Write for PinPoint

Would you like to write for PinPoint? We’d be delighted to receive your submissions and consider them for publication. To get an idea of the kind of thing we’d like, please read the following.

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What to write about

We’re happy to accept pretty much anything to do with geocaching! Write about something to do with caching that interests you, for example:

Or you could write for one of our regular features:

PinPointer: An anonymous, provocative piece with the purpose of stimulating debate. (250-600 words)

Letters: Ask a question, reply to a previous letter or respond to an article. Shorter letters are more likely to be included – ideally around 100–120 words.

Diary of a Cacher: Keep a note of all your geo-activity for a month – walks, camps, maintenance runs, events, puzzle solving … anything! (Please check the format used in previous issues and keep to a maximum of around 600 words.)

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Not sure your writing is good enough?

Don’t worry! We’re interested in what you have to say, so we can share it with the geocaching community. Your unique experiences and enthusiasm will make your piece a great article that people will enjoy reading.

We edit all articles we receive for spelling, punctuation, grammar, flow and sense, so we we can fix any typos and smooth out the writing if necessary.

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AI writing tools

Please don’t use AI to write your article.

Here at PinPoint, we know that AI promises many benefits to the game of geocaching, but we don’t believe that creative writing is one of them.

First, there’s the ethical issue. PinPoint respects the copyright of original creators. Generative AI is trained on the work of writers who usually have not given their permission for their writing to be used in this way. We’re not keen on this.

But also, articles written with AI just aren’t as good as the ones you write for us! They tend to be formulaic and use generic phrasing, so they can come across as bland and impersonal. When we receive AI-written pieces, we have to either edit them heavily so they read as if a person wrote them, or simply reject them.

PinPoint readers don’t want to know what a machine can find out about geocaching – they want to read about the experiences and opinions of human cachers, and to feel the soul and the emotions coming through the words!

If you have an idea for an article but don’t know where to start, just get in touch and we’ll be very glad to help you.

Generative AI is still a new technology, and we’ll continue to review our policies as things change, but for now, we don’t want any AI-written articles, please.

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Please send pictures too!

We love your photos! Articles are always better with photographs to illustrate them. For short articles, one or two pictures is sufficient. For longer pieces, three or four would be great.

Photo guidelines:

• Send pictures which illustrate what you have written about. For example, if you’ve mentioned a specific cache container, send a photo of it!
• Images must be of sufficiently high resolution to reproduce well in print. Original photos taken with a camera or a phone and emailed should be OK. Images taken from social media sites (even if you uploaded them yourself) will have been downsampled and will probably not be suitable. If in doubt, please ask us to check.
• Send images as attachments to an email; don’t include them in the body of your Word document. Also, don’t send them via Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp.
• Copyright is important. Make sure they are photos that you took yourself, or that you’ve obtained the express permission of the owner.
• It’s advisable to make sure that anyone who features prominently in a photo is happy for you to use it, especially if children are involved.
• Include a brief caption for each picture. A few words will do – just so we know what it’s showing! You can either change the file name, or just put the details in the email.

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Writing Guidelines

• Write as little or as much as you like, but please keep to a maximum of around 1200 words. These are the word count guidelines we work to:
  1 page article: 400 words max
  2 pages: 750 words max
  3–4 pages: up to 1200 words
• Double-check any GC codes and facts.
• Please edit and proofread your piece yourself as well as possible before submitting.
• If you’d like your article to appear in a particular issue, mention that in your email and ensure you submit it before the deadline (see below). Articles submitted well before the deadline will stand a greater chance of being published in that particular issue.
• The editors cannot guarantee to publish every article submitted.
• Published articles are subject to editing for grammar, style or readability or for reasons of space.

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Send your articles or ideas to submissions @ pinpointmag.co.uk