Virginia Cavalcade Guidelines for Authors

Who we are: Virginia Cavalcade is the illustrated, 48-page, quarterly magazine of Virginia history and culture published by the Library of Virginia (formerly the Virginia State Library and Archives) since 1951.

Who our readers are: A mix of knowledgeable general readers and historians united by an interest in Virginia history.

What we publish: Well-researched, well-written articles about Virginia topics ranging from the age of exploration to the mid-twentieth century; excerpts from recently published books about Virginia; and, occasionally, personal memoirs. We especially look for manuscripts about little-known individuals and events and for fresh takes on familiar subjects.

What we do not publish: Articles that have been published elsewhere, fiction, poetry, travel pieces, editorial opinions, current-event essays. We do not review simultaneous submissions.

How to submit a manuscript: Read several issues of Virginia Cavalcade from the last few years for an idea of our style. Write a one-page query letter to the editor describing the proposed topic and the materials on which the research is based.

All manuscripts must be typed, double-spaced, and 15 to 20 pages long (5,000 to 7,000 words), exclusive of footnotes or endnotes. We require notes and bibliographies for review, fact-checking, and illustration research, but we do not publish them. Retain your own copy of the manuscript. On the cover page of the manuscript, include your name, mailing address, daytime telephone number, and E-mail address if you have one. Because of the expense, we return unsolicited manuscripts only if the author includes a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Photocopies (not originals) of possible illustrations, if the author has any, are helpful for review. We appreciate accepted manuscripts in Word or WordPerfect on a computer disk. It generally takes a year between acceptance and publication; any manuscripts tied to anniversaries or holidays must be submitted at least a year, if not longer, in advance.

Editing process: Our job is to make the magazine as readable and accurate as possible for our readers. Accordingly, we check names, dates, quotations, and other material in standard references and from the author's footnotes, and we copyedit the manuscript for spelling, punctuation, grammar, and usage according to the Chicago Manual of Style, Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (tenth edition), and our house style guide. We consult with the author about editorial changes whenever possible and send a copyedited manuscript for approval. If we do not hear from the author about the edited manuscript by a specified date, we publish the article as we have edited it.

Payment: We pay $200 on acceptance, buy all rights (including electronic) to the article, and provide the author with 10 complimentary copies of the issue in which the article appears. Authors may purchase additional copies at a 40% discount off the $3.95 cover price. For book excerpts, we pay $400 to the publisher for onetime rights and provide the publisher with 4 copies of the issue in which the excerpt appears.

Reprints: We usually grant permission to newspapers, newsletters, teachers, other magazines, the original authors, and so on to reprint Virginia Cavalcade articles as long as we receive proper credit. On the rare occasions that any fee of more than $50 is involved, we try to obtain the author's approval for the requested use and will divide the money equally between the author and the Library of Virginia.