Submitting to Vision
A
note from Lazette Gifford, Managing Editor
've been Managing
Editor for Vision for two and a half years now since our very first
issue. For most of that time we
have had a set of easy to follow guidelines for submissions.
You can find them, right there under Guidelines.
I suspect that most
people never bother to look at them. People
who should know better send me material formatted wrong, or without information
I really need. (Title and author at the top of an article is a really good
idea...)
This is understandable
in some part. Vision is the
first publication for a number of people. In
fact, part of the purpose of the ezine is to give new writers a chance to
experience the process. I rarely turn down any article, and usually then only if
it is far outside the realm of writing topics.
If an article needs extensive edits, I do the editing and send it back to
the author who can then go back over the material and rework it to sound more
like her writing rather than mine.
However, starting with
the next issue, if something is not formatted properly I will return it to the
author with a link to the guidelines. The
more time I have to spend doing silly stuff like taking out indents (and if you
don't use the auto indent option on Word, that means taking each one out by
hand), finding ISBNs for books mentioned, removing html code (only links can be
in code), etc., the less time I have to work with writers on the material
itself. I run out of time because of unnecessary editing like this,
as well as late arriving material, and I end up editing to suit me, and with no
time for a turn around with the writers. This
can be frustrating for both them and me.
Following guidelines
also means getting material in by the deadline.
June 1,2003 is the deadline for the next issue.
I will ask for material after June 1 if I find that I need something to
fill out the issue, however, with the rare exceptions of some people I know who
won't need editing, I really don't want to get material with less than a week to
go before the issue is due to be published.
I don't think this is
unreasonable. I put a great deal of
time and energy into Vision, and besides getting about 2000 hits a month,
the ezine has drawn good attention from outside sources.
People who write for Writer's Digest have offered me articles, and a
number of people talked to me about Vision at the last World Con I attended.
Even though we don't pay for articles, we are considered, in production
values, a pro-level ezine. This is pretty remarkable.
One of the fun aspects
of working on Vision is helping a new writer find an article subject, and
then helping them through the steps of refining the idea and writing and editing
it. However, as I pointed out
previously, I have less time to do that if I have to rework too many articles
just to fit the guidelines.
Vision general
runs, in the PDF version, between 160 and 200 pages. That's a lot of material to
edit, format, and make into three distinct versions (html, PDF and Palm) every
two months.
So, here are the
things I want the rest of you to consider when you're writing an article for
Vision:
Writing for Vision is
a lot easier than most people assume, and a few of our writers have gone on to
sell material they first published in Vision, or to use the 'sale' as
part of a resume to get a job at some other publication.
So, let's work
together and get the next issues done.
Oh, and do go read the
guidelines...