Why write for Fly?
We are building a team of authors from around the world. We want to hear from people who are passionate about music and want to share that passion with everyone else. Since we started in 1995, many writers and other contributors to Fly have gone on to build great careers with the start they had on Fly and many of these writers are still with us.

We encourage ideas for reviews, city guides and features relating to local music from around the world, jazz, hip hop, beats and reggae. We are also interested in art, graphics, photography and cinema where there is a musical angle to be explored.

Reviews
We cover a wide range of music and we are interested in reviews spanning jazz, roots, hip hop, beats and reggae. We are also interested in reviews of world cinema, DVDs, books and live concerts that people have attended. Reviews should be about 150 - 300 words long and should be emailed to Fly for consideration. If accepted, reviewers will be given access to our system and will be able to put their own reviews into Fly to await publishing. The whole system is very easy and should mean your work is published swiftly.

Features
These tend to be longer than reviews, normally 500 - 1000 words and will be an in-depth look at a subject that interests you (such as Thomas Pappon’s piece on undiscovered musical gems from Brazil) or an interview with a musician or cultural force such as Angelique Kidjo. Again feature writers should either email the piece to Fly for consideration or an outline of what you propose to write.

City Guides/Events
We want (rather ambitiously) to become THE destination for people looking to get a grip on what is going on around the world in terms of local music scenes and festivals. So if you live somewhere with a buzzing music scene, why not become its unofficial chronicler by regularly updating your local guide to the music scene, where to go, good local bands to watch out for, upcoming gigs and music festivals, clubs etc. We will provide you with an easy way to publish your guide whenever you want to update it. If you show your guide to local venues, they may well give you the odd free ticket too!

Rights
All Fly’s writers and staff are volunteers. One day soon no doubt we’ll be besieged by advertisers and sponsors offering money to us. Until then, we are unlikely to be in a position to pay contributors. You will however, get our deepest thanks and access to lots of readers who will read your despatches with eagerness and appreciation.

Articles are jointly copyrighted. You have the right to republish your article in another journal, magazine or book, however we ask for a one-week exclusive. We have signed up to Creative Commons License to allow others to share the work but only if it is attributed.

Got an idea?
Please take some time and read what we currently have on the site. This will give you an invaluable idea of what we cover, tone and length. Please note that since we started in 1995, other magazines have come along using the name Fly so be sure we are the same one you intend writing for. The Fly for example covers indie music but we don’t.

Send a proposal idea or finished piece telling us: why you think we should publish your review/feature/city guide, why you’ve got the expertise to write it and why our readers will want to read it.

Please include contact information: mailing address, phone numbers, and email address.

Proposals should be sent in plain text and included in the body of the email. Please do not send attachments. Do not assume that just because you submit a proposal that the idea or article will be published. Email us at contributors-at-fly.co.uk replacing the ‘at’ with an @ symbol.

Alternatively, please click onto our guide for sending material in if you have music, books or DVDs to be reviewed.

Image © Yosi Okimoto