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News Release Guidelines

Ghostvillage.com is not only one of the most popular and widely-read Web sites on the paranormal, it's also a very popular content portal for other paranormal Web sites. We're passionate about getting important news out to people interested in ghosts and the supernatural. More than twenty other sites (so far) run news headlines from Ghostvillage.com on their Web sites via our RSS/XML feed. Because of the popularity of our news syndicate, our news release guidelines have become more stringent. If you were sent a link to this page, it's likely because your news release submission fell below our editorial standards. Don't be offended. News release writing is not high-art, but there are standards that must be followed.

Here are some criteria for getting your news item listed on the Ghostvillage.com newswire:

Remember, a news release is not an advertisement, it's news. Avoid ad copy like: "the best," "you don't want to miss," and "the greatest ever."

An exclamation point in the headline (or too many exclamation points in the body of the text) tells our editors that you're looking for a free ad. Avoid using them.

Always write press releases in the third-person (i.e., no I, we, our, us, etc. unless it's in a quote). For example, if the name of your organization is Ghost Researchers of America, your press release might look something like this: "Ghost Researchers of America will be holding their annual conference Saturday, August 8, 2005 in the haunted Smithville Auditorium in Smithville, California." Please do not write your press releases in the first-person (i.e. "We are having our annual conference August 8, 2005"). The reason for this is because if we ran the text "We are having our annual conference August 8, 2005," readers would think that Ghostvillage.com was holding its annual conference because that is where they're reading your release.

You can use first person narrative within quotes.

Less than 200 words is too short, more than 700 words is too long.

DON'T WRITE ANY PART OF YOUR NEWS RELEASE IN ALL CAPS -- it forces us to type it over and we don't always have time to.

Think like a newspaper reporter. Tell the reader who, what, why, where, and when in your release.

Spelling and grammar count. If your release requires too much editing, it will be rejected.

Please include a dateline in the first line of your release (don't assume all of our readers know what state or even country the city of "Springfield" is in.) A dateline looks like this: BOSTON, Mass. -- March 8, 2007 - (your news release first paragraph begins here).

When you take your news release seriously, so will our editors and the editors of print and broadcast publications.

News releases and leads can be emailed to: news@ghostvillage.com.