e
will happily consider writing-related manuscripts from either
unpublished or published writers. We are interested in all facets of
writing, from first- person experience articles to genre-specific how-to’s
and informational articles about your area of specialization – whether
it be history or science or nursing or long-distance running – and how
and where your specialty can be used correctly by writers. Write
something that will help other writers, and we’ll be interested in
taking a look.
We
are a non-paying market with a 100% volunteer staff. In return for your
work, you get as many copies of the e-zine as you care to download, and
our sincere thanks. Your work will make a nice tear-sheet to present
when selling other work, but it doesn’t count as a professional market
because we can’t afford to pay.
On
the other hand, the e-zine is also free.
We
use only non-exclusive serial rights; what this means is that you can
sell your piece elsewhere before, during, or after you have placed it
with us. However – and this is very important for you to keep in mind
– if you place a piece with us that has not been published elsewhere,
we will be using your First Serial Rights, which means they will not be
available for sale elsewhere. Reprint rights are harder to sell. And
back issues will be available from the site for as long as I can
keep them there, as a reference for new people coming into the site.
We
strive to maintain professional standards. Manuscripts must be
professionally formatted, as free from spelling and grammatical errors
as you can make them, and in what you perceive to be final draft form.
We will not welcome massive rewrites of a piece after we have accepted
it – when we accept it, we consider it pretty close to finished, and
will only edit it to our standards. If we feel that it need massive
rewrites, we won’t accept it.
If
you have any questions, or wish to query about an article, email Lazette
Gifford.
We
look forward to hearing from you.
Holly
Lisle and Lazette Gifford
Publishers, Vision
Articles
must be at least 500 words with 2000 words as the 'soft' top. I'm
willing to go over that count if the article needs it.
Check
your spelling and grammar! Also,
if you are from a country that does not use US spelling conventions, let
me know in the email. That
will stop me from making several 'corrections' before I realize they
aren't mistakes.
Place
your Title AND YOUR NAME at the top of the document.
I hate having to go search through emails, checking attachments,
to figure whose article I'm actually looking reading.
Use
one of these fonts: Courier, Courier New, Times New Roman, Verdana or
Arial, 12pt.
Double
space your manuscript.
Do
not indent
.
I
would like submissions to be made in either Word Doc files, or .rtf
files, and as attachments to the email. (I believe that WordPerfect
allows .rtf saves, doesn't it?) If
you use Works, a regular file will do, although (at least in the 4.5
version I have), this program also allows for an .rtf file save.
A
plain text copy (.txt) can be sent, but be certain to mark any italics
like this: *before and after the section in italics*, and bold likes
this: _before and after anything in bold._
If you cannot do attachments, use the body of the letter as the
last resort.
Indicate
book titles with italics. And
yes, that means if you are doing a Word doc or rtf that you can use
actual italics and not an underline to indicate italics. (This is not
common submission procedure, but it's far easier for me since I can cut
and paste to my wysiwyg web page editor.)
Do
not use an underline for emphasis.
Underline on websites indicates a link, and people often send
emails to say the link is not working.
Use italics or bold.
NO
HTML code except for links, and those written in this fashion:
http://www.whatever.com/this.htm
Provide
the ISBN #s and publishers for all books mentioned or reviewed. Do
this by adding the title, author, publisher and ISBN# at the
bottom of the file. The
same is true for articles -- be certain to cite them.
An
additional note to Word users:
You should turn off the 'smart quotes' option in Word which can be
found under Tools-AutoCorrect and then the tabs AutoFormat while you
type AND Autoformat. Also
uncheck the symbol replacement for --.
While Smart Quotes look really neat on the screen, they
sometimes translate to funny little squares that cannot be taken out
with the 'find-replace' feature, but have to be hunted down by hand.
If you are submitting anything electronically, you will very
likely hear back from the editor on these.
And remember -- a lot of print publishers are now asking for
electronic copy for their end as well.
We've
been receiving very good articles, and I hope that all of you look at
the list of upcoming issues at the bottom of this page and choose
something you feel comfortable with writing about.
We
are also still looking for general genre-related articles.
If you would like to write an article on how to research romantic
settings, the proper use of codes in spy thrillers, etc., let us know.
The genres we like to cover in each issue are:
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Fantasy
|
|
Horror
|
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Poetry
|
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Romance
|
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Science
Fiction
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Suspense
& Mystery
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Young
Adult & Children
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Young
Writer's Scene
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And
we are always interested in articles about the act and art of writing.
For
the coming year we are going to go through the steps in creating a
story. These steps should apply to both short stories and novels.
Please
remember that these cover only the theme section of the issue.
The editors at Vision are always looking for material on all aspects of
writing, including how writer's live and work, as well as material on
writing for specific genres.
March/April
-- World building (Deadline, February 1, 2003)
May/June
-- Plotting & Outlining (Deadline, April 1, 2003)
July/August
-- Putting it all together (Deadline, June 1, 2003)
September/October
-- Revising (Deadline, August 1, 2003)
November/December
-- Submissions and Rejections (Deadline, October 1, 2003)
Thank
you!
Lazette
Gifford
Managing Editor
Questions?
Queries? Submissions? Email
me!
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