Search
RSS Newsfeeds
Ink Sweat & Tears - the poetry & prose webzine Main RSS Feed Main Page RSS
Submission Guidelines RSS Feed Submission Guidelines RSS
Login
User name:
Password:
Remember me 
Year Archive
Make a donation by PayPal
Amazon Ads
View Article  Ink Sweat contributor guidelines update
As promised earlier, here is a reminder of our contributor guidelines – none of the terms have changed but with so much concern about publishers ripping off their authors, we thought we issue a reminder...

1. We ONLY accept submissions by email - strewth, this is the 21st century.

2. Send your submissions to charles@legaltechnology.com and include the words IS&T SUBMISSION in the subject line.

3. Please ensure your return email address is clearly indicated.

4. Please include a short biographical note - 15-to-20 words max - about yourself (and yes you can be flippant and include a web URL if you want).

5. Your submissions can be within the body of the email or as a Word or RTF file attachment - but no macros or .EXE files. If you are sending a graphic, including haiga, then PDF and JPEG files are fine.

6. Please note the maximum word length we will publish is 750 words - there again Einstein did write one of his theses in less words than that so there really is no need to be prolix.

7. Contributors must accept full responsibility for the accuracy of their spelling as (a) we can't spell and (b) you may be using terms of art or unusual spelling deliberately.

8. Please DO NOT submit work that includes copyright material (such as pictures) belonging to other people/third parties unless you can supply us with written authorisation by that person/third party.

9. As the author you retain full copyright in your work. By submitting a piece of prose or poetry to us, you are merely granting IS&T a non-exclusive right (or 'bare licence') to reproduce your work.

10. Unlike many magazines, webzines and competition organizers we don't care if a piece has been previously published elsewhere – providing the author still retains copyright.

11. The one caveat we do make is no simultaneous submission please (and that includes work also being submitted to competitions) if only because it causes us unnecessary aggro when, having accepted a piece, the author then gets it accepted elsewhere in one of those 'previously unpublished' outfits and wants to unsubmit it to us – or else even asks us to delete from the webzine a piece we have already published.

12. We do not offer a critical review service - you'll have to get that from your local writers group or creative writing tutor. On the otherhand if we do reject a piece we will not make any snitty, rude comments about it.

13. While nothing is sacred - and we will consider 'political/current affairs' contributions - we do reserve the right to reject any submission we feel is deliberately offensive or actionable.

14. We currently do not pay for submissions - we have no money - and, just for the record, we are NOT funded by Arts Council etc grants or any other public funding.

View Article  Roberta Swetlow asks about submission guidelines + haiku
IS&T contributor Roberta Swetlow recently emailed in to ask about our submission guidelines. "Must all submissions to IS&T," she asked, "be previously unpublished material? Could I submit a piece that has been published in the past, to which I hold copyright? If the publication in which the work previously appeared has vanished from cyber or paper space, does that make a difference?"

So here is our answer, which hopefully clarifies the position...

We know a lot of other magazines, webzines and competition organizers get very up-tight and precious about all this 'previously unpublished' schlemozzle. We don't care. If something is good (and obviously if the author still retains copyright – please, never, ever sign away your copyright) we'll use it. All we take is a 'bare licence' to reproduce a poem or story. Besides, if a piece of writing is only ever used once (or, as Roberta Swetlow puts it – see below – is damned to obscurity) – whether online or offline – how is anyone ever going to hear about a new writer and their work?

The one caveat we do make is no simultaneous submission please (and that includes work also being submitted to competitions) if only because it causes us unnecessary aggro when, having accepted a piece, the author then gets it accepted elsewhere in one of those 'previously unpublished' outfits and wants to unsubmit it to us – or else even asks us to delete from the webzine a piece we have already published. Given that most readers receive an acceptance or rejection note within 24 hours, it is hardly a case of us unreasonably freezing their creative endeavours.

Not content with raising this pertinent question, Roberta went on to craft a haiku sequence that neatly sums up the plight of writers caught out this way...


Previous Publication


So many poems
Written when publication
Seemed a distant dream

Accepted – so proud!
Journal will showcase my work
Assumption turns trap

Submission guidelines:
Never known a published page
Virgin works only.

Other poems prisoned
In pages of journals
Now non-existent.

Words scream silently:
Previously published,
Damned to obscurity.
View Article  There is only one rule - and that is there are no rules
With Ink Sweat & Tears hitting 19 months old this month (we should have done something after 18 months but were too busy – hey, ho) we've been making some minor housekeeping and changes to the zine's interface.

In particular, we've rationalised the sub-categories after complaints they were confusing. So, concrete poetry, e-poetry, podcasts and multimedia are all now to be found in the Mixed & Multimedia section. And – rather more importantly – we have abolished the distinction between (verse) poetry, prose poetry and prose + flash fiction. Why? Because the distinction was becoming increasingly artificial and arbitrary. Instead, we take the view that there is only one rule in poetry – and that is: there are no rules in poetry – and you will now find all prose, poetry and flash in our 'New Writings' sub-section.

View Article  Frequently Asked Questions
Here are the answers to some Frequently Asked Questions about Ink Sweat & Tears...

Q.  Does it cost anything to submit a poem or piece of prose to IS&T?
A.  No, absolutely free, no catches - and contributors retain full copyright. All we insist on is that submissions are sent via email. Check out our Submissions Guidelines for full details.

Q.  Do contributors receive any payment?
A.  Fraid not - there again we're not making any money out of this site either at the moment, so we're all in the same boat. Our business model (which we also used with another newsletter we publish) is to first go with a gut reaction and to get the content right. We worry about the money later. The key is to enjoy the experience - everything else is just potatoes.

Q.  Who is the editor?
A.  Please allow me to introduce myself... My name is Charles Christian and I'm a long time writer and journalist - and more recently newsletter/magazine editor and publisher. But you won't have heard of me unless you are involved in the arcane world of legal technology (hence my email address) and the black art of helping lawyers to earn even more money through the use of computers. More recently I've been attending creative writing courses at UEA and had a number of poems and short stories published. The purpose of Ink Sweat & Tears is to fill what I believe is a gap in the market, namely the border-zone between poetry and prose - call it prose poetry and poetic prose if you like - in the digital age - and that means we are also interested in e-poetry.

Q.  Is there any way of providing feedback on the pieces published on IS&T?
A.  Yes, because the site is based on blog technology, we can accept comments - just click on the link appearing below each item posted on the site. Comments can be accredited or anonymous BUT because of the problem of spam and junk mail we do moderate such comments. We don't mind criticism but we don't want to waste anyone's time with postings plugging dubious shares and penis extensions.

Q.  What else can blog technology offer?
A.  Another advantage of a blog is that you can subscribe to a live feed - this means that instead of visiting the site to see if there are any new postings, you can just subscribe to the RSS feed and receive the updates directly to your web browser. And it doesn't cost anything.

If you have any further questions, just email them to charles@legaltechnology.com
View Article  Submission Guidelines
We are interested in considering all your poetry, prose and e-poetry contributions - and would aim to provide a very quick response (even if it is to say 'no') however we can all save each other a lot of time and effort if you observe the following submission guidelines...

1. We ONLY accept submissions by email - strewth, this is the 21st century - and anything sent by snail-mail will go straight into the shredder.

2. Send your submissions to charles@legaltechnology.com and include the words IS&T SUBMISSION in the subject line.

3. Please ensure your return email address is clearly indicated.

4. Please include a short biographical note - 15-to-20 words max - about yourself (and yes you can be flippant and include a web URL if you want).

5. Your submissions can be within the body of the email or as a Word or RTF file attachment - but no macros or .EXE files as they will not get thru our anti-virus firewall.

6. Because we use a relatively simple page design, it would help if you could submit your contributions as plain text without too much adornment. HOWEVER if the typographical layout really is an essential part of your submission (because it is concrete poetry or a calligram) please send a PDF (your WP application should include a print to PDF option) or JPEG of the work rather than risk the formatting being lost because our Microsoft Word defaults are not the same as yours.

7. Please note the maximum word length we will publish is 750 words - there again Einstein did write one of his theses in less words than that so there really is no need to be prolix.

8. If you are submitting e-poetry and have any concerns about technical issues, please contact us first. Possible options here include you continuing to host the work on your own webspace and we hyperlink back to it.

9. Contributors must accept full responsibility for the accuracy of their spelling as (a) we can't spell and (b) you may be using terms of art or unusual spelling deliberately.

10. Please DO NOT submit work that includes copyright material (such as pictures) belonging to other people/third parties unless you can supply us with written authorisation by that person/third party.

11. As the author you retain full copyright in your work. By submitting a piece of prose or poetry to us, you are merely granting IS&T a non-exclusive right to reproduce your work.

12. We can only accept contributions in English although there are no geographical constraints on where the contributions come from.

13. We do not offer a critical review service - you'll have to get that from your local writers group or creative writing tutor. On the otherhand if we do reject a piece we will not make any snitty, rude comments about it.

14. While nothing is sacred - and we will consider 'political/current affairs' contributions - we do reserve the right to reject any submission we feel is deliberately offensive or actionable.

15. We do not pay for submissions - we have no money - and, just for the record, we are NOT funded by Arts Council etc grants or any other public funding - we don't believe in having a bureaucratic tail wagging the creative dog.

16. Editor's decision is final and no further correspondence will be entered into.

17. That's it.
Google Ads
Charles Christian's Facebook profile