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

• You keep the copyright in your work unless we agree otherwise in writing for a specific commission.
• When we publish your work, you allow AVO to publish it, keep it in our archive and share it, always with your name on it.
• For 30 days after we publish, please don’t publish it anywhere else. After that, you are free to republish it, with a credit to AVO.
• AVO does not currently pay for contributions unless we agree a fee with you in writing before publication.
• 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

Standard contributions

Unless we agree otherwise in writing, you keep the copyright in your work. By letting us publish it, you give Digital Thread Proprietary Limited a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free and permanent licence to:

• publish it on africasveryown.com and keep it in our archive;
• include it, or extracts from it, in our newsletter and in posts on AVO’s social media accounts, to promote the story and AVO;
• adapt its format for those uses, for example by shortening it for a newsletter or making an image crop for social media.

For the first 30 days after we publish it, AVO has the exclusive right to publish the work. After that, you may republish it anywhere you like. Please credit it as first published by Africa’s Very Own Magazine, with a link.

Commissioned 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 some commissions we will ask you to transfer the copyright to Digital Thread Proprietary Limited. This applies only where we agree it in writing with you before you start, and is typical for:

• work we pay for under a commission that says the copyright transfers;
• sponsored or partner content, where the partner needs to use the work in its own channels;
• shoots, events or projects that AVO organises and funds.

Copyright never transfers automatically, and never because you sent a pitch.

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 currently pay for contributions. Unless we agree a fee with you in writing before publication, your contribution is unpaid. 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. Because AVO keeps an archive, we don’t normally remove published work. 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.

Last updated: 8 October 2026.