Camden Chat is looking for new writers

Are you an aspiring writer who also happens to be an Orioles fan? Are you an Orioles fan who has surveyed the vast landscape of sportswriting and thought, "I could do that"? Camden Chat is looking to add some new writers before the next season starts and if you think you might be our kind of person, we'd love to have you in the fold with us.

Note: You don't have to be an existing Camden Chat member for us to consider you as a writer, though if you're not, you will have to sign up for an account as part of this process.

We are looking for both people who can add something new to the site as well as those who have the interest and ability to pitch in with the routine set of things that come up during the baseball season.

This routine includes stuff like lineups, news posts, series previews, game recaps, minor league rundowns, and analysis of Orioles topics large and small. If it's something you're accustomed to seeing on Camden Chat, we could use another person to help contribute for those things. If there's something you think is missing from our coverage of the team, you might be the person who can help us add something new and exciting.

Blogging, at our level, is a fun, if occasionally frustrating, hobby. If you are looking to get money for writing, this is not the place to find it. I find blogging to be gratifying, even when the team was kind of bad. Whatever is going on with the Orioles, you can share your thoughts on it at that moment. Are you the kind of person who already spends a lot of your time thinking about the team anyway? You will fit right in.

Being a good writer is nice, but being reliable is even better. We need people who can fill the roles we need. It's not going to be some nebulous arrangement where you write whatever, whenever. You will have some freedom to write things beyond your specific area. Our expectations are few but firm. We will show you anything you might need to know.

One thing that will include is getting the hang of writing headlines and URLs for search engine optimization. That's part of how blogging works in this day and age. It is an emerging science.

More specific responsibilities for some of the areas we have:

Lineups - You are generally around at 3-4 in the afternoon when lineups go up for 7pm games. You will post the lineups and a little about game storylines, be they batter/pitcher matchups or whatever seems appropriate. This would be at least a couple of times a week. It can look like this.

News posts - You are around a computer often, see a tweet about a bit of notable news and want to talk about it. You will post a quick summary of what's going on, some brief thoughts, and be done. It can look like this.

Series previews - You will write a quick breakdown of an upcoming series, including the starting pitching matchups, for posting some time in the afternoon on the day a series starts. You can write it the night before. It can look like this.

Game recaps - After the game ends, you tell the story of it, from your fan perspective, to the audience. If you'd like to do recaps, you should be able to watch/listen to most of the game in question and have 45 minutes or so to write about it afterwards. We ask people to volunteer based on their schedule each week. No one is locked into one day. This would be probably one recap per week, maybe two. It can look like this.

Minor league rundowns - You will summarize the night's minor league scores for posting the next morning. Did a prospect have a big night? Has a prospect been hot lately? Tell us! If you're an early bird who'd like to write about the night before, that can work too. It can look like this.

Analysis - Covers a wide variety of things that you might post that can be supported by facts - this may be, but doesn't have to be, heavy on statistics, but could just be any argument you want to make about something to do with the team. If you want to join us write analysis, that's great. We hope you can contribute in one of these other areas as well. Here is an example of this.

Do you have something else in mind? Tell us! If we think it's right for the site, we'll fit you in.

If you're interested in writing for us, here are the steps:

1. Write a FanPost. The only guideline for a topic is that your post must be about the Orioles. A good length is probably between 500-1000 words. This FanPost must be up on the site by the end of the day on February 14.

2. E-mail Stacey Folkemer and myself to let us know who you are, what FanPost you wrote, and what area you're interested in contributing to Camden Chat.

3. We'll get back to the people we like and get you set up ASAP.

You may have noticed that most of our writers are posting articles under their real names. We think that looks more professional and we'll be expecting new writers to do that as well. If you have a username you'd like to keep elsewhere on SB Nation, we can create a profile so it will only use your real name on this site. Also, if you have a compelling reason to not want to be identified, we'll work something out with you.

I'm looking forward to reading what you have to say. Here's hoping that the Orioles can have a great 2014 season and that you can be a part of covering it with us.