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Editorial Guidelines
The Good Companion publishes thoughtful nonfiction, visual work, research-informed writing, field notes, community resources, and guided storytelling about the lives we share with animals.
We welcome polished submissions, strong pitches, early ideas, completed drafts, artwork, photo stories, resource materials, and memorial tributes. You do not need to be a professional writer to submit.
What We Look For
Selected pieces may receive editorial support with structure, clarity, framing, narrative flow, captions, headlines, or refinement.
The Good Companion reserves the right to make minor edits for grammar, spelling, punctuation, formatting, clarity, style, headline consistency, and basic readability.
Substantive edits — including changes to structure, meaning, tone, sensitive details, factual framing, or major wording — will be made in communication with the contributor. We do not publish accepted pieces without contributor review and approval of meaningful edits.
The goal of editing is not to erase a contributor’s voice. It is to help each piece become clearer, stronger, and more responsible for readers.
Editorial Advisors
The Good Companion is supported by a small circle of volunteer editorial advisors, including subject-matter experts and creative professionals across areas such as animal behavior, service and therapy animals, psychology, medical care, visual art, and literary craft.
Advisors may be invited to offer perspective on selected pieces when specialized context would strengthen the work, clarify sensitive themes, or help ensure responsible framing. Their role is advisory. Final editorial decisions remain with The Good Companion.
A Note on Fit
The Good Companion is primarily a nonfiction and documentary-style journal. We are not currently seeking fiction, poetry, or highly experimental literary work.
Submissions may be personal, visual, reflective, humorous, tender, unusual, or emotionally honest, but they should be grounded in real animals, lived experience, research, memory, care, or pet owner culture.
Previously Published Work
Previously published and simultaneous submissions are welcome, but contributors must disclose where the work has appeared or where else it is under consideration.
If a piece has already been published elsewhere, contributors must confirm that they have the right to allow republication or adaptation in The Good Companion.
Permissions
Contributors are responsible for confirming that they have permission to share any images, stories, materials, names, organizations, private spaces, or identifiable people included in their submission.
Extra care should be taken with submissions involving children, disability, medical experiences, grief, private family matters, service animal teams, vulnerable people, or sensitive personal details.
Subscribe to The Good Companion
Subscribe for new issues, open calls for pitches, contributor opportunities, deadline reminders, and occasional notes from the editor. This is the best way to hear when a new call opens, when an issue is published, or when new storytelling opportunities become available.