We often receive emails from budding writers and bloggers interested in contributing to our cake decorating blog. So I decided it might be a great idea to write a blog post about how to do just that. I’ve crafted some information and guidelines to help you to submit your content for publication in our blog!

Word-count

The ideal word count for a blog post is between 800-1000 words. Your content needs to be original and previously unpublished.

Be Original

Come up with a great idea, think outside the cake-box! We’re interested in everything from recipes and tutorials, to business advice, cake competitions, opinion and advice pieces- the important thing is to write something you yourself would enjoy reading. Make it engaging!

Here are some ideas:

Write a blog about a recent recipe you developed.

Use your expertise to recognize new and emerging cake decorating trends.

• Use your knowledge of social media to assist others with their frequently asked questions.
• Do you have an innovative cake decorating technique you’d love to share?
• Had a great experience with a recent product?
• Do you have a solution to a cake decorating problem, or a tip, trick or hack you’d like to share?
• Have you had a recent personal experience that is likely to interest others- a cake fair, trade show, advertising purchase?

The First Steps

Send me a brief proposal; not the whole article, just a catchy title, and a short two sentence description of what the blog post would be about. Don’t forget to add your qualifications; what makes you qualified to write the blog post? After the submission of your proposal, I will let you know within 4 business days if your outline has been accepted.

Submissions should be emailed to editor@americancakedecorating.com

Write for web and not for print. Keep everything short and sweet- people reading web articles like to skim the content. They’re busy and don’t have time to necessarily sit and read wordy pieces. Use bullets to make your points and keep paragraphs short and concise. Lead into your subject with a brief hook to engage the readers.

Don’t forget to submit images to go along with your piece- this is especially important for tutorial and recipe submissions, but equally important if images are needed to back-up your chosen topic. Make sure you offer a credit for any images you use that you don’t create.

Include a bio and headshot, and proofread your biography for inaccuracies. Don’t forget to make sure you send active web links.

Submit your finished article; If your proposal is accepted, send the finished article in its entirety. Please don’t send a rough draft, we do not have time to critique your pieces. Submit the finished article, attached to an email, as a word document. Send any image files via wetransfer or dropbox and make sure to include any captions.

Final Steps

Receipt of your article will be acknowledged on the same day. You will be notified within a week if the article has been accepted for publication on our blog. Please note that ACD reserve the right to edit any content, headlines, text, etc. at our discretion. This is to improve readability.

Rebekah Wilbur

Editor, American Cake Decorating