Submissions

A Visual Adventure, by Paula Cravens Update: Jack's next issue will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the magazine and will be up by summer 2010, with a submission deadline of February 25. I would like to look back at the magazine's history, but also look forward to its future. I've been thinking about a theme of travel, which wouldn't cover regular hotspots, but other places out in the wild and off the path. Poetry, articles, fiction, music, video, and art work that have to do with journeys will be more highly looked at than other submissions for the anniversary issue. In order to guarantee a response about your submission, please read and follow all of these guidelines. This list won't take long to read, and I have updated it recently. Send a brief biography with your submission. If I accept your work, you may also send a photograph to be placed on the Credits page. Mail to Mary Sands Woodbury. File formats accepted (send your submission as an attachment, no bigger than 2MBs): Text: doc, html/htm, or rtf Images: jpg, gif, or png Audio: mp3 Video: avi, wmv If you have a different format, just let me know and we'll work it out if we can. Don't send submissions within the body of an e-mail message, because my e-mail program might not translate with yours and the formatting will be screwy. Feel free to submit many poems within one Word document, but make sure that you clearly show poem titles, formatting, and so on. About art: Traditionally, the cover of the magazine and all the major sections of the magazine are a part of a series by one featured artist. I also accept art that will illustrate a particular feature or article; collaborate with the writer. Read the magazine to get an idea of what we publish. This is a magazine that has traditionally published non-mainstream articles in honor of the Beat Generation and others who liked to experiment. That doesn't mean that this magazine is limited to talking about Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs. You should submit new things, in order to maintain the fresh style. Nature and travel writings are also central to the magazine. Don't submit stuff that's already online elsewhere. I make very few exceptions to this rule. Do a spell-check and grammar check before sending your submission. Have your piece ready to go. I always let the contributors have a sneak preview of an issue before it goes to publication, but by that time I don't like to change much except for honest mistakes. About formatting poetry: I'm more apt to accept poetry that isn't all over the page in indentations. The reason is that it's very tedious to format in my HTML program, and it's somewhat difficult to read online. I do accept some, though. Also, please do not use tabs within a document. Just use spaces so that I can see how far lines are intended to be indented. Timetables: Jack Magazine is not staffed, rather it is published by one individual and is on a flexible schedule. I'm the only "staff" at Jack Magazine, so if you don't hear back from me right away, don't despair; it just means that I'm doing other things. I sometimes take weeks-long breaks. Feel free to remind me about your submission if you never hear back. About doing reviews: Going along with the last point I made about the fact that I'm the only "staff" here, I don't have the time to review for other people (as much as I'd love to). However, Jack does accept reviews, so if you find someone to write a review of a book or film or piece of music, please have that person submit it. Since Jack is a nonprofit e-zine, there is no monetary payment for submissions. However, I'm happy to plug your art, books, links, and so on. About copyrights and Jack Magazine. I think I should add a blurb here about copyrights and Jack's financial state. 1. Jack is just a hobby of mine. I make no money for it. I pay for the domain, and do all the website design and editing myself. There's no staff at all. I guess if I had more time I could turn Jack into a wildly moving site and try to get some money flow, but I balk at corporatizing Jack. Its essence has always been slow, imperfect, and different. 2. As has always been stated on the submissions page, there is no payout to any contributors. This is true across the board. Nobody has ever gotten paid for contributing their work. It's just a laid-back 'zine. 3. In issue 10 I did put an ad up at the site. This was not a randomly generated ad that created any coins dropping into my purse, but an ad that I pulled the code for from Forestle.org, which is a new search engine that donates 90% of its ad-generated revenue to saving rainforests. I just thought it was a good cause, and will include that ad in this issue as well as one for Fraser Riverkeeper, which is where I work -- just trying to generate awareness and interest in some newish charitable organizations. 4. The submission guidelines also state that Jack is an online journal only. I still have many people asking whether they can get a free copy. If it were print, I'd be happy to compensate with a print copy, but Jack is online only. 5. All contributors retain copyright for their work, and this has always been stated on the front page of Jack. That is why there is a statement that nobody else may copy, distribute, sell, etc., anything at Jack without written permissions from the owner. 6. While I do not like to publish anything that has been published online before, there are some exceptions, and I have published a few excerpts and chapbooks that are print only. I still welcome these contributions. 7. Compensation for contributors comes in the following ways: Plugging of your work, whether it's a link to your site and ordering information, a review (I normally do not write reviews, but do accept them), a brief biography, or some other way that you can get yourself read somewhere in a world full of a million things to read. Jack does have high readership, and, with the help of Michael Rothenberg, Jack has published some well-known authors in the past -- such as Gregory Corso, Michael McClure, Peter Coyote, Ira Cohen, and many others -- to align yourself with as part of a publishing "history". Jack is part of Stanford University's LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) program, which is for select journals only. Jack was nominated by a professor at the University of Wisconsin several years ago, and has been a part of LOCKSS since. The program permanently archives chosen print and online journals permanently so that when the creator passes on, there is not a lost domain where treasure used to exist. This doesn't mean that Jack is huge. It seems small to me in the big scheme of things, especially when I visit other literary sites. But I think Jack is important. It stemmed from documentation and exploration of the beat generation and other literary periods, and examines similar artistry today. Please continue to read the editorial, blog, and submission guidelines for future news of Jack.

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