Submission Guidelines
Welcome to the rebirth of teemings, the e-zine
of the Straight Dope Message Board (SDMB)!
This is an edited ’zine. Submit material to
teemings@gmail.com. The editorial
staff (all professional editors and writers) will accept or reject
individual submissions, ask for rewrites as necessary, and copyedit the
material before it is posted.
Written Content
Types:
- Fiction
- Poetry
- Personal essays and memoirs
- Humor and satire
- Reviews (books, movies, music, etc.)
- General interest nonfiction (science, gardening, travel, language, popular
culture, etc.)
- Recipes and other crafty/creative how-to articles; we can run these with
photos or illustrations if you have them
- We will not run philosophical, political, or other polemical works, but
encourage you to consider posting your ideas at the SDMB
Submission specifications:
- We’re generally looking for pieces of up to 2,500 words. If your piece is
longer, check with the editorial staff before submitting.
- Send as a Microsoft Word attachment (both .docx and .doc formats are
acceptable).
- The document should be single-spaced, with no indentations, and a double
return between paragraphs. (Use of 12-point Times New Roman is appreciated
but not required.)
- In nonfiction pieces, don’t create hyperlinks; instead, use brackets to
indicate the text that should be hyperlinked and provide the URL of the
destination.
- Example: One popular forum at the SDMB is [MPSIMS].
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?f=4]
The Visual Arts
Types:
- Photographs, whether singly or in a photo essay. Another possibility is a
photo that serves to illustrate an anecdote or other piece of writing,
whether a long-ish caption or a short-ish short
- Graphic story-telling, cartoons, comics
- The visual arts as traditionally understood: watercolors, pencil or ink
drawings, etc.
- Multimedia pieces and handcrafted art: mosaics, collage, etc.
- Beautiful handmade objects that are usually considered "crafts": jewelry,
wood carvings, knitting, quilts, etc.
Submission specifications:
- To submit for consideration, you can either send an electronic file or
provide a link to an online site where you have pictures posted.
- If we decide to run it, you’ll need to submit a JPG, GIF, BMP, or PNG. Note
that it may be necessary for us to tinker with the size or resolution to
make it work on our site.
Music
To avoid copyright issues, we will only post music that is either original
to the performer or in the public domain. We can’t use music that you do not
hold the copyright to, even if you own mechanical rights.
- If you already have
something posted at YouTube or elsewhere online, send us the link. If not,
send an audio file in any of the standard formats.
- All music will be run
through an embedded YouTube player on our site.
- If you already have a YouTube video, we will link that.
- If you’d like to create your own video from a sound file,
several free applications will allow you to make a rudimentary one using a
still image.
- We can also create the video for you at our end once we have
the music file. If you have a choice of art for the image, send a link or a
file (see “The Visual Arts > Submissions specifications,” above). That art
should be either public domain, license-free, or author owned.
Frequently Asked Questions About Submissions
Q. Will contributors be paid?
A. No. Everyone concerned, including the editorial staff, is doing this as a
labor of love.
Q. Who owns the copyright, and who controls republication elsewhere?
A. The authors own their copyrights. Control of republication will mainly be
in the hands of the authors. Teemings will have the same copyright
protection afforded to
other compilations. While we may never get that far, you are also agreeing
that we have the right to publish “best of”-type collections.
Q. Will authors use their existing screen names, or real names?
A. Author’s choice. With your submission, specify which name you want us to
use.
Q. What about submissions that are in languages other than English?
A. Written content must be in English, but music may be in any language.
