| AREN, Inc |
 |
| Alternative Religions |
| Education Network |
| |
| "If
we suffer tamely an attack on our liberty, We encourage it
and involve others in our doom." |
| ~Samuel
Adams 1771 |
| |
| Close Window |
| |
|
| PanGaia Contributor's Guidelines for 2003 |
| |
| PanGaia is a magazine for all people who share a
deep love and commitment to the Earth. If you live here, this
is the magazine for you! Our readership includes Gaians, Pagans,
Scientific Pantheists, Quakers, Christians, atheists, and others.
The one thing they all have in common is a desire to express
their spirituality in harmony with the natural world. We hope
to reach not just people already involved in such things, but
also those who would love to join in if only they knew we existed.
We are particularly interested in developing resources for the
Pagan/Gaian community. PanGaia gladly accepts contributions
of essays, factual articles, fiction, poetry, rituals, interviews,
artwork, and photographs relevant to our subject matter and
goals. (Separate guidelines are available upon request for members
of the reviewers' circle, interviewers’ circle, and debators’
circle, and for those wishing to submit review copies; we also
have a stylesheet for punctuation/usage.) Please include your
check-cashing name, pen name if you use one, postal address,
email address (if you have one), phone number, and a brief bio
with all submissions. Put it on the manuscript itself, not just
the email message to which the file is attached. We cannot accept
submissions without this information! |
| |
| General Parameters: |
| |
| PanGaia is dedicated to helping explore our spiritual,
emotional, and practical lives in a way that respects all persons,
creatures, and the Earth while offering immediate application
to our everyday lives. Folks of all paths may send their work,
but our focus falls on material expressing an Earth-centered
spirituality. We refuse to accept material that demeans persons
or practices; we do not publish personal attacks, gossip, or
diatribes: PanGaia is a tool, not a weapon. Check out a previous
issue of our magazine or visit our Website to see what kind
of material we like to buy. |
| |
| All submissions must be the original work of the author/artist.
If you collaborate with other folks, we need to hear from all
parties concerned or else be assured that you have the legal
authority to assign rights to the work. PanGaia valiantly supports
and defends the rights of creative people to control their own
material; we do not condone plagiarism or copyright infringement
of any kind and will take action in that regard if necessary.
This also means that we require citations for factual submissions
– if you quote someone, mention a specific theory or argument,
etc. then you must give its origin. See our stylesheet for examples
of how to format footnotes and so forth. |
| |
| We do not accept simultaneous submissions within the Pagan/Gaian
market. This is due to the difficulty in obtaining first rights
to manuscripts that are in what amounts to the public domain.
Several times recently we’ve run into problems where a work
we bought or planned to buy has appeared in another magazine
in our market in advance of our publication of the piece. Although
we understand that the policy of not accepting simultaneous
submissions is new in the Pagan/Gaian market, it is fairly standard
practice for professional-level magazines in other fields. It
keeps magazines from duplicating each other, and we feel that’s
a good idea, so we’re encouraging the trend in our market as
well. However: if you feel that your material is appropriate
to more than one market (for example some "nature" articles
might be appropriate for magazines such as Sierra as well as
PanGaia) we may be able to make an exception to this
rule. If you feel such an exception may apply to your piece,
please inform us of where else you have submitted it when you
send it to us, so we can make a decision at the time we evaluate
your work. |
| |
| We are aware that you have worked hard on your writing, it
is personal and special to you, and contains your unique voice.
Nonetheless, we usually find it necessary to edit for length,
clarity, and grammar – sometimes at the last minute before publication.
Therefore, we cannot guarantee that your article will appear
precisely as you submitted it. If you do not want your material
edited in any way, please do not submit your writing to us.
(Also, please inform us of deliberate uses of non-traditional
spelling so the tone of your work does not get accidentally
altered.) |
| |
| If you have previously contacted any PanGaia staff regarding
a particular manuscript – i.e. sent us a query letter and we
asked to see the proposed article, or met the Managing Editor
at an event, or talked to the Editor-in-Chief on the phone –
please reference that prior contact in the cover letter accompanying
your manuscript! We deal with dozens, sometimes hundreds, of
people every month and, as much as we'd like to, we just can't
remember everyone off the top of our heads. So tell us when
and how you made contact before, and whom you spoke with, and
approximately what was said regarding your manuscript; then
we should know what you're talking about. Yes, you can ask us
if we think a given idea would appeal to our readers before
you invest all that time and effort actually writing it! |
| |
| PanGaia maintains contact with a number of regular
contributors, but happily accepts freelance submissions. The
easiest way to get your foot in the door is by writing letters
to the editor, short articles, essays, or reviews; you can work
up from there, so don’t feel that you have to begin with a huge
feature piece. On the other hand, if you have a longer piece,
go ahead and send it in; there is no prerequisite for writing
for us. Don’t be shy if you do not consider yourself a "professional"
writer or artist. PanGaia depends upon the contributions
of our readers to make this magazine a reflection of the Earth-loving
community as a whole. PanGaia is you! |
| |
| Compensation: |
| |
| PanGaia is proud to be a paying market. We offer
a standard range of about $.01 to $.03 per word for all written
works except letters to the editor, as well as a contributor's
copy of the issue in which your work appears. Occasionally we
accept reprints (almost always solicited by us) at a rate of
$.01 per word. We have minimum payment of $11 per piece, so
short works such as poems and reviews typically get a flat fee
of $11. Payment for artwork, photography, and other visual works
is negotiated individually; the Editor-in-Chief also handles
our design/layout work and you should contact her with any questions
regarding visual works. Other exchanges, such as subscriptions
or advertising space, may be discussed with the staff and may
be much more generous than cash payments. |
| |
| Length: |
| |
| Features (articles, essays, sidebars, fiction, interviews,
and rituals) should range between 500 and 5000 words. We most
often publish items between 1000 and 3000 words; we prefer in-depth
coverage to tidbits in most cases, and the upper ranges are
usually reserved for lead pieces assigned to specific writers.
For poetry, we suggest a maximum length of 100 lines per poem;
please bear in mind that we are more likely to publish shorter
rather than longer poems, as PanGaia does not specialize
in this type of writing. |
| |
| Format: |
| |
| Submit all written material in electronic format. Our first
choice is Microsoft Word file attachments emailed directly to
the Managing Editor at: ysabet@worthlink.net
with a second copy to the Editor-in-Chief at editor@pangaia.com.
Other acceptable file attachment formats include text files
and commonly used word processing programs; you may also paste
the text of your manuscript directly into an email message.
Use a plain, legible font or typeface large enough to read easily.
|
| |
| We no longer accept hardcopy submissions of written material.
The small number of manuscripts we have accepted in this format
does not justify the large amount of time we have spent processing
these submissions. It makes more sense to save everyone's time,
paper, and postage by adapting our policies. Therefore we only
take email submissions now. |
| |
| Diversity: |
| |
| PanGaia seeks to represent the whole fascinating
spectrum of humanity as relevant to our subject matter. Therefore
we want to publish material by members of all different ethnic
traditions, racial heritage, sexes and sexual orientations,
religions, ages, body shapes and sizes, levels of physical ability,
lifestyles, degrees of experience, geographic locations, and
so forth. If you belong to a minority and you’d like us to know
about it, you can put that information in your bio or cover
letter when you contact us. At this time, we are particularly
interested in increasing participation by men and by people
of color. |
| |
| Topics: |
| |
| Ecology, gardening, herbalism; activism, current issues,
and political concerns; scientific mysticism, magic, shamanism,
liturgy, and ritual; personal development, prayer, and insight
experiences; leadership, organization, techniques, and infrastructure
in the Pagan/Gaian community; spiritual fiction (including science
fiction and fantasy); scholarly research, history, anthropology,
and mimetic engineering; legends, folklore, mythology, God and
Goddess lore; recipes; health, interpersonal relations, and
sexuality; celebrations of Nature, love, birth, death and other
transitions; humor; interviews/profiles of individuals, groups,
or sacred sites. |
| |
| In selecting an angle, consider some basic points. First,
the above topics are general – you need something more specific
before you start writing. Narrow down the broad subject area
to a single incident or argument, or to a set of related ones.
Second, say something new and interesting. If you have seen
a given subtopic covered more than once in a Gaian/Pagan magazine
within the last year or two, think twice before trotting it
out yet again. Third, follow through on what you present – never
just complain about some awful problem and then conclude your
piece without suggesting a response or solution. Tell readers
what they can go do about it. The same holds true for more positive
articles where readers may want to learn more about your subject.
Fourth, no advertorials! If you want to recommend a product,
write a review, and not for your own product. (We need an objective
opinion on your product, so please contact us if you'd like
something you make or sell to be reviewed and if we are interested,
we'll find a contributor to review it.) |
| |
| There are some things we always love to see because we don't
get enough of them: anything that includes an innovative and
effective solution to a ecological/theological problem; humor,
particularly if it pokes fun at religion or government in a
lighthearted rather than snide way; and serious scholarship
which is delightful instead of dry. We'd like to see more high-quality
fiction and poetry too. Then there's a nebulous category of
stuff that defies description but which immediately grabs our
attention, particularly if it seems likely to have the same
effect on people browsing the newsstands. Upcoming focus topics
for 2003-2004 are: |
| |
| |
- Autumn 2003 "Good and Evil" (deadline April 1, 2003)
- Winter 2003-04 "Land Before Time" (July 1, 2003)
- Spring 2004 "Arts and Culture" (October 1, 2003)
- Summer 2004 "Animal Magic/Furries" (January 1, 2004)
- Autumn 2004 "Science and Magic" (April 1, 2004)
- Winter 2004-05 "Time" (July 1, 2004)
|
|
| |
| Debates: |
| |
| We invite you to participate in "Toe to Toe," a forum for
the expression of strong and opposing opinions. Here we present
both sides of hot topics so that our readers can make an informed
decision. See the current issue, or email or send SASE for upcoming
topics. Writing for this department requires a firm grasp of
debate technique; you must know how to establish an effective
argument without ranting, preaching to the choir, falling into
logical fallacies, or otherwise boring your audience with soapbox
brouhaha. A skilled debator also addresses the opposing side's
main points to refute them. If you don't want to write a whole
essay yourself, we accept topic proposals as well. Finally,
we have introduced a debators' circle similar to our reviewers'
circle; here we post calls for specific essays when we have
half a set and need to find a matching counter-argument for
it. If you wish to join the debator' circle, send your request
and credentials to the Managing Editor. Specialized guidelines
are available. |
| |
| Fiction: |
| |
| Exercise your imagination. Show us the kind of world you'd
like to live in, or the kind that scares you silly. Stories
may deal with any aspect of nature, sustainable technology,
magic, Earth-centered spirituality, etc. They may take place
in consensus reality, or they may add speculative elements.
For a good example of realistic fiction we like, see John Broussard's
"You Can’t Stop Progress" in issue #27; for speculative fiction,
see Alexander Bledsoe's "Croaked" in issue #25. We are especially
interested in stories which depict science solving problems,
people using their own talents to make a difference, what it
means to live as a Gaian/Pagan in today's world, hopeful but
not gooey futures, potential drawbacks of shortsighted actions,
or a healthy respect for diversity. Please, no "fantasy" or
"Dungeons and Dragons©" material about ancient
matriarchal warriors or large-breasted sorceresses; if it is
appropriate for Fantasy and Science Fiction©,
send it there; PanGaia's forte is magic in the modern
world. (We’ve been known to make exceptions to this rule, but
not often!) Retellings of myths or fairy tales are also unlikely
to succeed. The story you send us needs to link closely to our
magazin'’s overall field of interest. |
| |
| Poetry: |
| |
| We accept poetry in a wide range of forms and styles. The
Managing Editor has considerable experience in this field and
is very selective. (We have to be; we receive more bad poetry
than any other genre.) If you use forms, the technical aspects
of your work must be flawless; if you can't handle rhyme or
meter well, try free verse instead. Make sure you send us material
relevant to our scope; we get a lot of fluffy Christian, feminist,
and random literary poems that we can't use. Submit 3-5 poems
at a time, up to about 100 lines per poem. |
| |
| Reviews: |
| |
| PanGaia prints reviews of books, music, movies,
videos, and other relevant products. These typically range from
200-700 words. We accept unsolicited reviews and a copy of our
review guidelines is available upon request. However, a substantial
portion of our reviews come from a group of regular reviewers
organized by the Managing Editor; if you would like to join
this group, please send an email message (or a snailmail letter
with SASE) to the editor outlining your interests. If you are
a writer, musician, artist, producer, publisher, etc. and would
like us to review your product(s), then you may request our
review copy submission guidelines. |
| |
| Art/Photography: |
| |
| We seek portfolios from artists/photographers who wish to
place their work in PanGaia. We commission most of the visual
art featured in our pages. Please send a hardcopy portfolio
that we can keep on file for you; it does not need to be of
reproduction quality, but should give a substantial indication
of the subject matter and style in which you work and should
be on white paper. Size is not crucial here; in general, images
should be large enough to see clearly (preferably at least snapshot
size instead of thumbnails) but not so large as to cause storage
problems (8" x 10" is a good upper limit). You may submit material
in color, black-and-white, or a combination but we only use
color work on the cover. It is much easier to get published
with B/W work in the interior. Do not send originals! Indicate
availability of works in your portfolio; if we decide to use
anything we will contact you for a better copy/original. If
we ask you to send us an electronic image, the preferred format
is .JPG but .TIF or .PDF are also acceptable. (Yes, this is
opposite from our policy on written materials; we’re choosing
from available technology based on which works better for specific
uses.) |
| |
| PanGaia has a distinct style and tone that is not
always easy to grasp. We like fresh, crisp images that convey
a sleek professionalism without coming across as cold or modernist.
Aim to instill a sense of reverence, or whimsy, or joy – you
want to pull viewers into the world you depict. Our rules about
fantasy material (see above, under fiction) apply to artwork
as well; if it has wings, pointed ears, cloven hooves, or an
impossible physique, then it's probably not a PanGaia image.
(Rules are meant to be broken, but you've been warned, so don’t
be disappointed if your drawing of Astarte as a Xena-lookalike
with long red fingernails is rejected out of hand.) Certain
types of written material (interviews, event reports, travelogues,
how-to articles, etc.) have a better chance of acceptance if
you can provide high-quality photographs or artwork to match
the text. We do pay extra for such visual aids if the writer
can provide them. (If the accompanying photos come from an interview
subject or the like, we usually barter for them instead; our
standard offer is a ¼-page ad of the photographer’s choice
in the following two issues.) Questions regarding artwork or
photographs should be directed to the Editor-in-Chief, who also
handles design/layout work for our magazine. |
| |
| |
|
|