Live Action is a non-partisan, nonprofit, pro-life educational organization. Live Action News (“LAN”) is Live Action’s online news and information website. LAN shares breaking news, opinion and commentary, and human-interest stories from a pro-life perspective.

LAN invites talented writers to submit their pitches and stories to our editors at editor@liveaction.org, subject to the following terms and conditions (“Terms”).

Submission Process

1. You may email a brief pitch of your story idea to editor@liveaction.org. Include a proposed title and limit your pitch to a few sentences.
2. You may include a draft of your completed story as a Word or Google document in the pitch email or wait for LAN’s editor to respond to you with a request for a draft.
3. Please note that your submission of a draft indicates your acceptance of these Terms.   
4. Once you have submitted a draft to LAN, you may not pitch the same draft to other publishers unless we have formally declined to publish.
5. If your story is approved, your draft will be published at the LAN editor’s discretion, and the editor may make reasonable grammatical edits, or change the title.
6. We are not copyeditors, and we expect all submissions to be in a final draft stage.
7. If we request changes to your story, you must make these changes within the timeframe set by the LAN editor.
8. If the LAN editor requested your submission, your submission is due within the timeframe set by the LAN editor. If no deadline is provided, your submission is due within 72 hours or the LAN editor’s request is revoked.
9. We are unable to respond to all pitches, and you should consider your pitch rejected after 15 days of no response.
10. You story will not be considered accepted, and no payment is due, until the editor has published the final draft on LAN’s website.
11. All LAN stories must further comply with the most recent LAN Publishing Standards (our “Standards“). The LAN editor will provide you these Standards via email if your story or pitch has been approved, or you may request a copy in advance if this is your first time submitting a story to LAN. Please note, our Standards are updated from time to time.

Note, these same rules generally apply even if you have you have been published on LAN in the past, or if a LAN editor has requested a pitch or a draft of a story from you.

Independent Contractor Status

If LAN approves your submission, you will be given our Standards to the email you used to submit your story. The Standards will include our latest fee schedule for all stories, which is set from time to time by the LAN editor. Live Action reserves the right to modify this fee schedule at any time.

To receive payment, you must complete and submit IRS form W-9 to editor@liveaction.org. Note that this form must be provided every year.

As a freelance writer, you are an independent contractor of Live Action. You are not an employee of Live Action, and are therefore not entitled to any employee benefits, or expense reimbursements, and Live Action does not withhold any federal or state taxes on your behalf. You must not hold yourself out as an employee, agent, or representative of Live Action. You are not authorized to hold yourself out as affiliated with Live Action on social media, such as in your biographical details, although you are permitted and encouraged to share your published LAN stories on you social media accounts.

Work Made for Hire

Your published story is considered work made for hire as defined under federal copyright law (hereinafter, a “Work”). To the extent any Work does not qualify as or otherwise fails to be Work made for hire, you shall, and hereby do, (a) assign, transfer, and otherwise convey to Live Action, irrevocably and in perpetuity, throughout the world, all right, title and interest in and to such Work, including all copyrights and other intellectual property rights therein; and (b) irrevocably waive any and all claims you may now or hereafter have in any jurisdiction to so-called “moral rights” or rights of droit moral with respect to such Work. You agree that all work created pursuant to these Terms shall be the lawful property of Live Action. Live Action may remove your Work from its website at any time and for any reason without notice to you.

Any republication or translation of a Work is subject to Live Action’s Open License Terms.

Although the Open License Terms require you to submit a formal request to republish or translate copyrighted content, if you wish to republish a story you authored for LAN, you may simply email the LAN editor at editor@liveaction.org, notifying them of your intent to republish your story in another publication, such as a book, blog, periodical, or magazine. Most republication requests will be approved, provided you republication complies with Section 5 of the Open License Terms.

Keep in mind, no use that would injure Live Action’s reputation or IRS 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status shall be permitted under any circumstances.