About Private Lender
Private Lender serves experienced private real estate lenders seeking practical, advanced insight into the issues shaping the industry. Articles focus on a single topic in depth, emphasizing strategy, operations, compliance, market trends, and best practices that readers can immediately apply.
As the official publication of AAPL, the magazine exists to elevate professional standards by providing a forum for members to share their expertise with the broader industry. The publication is freely available to encourage the adoption of sound practices across private lending.
Readers come to Private Lender for perspectives they cannot find elsewhere. Strong articles reflect the author's reasoning, experience, and judgment. They include practical examples, lessons learned, and concrete recommendations drawn from real-world work.
Voice and pacing matter; the strongest articles sound like the person who wrote them. If an article could have been written by anyone it is unlikely to meet our editorial standards. Our editors refine writing, strengthen structure, and improve clarity. They do not ghostwrite articles or replace the author's expertise and voice. Meaningful insight will always outweigh polished prose.
AI may be used as a drafting tool, but it should never replace your expertise. Generic AI-generated prose lacks the perspective our readers expect and frequently requires extensive editorial reconstruction.
Article Specifications
- Original work submitted exclusively to AAPL.
- 1,200 to 1,600 words.
- Written in second person ("you").
- Sources provided for facts, statistics, quotations, and other third-party information.
- Educational and non-promotional. Articles may not market products, services, or companies.
Examples of Good/Poor Topic Depth and Specificity:
- How to structure extension fees without increasing default risk/Loan servicing best practices
- Capital stack for strategies for small-balance bridge loans/Raising capital for your business
- Lessons learned from a failed foreclosure that changed our servicing process/Everything you need to know about foreclosures
- Judicial and nonjudicial foreclosure strategies in multi-state portfolios/Foreclosure explained
- Why our DSCR assumptions changed after rising insurance costs/Understanding DSCR loans
- Key elements of construction draw inspections to reduce fraud and cost overruns/Risk management strategies
- Compensation plan strategies for loan originators that don't sacrifice credit quality/Managing employees effectively
- How we reduced borrower acquisition costs by changing referral attribution/Marketing strategies for lenders
Republishing Guidelines
Authors retain copyright to their original work and are welcome to republish their articles, subject to the following conditions:
- Written authorization from AAPL (contact@aaplonline.com) is required for each article before republication.
- AAPL reserves the right to deny republication requests if the proposed use could reasonably imply AAPL's endorsement of a product, company, service, or position.
- Articles may not be republished until they have been available on AAPL's website for at least one month. Because articles are published online on a rolling basis after each print issue, this date varies.
- The article must clearly acknowledge its original publication in Private Lender. We recommend placing the following credit at the beginning of the article or within the byline:
"" (hyperlinked to the article on AAPL's website) was originally published in the American Association of Private Lenders' issue of Private Lender magazine. - To preserve the integrity of AAPL's editorial process, the republished article must substantially match the final version published by AAPL. Minor updates, such as correcting references to time or location or adding hyperlinks, are permitted. Material changes, including promotional language, product endorsements, revised conclusions, or substantive additions or deletions, require prior written approval from AAPL.
- Republished articles may not be sold independently. They may, however, appear on websites or publications that include advertising.
- Images, graphics, and other visual assets published by AAPL may not be reused unless you own the rights or have obtained separate permission from the copyright holder. Permission granted for publication in Private Lender does not extend to subsequent republication.
- 16.75″ wide by 10.5″ tall
- 25″ bleed on all four sides
- Minimum 1″ center gutter
- Recommended .5″ internal margins
- 8.375” wide by 10.5” tall
- 25″ bleed on all four sides
- Recommended .5″ internal margins
- 7.375” wide by 4.5” tall
- NO bleed
- 3.5” wide by 5.625″ tall
- NO bleed
Additional guidelines:
- Please do not include trim marks, bleed marks, or registration marks
- Colors must be CMYK mode
- Photos should be at least 300 dpi
- Line art should be at least 600 dpi
- PDF files: press-ready settings/compression
- EPS files: fonts must be converted to outlines with graphics linked or embedded





