Contributor Terms

These terms apply when you pitch, submit or contribute work to Africa’s Very Own Magazine (“AVO”, “we”, “us” or “our”), a digital publication owned and operated by Digital Thread Proprietary Limited. They sit alongside our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. If we agree different terms with you in writing for a particular piece, those written terms apply to that piece.

The short version

• Stories, interviews and other journalism we publish belong to Digital Thread Proprietary Limited from the day we publish them. You are always credited, and you can link to them and show them in your portfolio.
• You keep the copyright in poetry, short stories and other creative work unless we agree otherwise in writing. While they are on AVO, you publish them only with us, and you can withdraw them at any time.
• You keep the copyright in anything we don’t publish.
• AVO does not pay for contributions yet, unless we agree a fee with you in writing before publication. We intend to offer paid terms once the magazine earns enough.
• You must be 18 or over to contribute.

Who can contribute

You must be 18 or over. If you are pitching on behalf of someone else, such as a client or an organisation, tell us in your pitch, because their involvement changes how we label the story (see Sponsored content and partnerships).

Pitches

An editor reads every pitch sent through Write for AVO. We cannot publish every pitch and are not obliged to reply to, commission or publish any of them. Ideas themselves are not owned by anyone, and we may already be working on, or later publish, stories on similar subjects. We will not publish your work without your agreement.

What you promise us

When you send us work, you confirm that:

• it is your own original work, or you have permission for everything in it that belongs to someone else, including photographs, artwork, lyrics and quotations beyond fair use;
• it has not been published elsewhere, unless you told us when you sent it;
• to the best of your knowledge, the facts in it are true, and quotations are accurate and fairly used;
• it does not defame anyone, invade anyone’s privacy, break a confidence you owe, or break any law;
• you have told us about anything that could look like a conflict of interest, such as a personal or business connection to the people or brands you write about, or being paid or given gifts by them.

Editing

We may edit your work for length, clarity, accuracy, house style and legal reasons, and write or change the headline, summary and captions. We will try to show you significant changes before publication, but final editorial decisions are ours. We will not change the meaning of your work without talking to you first.

Your rights and ours

Who owns your work depends on what it is. If you aren’t sure which kind a piece is, ask your editor before you send it; we will tell you in writing.

Journalism: stories, interviews and reporting

This covers features, interviews, profiles, news, reviews, essays and opinion pieces, event coverage, and the photographs, video and audio you make for them. When we publish a piece of journalism you wrote or made for AVO, you transfer the copyright in it to Digital Thread Proprietary Limited, worldwide and for every form and medium, from the day it is published. Until we publish it, it stays yours, and if we decide not to publish it you are free to offer it elsewhere.

After the transfer, you can still:

• be credited by name wherever we publish it, always;
• link to it and share it from africasveryown.com;
• show it in your portfolio or CV, including a copy for people considering you for work, with a credit to AVO and a link;
• quote short extracts from it, with a credit to AVO.

To republish it anywhere else, ask us first; we will not refuse without a good reason.

Poetry, short stories and other creative work

This covers poetry, short stories and other fiction, song lyrics, spoken word, and artworks we show in our creative sections, such as paintings, illustrations and photographs made as art. You keep the copyright in your creative work unless you and we agree otherwise in writing. By letting us publish it, you give Digital Thread Proprietary Limited the exclusive right to publish it for as long as it is on AVO, including keeping it in our archive, featuring it in our newsletter and sharing it, or extracts from it, on AVO’s social media accounts, always with your name on it.

While it is on AVO, publish it only with us: please don’t publish it in print or online anywhere else, including on your own website or social media, though you are welcome to share the link to it on AVO, or a short extract with that link.

You can withdraw a creative work at any time by telling us at the address on our Contact page. We will remove it from africasveryown.com within 14 days, and remove AVO’s own social media posts of it where we can. Newsletters already sent, and copies others have shared, can’t be recalled. Once it is withdrawn, it is entirely yours again and you can publish it anywhere.

Commissioned and sponsored work

When we commission a piece from you, we will confirm in writing what we are asking for, the deadline, the fee if there is one, and the rights. For sponsored or partner content, the written agreement for that piece also says how the partner may use it.

Credit

We will always credit you by the name you give us, and credit photographers and illustrators whose work we use. If you would prefer to write under a pen name, tell us; for some stories, such as investigations, we may need to know who you are even if we don’t publish it.

Payment

AVO is a young, independent publication and does not yet pay for contributions. Unless we agree a fee with you in writing before publication, your contribution is unpaid until AVO earns from the magazine itself, through advertising, sponsored articles, partnerships and similar commercial work on AVO. Money that Digital Thread Proprietary Limited earns from its other businesses doesn’t count. Once the magazine earns enough, we intend to offer contributors paid terms, in writing, which you are free to accept or decline. We can’t promise when that will be or what the terms will be, and contributors do not automatically share in AVO’s income. Where we do agree a fee, the written agreement will say how much, when it is paid and what it covers.

Your author page

When we publish your work, we may create an author page with your name, a short biography, a photo and links you choose to share. You can ask us to update it at any time. We keep your email address so editors can contact you; it is never shown on the website. See our Privacy Policy.

Corrections and removal

If you find a mistake in your published work, tell us and we will correct it, adding a note where the change matters to readers. You can withdraw creative work at any time, as set out above. Because AVO keeps an archive, we don’t normally remove published journalism. We will consider removing or changing it if there is a legal reason, a risk to someone’s safety, or another serious reason. Ask us through the Contact page.

Sponsored and partner content

If a story is paid for or supported by a brand or organisation, it is labelled “In partnership with” and follows our Sponsored content and partnerships policy. Never accept payment, gifts or other benefits from the subject of a story you are writing for AVO without telling your editor first.

Changes

We may update these terms. The version that applied when we agreed to publish your work continues to apply to that work, so work published before an update keeps the terms it was published under.

Last updated: 21 October 2026.