Submission Guidelines

Revision 1, Dec. 2003

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Contents

1. Who & What We are
2. Mission Statement  
3. Our Origins & Who Can Submit
4. Frequency of Publication & Focus
5. Guidelines on How to Submit & General Good Taste
6. What You GET for Submitting
7. Copyrights
8. Editorial Staff’s Responsibilities
9. Zero Tolerance Policy -- Plagiarism

1. WHAT & WHO WE ARE

These guidelines are formulated by the Essex Writers’ & Artists’ Guild (EWAG, web site: www.essexwriters.com), after discussions among the group. We welcome intelligent comments for proposed changes based on merit and superior knowledge of the English language. We are NOT perfect. The following paragraphs give an overall view of our purposes, prejudices and intent with this publication. So if you are interested, please continue reading.

The Dream Towne Submission Guidelines details the format of the publication, basic good taste suggestions and the responsibilities of both those who submit to this publication and our own as the Editorial Staff. The Submission Guidelines will always be an integral part of the Dream Towne web site and will be updated to reflect any deletions or additions as this online publication evolves.

2. MISSION STATEMENT

The Dream Towne Editorial Staff is made up of writers who have demonstrated excellence in writing. Some of our members have published extensively, a few periodically, and other members are still trying to break into print. Dream Towne is a PEER publication, and as such, is here promote the craft and endeavor of writing above everything else.

Dream Towne is not a vehicle for personal agendas or flame wars. We believe in Free Speech, and uphold your right to say anything you want anywhere according to the laws of the US Constitution. However, Dream Towne is not a public place – it is a private kingdom "ruled" by a small group of people. If you don’t like this policy, then we say to you, “"The Internet is a BIG place, – go start your own ‘zine. If we did it, you can, too."

Also, your taste may not be our taste. We judge submissions with an open mind, though poems or stories selected for inclusion in this publication will inevitably reflect our own, individual slants toward art and what constitutes good writing. However, we want variety. We want different points of view. We want you.

Dream Towne’s theme, it if must have only one, is that inside each of us is a landscape, a place that needs to be explored and illuminated. These places, spaces, towns, vistas, universes, or whatever are visited often by writers and poets. These places can range from dreams of content and paradise to realms of nightmare or fear. Good writing pushes the envelope of prejudice, time, space, understanding, and the width and depth of the human mind and heart .  To do all these things, writing relies only on the frail human vehicle of language to accomplish these gargantuan tasks. We want Dream Towne to approach these things – for themselves, for art’s sake, and our own sakes.


3. OUR ORIGINS AND WHO CAN SUBMIT

Dream Towne is an electronic magazine formed by writers, poets and graphic artists who participate in The Essex Writers and Artist's Guild (EWAG). EWAG is an active and talented writing community.

The Editorial Staff of Dream Towne will consider all kinds of writing, regardless of the genre, provided they are ORIGINAL and previously unpublished. We are not a closed door to other writers looking to showcase their writing in an online forum. We do lean toward the fantastic: SF, Fantasy, Horror, Ghost Stories and Magic Realism, but we are not closed to other thought-provoking well written ficton and poetry.

4. FREQUENCY OF PUBLICATION& FOCUS

Dream Towne is a quarterly publication. Currently we are focusing on the Writing and Visual Arts, but in the future we plan to add an Audio Section since some of our members also compose music. We are open to submissions in ANY of these areas. Artists are asked to either: (a) volunteer work for the main gallery or (b) agree to work with the Editorial Staff and Authors to do story illustrations for upcoming issues. This is a great way to build your portfolio, get recommendations and your work seen.

5. GUIDELINES ON HOW TO SUBMIT & GENERAL
        GOOD TASTE

Dream Towne is a completely electronic magazine or ‘zine. We have no printed counterpart. We want to publish excellent, accessible works of fiction, essay, and poetry.

The Editors reserve the right to reject any work that does not meet a certain level of good taste and general decency. We are not here to censor anyone, but we chose not to promote works of literature that demean, discriminate, or gratify violence or bigotry in any of its forms. Work with excessive sexual content that is not relevant or integral to the poem, story, or essay will NOT be considered for publication. Erotica has its place, but that place is NOT this magazine. Using these basic "good taste" guidelines, we will consider poems and essays on any topic, and stories of any genre.

Poems should be no more 50 lines. Stories and essays should be no more than 3,500 words. Stories or essays longer that 3,500 words may be considered for serial publication in two parts in different, contiguous issues. Artwork can be any media, in color or black and white, as long as you can scan it and present the work in the electronic format listed below and it pertains in some way to the theme of the issue for which you are submitting.

Please strive for clear and precise use of language and grammar. Any submissions received that are unintelligible will NOT be acknowledged, unless they look like obvious problems with email transmission.

Any submissions received after the deadline established for each issue will be saved and given consideration for publication in the next issue.

Files for story and poem submittals should be attached to emails in .TXT format (ASCII) or as Microsoft Word files (.DOC) or Rich Text Format (.RTF) files.  You may also choose to past your story into the BODY of your email. Longer files should be sent in sequentially numbered parts, if necessary. Poets should keep in mind that exotic spacing and some intricate formats do not translate well into .HTML formats. Please MAKE SURE to include your name, address, phone number and return email address. If you do not hear from us within 3 weeks of submission, please query by email.

Files for artwork should be in either .jpg or .gif or .png format and should not exceed 800 kb in size for queries. At this time, we are accepting electronic submissions only. Currently we are interested in artists who do all types of illustration and also artists willing to have an opportunity to illustrate an entire issue.

Send story submissions to:

submissions@dreamtowne.com

Send art submissions to:

art@dreamtowne.com

For Technical Problems with this site, please send suggestions to our webmaster:

pam@dreamtowne.com

6. WHAT YOU GET FOR SUBMITTING

Let’s not mince words, you get no MONEY whatsoever. Unfortunately, all you get is publication credit. Your story, poem, or essay gets put up as part of this publication and people who surf the Internet will have access to it.

Your work will be put in an archive in .pdf format (which can be emailed to you upon requst) and will stay available for future download, even after the current issue is taken down. (Work will be removed from the archives upon request.)

So here's what you get: exposure for your work, a chance to hone your craft, and to see your work on a great web site with other top notch work, and a URL you can give to your computer literate friends/relatives so they can see you in print.

To the best of our abilities and education, the Editorial Staff of Dream Towne will work with you to improve and edit any submission we select for publication. And we are diligently marketing this site to get it the widest possible exposure.

7. COPYRIGHTS

All authors are advised that electronic publication in an online ‘zine such as Dream Towne, is considered by some to be formal publication (whether any printed magazine editors believe this or not is still open to debate, but this is potentially dangerous, precedent-setting ground). Consequently, if you don't want to lose First Serial Rights, or you're worried about who might see your work across the vast reaches of the Internet, then DON'T PARTICIPATE here. You've been warned.

Copyright statements affirming the individual authors' ownership of their own submissions are attached to each issue, as well as a compilation copyright requiring the each issue to be reproduced only in its entirety. Permission will be sought from the Dream Towne Editorial Staff, who will query each individual author/artist/before anyone is allowed to reprint or distribute Dream Towne in any other format or venue.

All rights revert to the author/artist after publication. Stories will stay available as .pdf's in Dream Towne's archives unless the author/artist requests their removal.

8. EDITORIAL STAFF'S RESPONSIBILITIES

The Editorial Staff is responsible for reading, reviewing and editing any work submitted to Dream Towne. The Staff has the right to request reasonable changes to any work considered for publication. It is the author’s choice to either make those edits or decline publication in Dream Towne. Note: We do not request changes to artwork unless the artist is working as an illustrator in conjunction with the Editorial Staff.

It is not the intent or purpose of the Editorial Staff to substantially change or alter the work of any other writers. Rather, we intend to give suggestions and make small changes that improve the overall quality of any work sent to us for consideration. Submitters should remember, however, that the ability to rewrite and take constructive criticism are ways to grow as writers. We all know that because we have all been rejected before and that is part and parcel of the writer’s and artist's craft. (The part we all hate the most, in fact.)

The Editorial Staff is responsible for getting Dream Towne online, answering RELEVANT email, updating and maintaining the Submission Guidelines, posting the Call for Submissions (which states the deadline for submissions and the projected date of publication), and obtaining publicity for the magazine.

The Editorial Staff is NOT obligated, however, to provide any author with an in depth critique or to defend their decision NOT to include a particular poem, essay or story in any issue. Writers who submit to Dream Towne must consider that such in depth critiques take a great deal of time and commitment. The best place to receive those kind of constructive comments is through participation in a writer’s workshop. We actively encourage people to join such workshops online and locally. You will be amazed at the help and support you find in such communities, and how much your own work improves as a result.

Essex Writers and Artist's Guild (EWAG) is not a critique workshop, but a support group where people gather to share work and present new ideas. We have all “done our time in those workshops” and realize their value for beginning writers.
 

9. ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY & DISCLAIMER

Any work that is plagiarized in any form will be immediately taken down. Furthermore, any subsequent work submitted by such an author will not be considered. To use an old adage popularized by Engineer Montgomery Scott on Classic Trek: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

There are NO exceptions to this rule. Copying anyone else’s work and passing it off as your own is the singular most reprehensible thing any writer or artist can do to another.

The Editorial Staff and Dream Towne accept NO responsibility for plagiarism or copyright infringements. However, reasonable efforts will be made to see that such submissions are not published.  Any offending material will be taken down immediately and a retraction will be posted on our website with an apology.

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Dream Towne Submission Guidelines

© 2004 Dream Towne,



an Essex Writers’ & Artists’ Guild Publication

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