when we bring on new writers to contribute to the site, the first few posts folks send us are self generated– a review of a show you were going to attend already, a write-up on a new album you just received, hipping the audience to some new work you found online. The first three or so posts will be of this nature, creating content that would fit in the model of what you already regularly read on the site (hopefully) and continuing in that branded direction. The model for essentially creating anything that we’ve always tried to follow is “replicate, then innovate”; writing for Nextbop is no different.
Once we have seen that you have initiative enough to contribute to the site regularly and garner our trust, we would feel comfortable enough assigning you things to write about that we receive pretty constantly, if you would be so amenable to such work. This would eventually lead up to access to albums prior to their release, free concert tickets or press credentials at a festival you would like to attend, as well as access to artists for the purpose of interviews. Keep in mind you need to earn our trust before we feel comfortable having you represent our brand.
Still interested? Our emails are at the top of this post, so send us a message with a little bit about yourself, nothing too formal. We truly look forward to reading your work and hopefully publishing it to the site. We hope to build a long lasting and agreeable relationship with every one of you all the while contributing to better you as a writer and so we can continue to work on something bigger than ourselves.
Sincerely,
Seb & Anthony
Sébastien Hélary co-founded Nextbop in 2009 with the objective of introducing modern jazz music to a younger generation of fans. Aside from music, his other main obsession is food, particularly ramen and other Japanese delicacies.
