www.ffdmag.com - Become an author

Become an author

NEW ARTICLE TO DOWNLOAD!!!

Can I submit an article for Flash&Flex Developer's Magazine?

Of course, you can! FFD's magazine is open to the external submissions. All that counts when submitting a paper is what you know and how well you explain things to the others. Please, read further for more guidelines.

What kind of articles does FFD's look for?

The idea of the magazine is to give the readers theory through practice. All our articles are written with that in mind, and so should be yours.

If you are wondering what theory through practice means, try to follow the rules:

Do not try to write a man page. Man pages are examples of... theory through theory. Have you ever tried to use a completely new application straight by looking at the man page? How long did it take you to reach the information on how to use the tool in practice, going just through various option descriptions? Well, this is not what our readers want.
Do not try to write an RFC. RFCs are also good examples of theory through theory.
Do not try to write a program with comments. Programs with comments (even if they are better than the ones without comments...) are examples of practice through practice. Too little theoretical background is often available in the comments for the user to understand exactly what the program does.
Our articles can be compared to tutorials or how-to rather. These are examples of theory through practice!!!

So, a good article for FFD's should meet the following demands:

Be based on a practical, working example.
If your article is to be more general, about a particular technology and its abilities:
- first, describe the technology,
- then show how it can be used in practice
- then discuss who can use this technology and in what situations
- then present one of that situations and show how the technology might be used
- finally show the disadvantages or the cases of the wrong usage.

This will guarantee that your article will be as complete as possible. You can of course iterate this process for every technique or every possible use of a given technology.

If you'd like to write about some strategies, standards, more business-related issues, this is also a good subject for FFD's, but it has to be approached also through practice. So if you'd like to write about an ISO norm for example, make sure you don't just copy the official documentation (even using your own words), but you describe an example implementation, step by step.

What has to be done, how to do it, what are the risks associated with every step and what are your practical experiences with every step (we assume that if you'd like to write about something like that, you do have practical experiences).

If you are still wondering whether your approach is right, feel free to contact us and just ask. We don't bite! We are here to help you prepare the best article ever.

What subjects are of interest to FFD' readers?

Well, the subject scope in general is Flash and Flex usage and abilities seen from the practical point of view. This includes:

Basic tutorials on the Flash/Flex practical use
Optimizing performance
Opensource flash
Object-oriented programming
Flash/Flex security
Flash/Flex mastering,
PHP interaction
Compressing XML
Remote web services
Free code
Remote code
ASP
Flash as a code
Controlling sound
Visual transition
Bitmap
Text effects

These are just some suggestions. If you specialise in something you would like to write about, just contact us and we will tell you whether your proposal is right for FFD's, and if so, how to approach it.

What language should the article be submitted in?

We are the English version of FFD's so we expect to get articles written in English. Your paper might be translated into some other languages, but before it is ready, you will be communicating only with the staff of the English version.

If you are worried about your English not being good enough, stop worrying. What really matters is that you are a specialist in your field. We have people who will "embellish" your English and make it suitable for all readers. There are many people who know English well, but there are not many people who can write about the things you can write about. Remember that!

Ok, I want to write. How do I start?

Just write us an e-mail (en@ffdmag.com).

The first step will be to suggest a subject you specialise in and you would like to write about. You don't have to be the top specialist in the world in this field (although it would be very nice if you were). If you are a student and you have an interesting idea, you can write about it just as well as if you were the top specialist in the world's largest company. What matters is the quality of the article, its completeness, correctness, ease of reading, how interesting and practical it is, etc.

When we agree on the subject (we have to talk first to see whether this subject has been mentioned in the past, whether it's interesting for our readers, etc.), it is time for the article's draft. It is to show the article's structure and the approach towards the topic. A good detailed plan is the best way to see what the final article will look like, and a great help for you to write the article afterwards.

When the plan is agreed and accepted, you can start writing the article. When it's completed, it will be read by our editorial team and you will receive comments and suggestions regarding the possible changes. Then it will also be sent to our betatesting team, which might give you more suggestions how to change or expand the article. Once the paper is betatested and corrected, it will be published!