We publish work from outside contributors who know a subject properly and can explain it clearly. If that is you, we would like to hear from you. Please read this page before pitching — it will save us both time, and pitches that ignore it are declined without a detailed reply.

What we accept

We commission and accept pieces in our regular beats:

• Artificial intelligence — model architecture, training and inference economics, evaluation, deployment realities, regulation.
• Semiconductors and hardware — process technology, packaging, memory, interconnect, instruction sets, data-centre infrastructure, supply chains.
• Cybersecurity — vulnerability analysis, defensive engineering, incident post-mortems, cryptography, policy.
• Software development — languages, tooling, platforms, architecture trade-offs, developer experience.
• Consumer technology — devices and their attached services, examined for how they actually behave.
• Emerging technology — quantum computing, robotics, energy and space, where there is something real to report.

The formats that work best are the technical explainer, the honest comparison, the evidence-grounded analysis piece, and the first-hand account of building or breaking something. What we want is depth from someone who has done the work.

What makes a good pitch

Send a short email, not a finished article. A good pitch contains:

• One sentence on what the piece argues or explains, and why it matters now.
• A paragraph on your angle and how it differs from what already exists on the topic.
• A rough outline — the three to six things the article will cover.
• The main sources you will use, with links. Primary sources, ideally.
• Two or three lines on why you are the person to write this, plus links to previous work.
• Any relationship you have with a company involved: employer, client, shareholding, advisory role. Disclosing it rarely disqualifies a pitch. Concealing it always does.

Pitches fail for the same few reasons: the topic is a generic overview with nothing new in it, the angle is really an advertisement for the writer’s employer, the pitch is a mass email with our name pasted in, or it is five keyword-shaped headlines with no substance behind them.

Standards a submission must meet

• Original and unpublished. Not published anywhere else, in whole or substantial part, including on your own blog, Medium, LinkedIn or a company site. No simultaneous submissions.
• Sourced. Every factual claim, number, date and quotation attributed and linked, primary sources preferred. Anything you cannot verify comes out or is described as unconfirmed.
• Substantial. A minimum of 1,500 words of body text; most published pieces run longer. Length must come from real explanation, not padding or repetition.
• Clear. Plain English. Jargon explained the first time it appears. Short paragraphs. No hype, no marketing register, no filler openings.
• Free of undisclosed commercial links. No affiliate links, client links, or links placed on behalf of anyone else. Every link must help the reader, and any commercial relationship behind one must be disclosed to us before submission.
• Honest about AI use. You may use AI tools for research, transcription or editing. You may not submit machine-generated text as your own original human writing without disclosing it, and any AI-assisted passage must be verified by you first — models fabricate citations convincingly. Tell us up front what you used and how. Undisclosed AI-generated text found during editing ends the submission and the relationship.
• Cleared images. Supply only images you own or are licensed to use, with the licence and required credit stated.

Rejected outright

We do not consider, and do not reply individually to:

• Guest posts written to place a backlink. If the actual goal is the link, this is not the site for you — see below.
• Spun, rewritten or scraped content, and articles reworded from another publication’s piece.
• Undisclosed sponsored or client work, and pieces written for a company while presented as independent.
• Pure product promotion for your employer or client.
• Offers to pay us for publication, and requests to add links to already-published articles.
• Generic “top 10 tools” listicles with no testing or first-hand experience behind them.

Links and author bio

Accepted contributors get an author bio of up to 50 words with one link — to your personal site, portfolio, professional profile or company page. Choose it carefully; we do not add second links, and we do not repoint the bio later.

In-article links exist to support claims. A link to a company you are connected to is permitted only where it is the genuine primary source for a claim, and the connection is disclosed in the article. Links added for search-ranking purposes are removed during editing.

Submission and review process

1. Pitch. Email [email protected] with Pitch at the start of the subject line. We respond within five business days, or up to ten in busy periods.
2. Commission. If we say yes, we agree the angle, word count, deadline and terms in writing before you start. Never write the full piece on spec.
3. Draft. Submit as a plain document or Markdown, links in place, images supplied separately with licence details, and a note listing your sources.
4. Edit and fact-check. An editor reviews the draft against its sources and may come back with questions. Expect one to two weeks. We will not publish a claim we cannot verify, so quick answers keep things moving.
5. Approval. You see the edited version before publication and can flag anything that changed your meaning. Headlines, subheadings, formatting and length are the editor’s call.
6. Publication. We schedule it and tell you the date. Commissioning to publication is usually three to five weeks.

We may decline a commissioned piece that arrives materially below the agreed standard. If that happens we say why, and any kill fee agreed at commissioning is honoured.

Rights and licensing

You keep copyright in your work. By publishing with us you grant NextTechBlog a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive licence to publish, edit, archive, translate and promote the piece on the site, in our newsletter and on our social channels.

We ask for a 60-day exclusivity period from publication. After that you may republish the piece elsewhere, provided you credit NextTechBlog as the original publisher and link to our version. We do not claim rights to your other work, your ideas, or anything derived from your own research beyond the article itself.

Accepted articles are subject to our Editorial Policy, including its rules on corrections, conflicts of interest, plagiarism and unpublishing. You are responsible for the accuracy and originality of what you submit.

Payment

We pay for some commissioned work. Rates depend on the depth of the piece, the research and testing involved, the length, and our budget at the time, and they are discussed case by case at commissioning — we would rather agree a real figure with you than publish a headline rate we cannot always honour. If a piece is unpaid, we say so before you write a word. Terms are always confirmed in writing before work starts.

Ready to pitch? Email [email protected]. General enquiries go to [email protected], or reach us at NextTechBlog, 3330 Old Vernon Rd, Kelowna, BC V1X 6P3, Canada, phone +1 (250) 979-6360.