Frequently Asked Questions
Are Whole Earth back issues available and how can I order one?
Yes, certain back issues of Whole Earth Catalog are available for you to order, and keep the magazine's fresh ideas at your fingertips!
You can fill the gaps in your Whole Earth by ordering back issues from our library.
Since 1974 Whole Earth has been offering tools and information that enlighten, and "news that stays news."
How can I get permission to reprint articles?
Please send a written request with a detailed description of your publication and intended use for reprinting articles from Whole Earth Catalog, Whole Earth Review, or CoEvolution Quarterly.
How can I submit articles for publication in Whole Earth?
Whole Earth Contributors' Guidelines
ESSENTIALS: Your name and contact information must be on the front page. We love Word disks or e-mail (but not as attachments! please paste mss. to the bottom of your message), but will take submissions in any legible form. Please note: we very rarely publish fiction or poetry!
SUBMISSIONS: It works best for us to evaluate a finished article or review, so prefrontal queries are discouraged. Please mail or e-mail submissions to the address below. We try to respond within two weeks of receipt between production periods; within two months of receipt during production time. We don't return manuscripts unless you include a self-addressed stamped envelope with sufficient postage. If we like your piece, we hang on to it, sometimes 'til two moons rise in the same dawn. We wait for the perfect circumstance...which may not present itself.
PAYMENT: We pay on publication, and can't guarantee a piece will be used until we go to press with it. Sorry-no advance payments or kill fees. Payments for photographs, illustrations, articles, and other longish pieces are negotiated case by case.
TIPS FROM THE EDITOR: We like your personal voice: intimate, a lively conversation with an attentive friend, but not overly confessional or self-indulgent. Candor: speak right to our ears, open, confiding everything from gossip to wisdom. A hard road to navigate. Don't inflate a short piece into a long one. Don't send us a variation on an old idea. Show us you did your homework. Don't rant against anything or anyone without very solid suggestions for fixing the rantee. Be prepared to violate the above guidelines for elegance or to present a compelling point. Don't be crushed at rejection. We reject our own submissions too.
BOOK AND PRODUCT REVIEWS: If you send us a book review, please type two suggested excerpts from the book, noting the page numbers. Or send photocopies with excerpts marked. Don't send us your personal copy of the book! REVIEW ONLY GREAT STUFF: We let bad, mediocre, wimpy, mushy, rehashed, and poorly crafted books and other items die their own deaths. Don't waste time and energy on items you only complain about. Does this item provide skillful means for mind, body, soul, community, or the planet? First, ask yourself: IS THIS THE ONLY BOOK OR TOOL AVAILABLE FOR THIS PURPOSE? If so, say so, especially if it's the first to offer a new idea, thought, or technique. IF OTHER BOOKS OR TOOLS ARE ALREADY OUT THERE, and the new item makes no great difference, forget it. If it provides upgraded skillful means, a greater intimacy and sense of caring or wild/adventurous intellect, then make sure the reader knows that you know how it compares with the other stuff. AVOID SHOWING OFF your great and deep understandings or outlining the whole book. In one or two paragraphs, there's no room to explain. BEWARE THE BACKCOVER BLURB! Write with an honesty that makes you squirm. Reveal your voice and all its slangish, idiomatic candor. Get out of the way of the book or tool; let the excerpts convey the thought or craft of the writing. Please note: If we use the idea for the book or tool but not the review, we'll give you a nod in the byline or access line.
REPRINTING: Whole Earth buys all rights to reviews and first rights to articles. We reserve the option to reprint. If we do, we pay an additional amount. We allow small quantity reprints for nonprofit educational classroom or community use with no charge. If another trade publication asks to reprint your article, we refer them to you.
Send submissions to editor@wholeearth.com