[New-Poetry] Electronic Submissions

[Johnathon Williams]

Hey Tad,

Sorry to be so slow in responding to your questions. Life got away  
from me for a bit ....

> I like the format. Is there an error in Zachary Schombuirg's  
> reading? He seems to be saying "chain and pendant," where on the  
> page the line seems to be "charm and pendant."

Yup, there's an error. We sent the reader an original instead of the  
revised version, and there was a one-word difference. We're working on  
getting a corrected audio version for posterity.

> The (unintelligible) is part of the poem? Interesting. And something  
> you couldn't do outside of an electronic format that includes audio.

Yeah, neat huh? That was all Zach Schomburg's idea.

> Since it's one poem, up for a week, have you thought of doing more  
> with the visual layout of the page?
>
> Have you considered putting more information (click to receive RSS  
> feed, ITunes podcast) on the page with the poem?

Yeah, I considered it and went back and forth, but ultimately I wanted  
to keep everything as clean as possible. The design is something I  
worked on a for a long time, and the minimalism is intentional. I'm a  
bit of a design snob when it comes to web pages. Ninety-eight percent  
of them are far too cluttered for my tastes.

Now that you mention it, though, I might add the podcast link to the  
toggle box under audio button — that way it's available on the page,  
but not taking attention away from the poem.

Thanks for taking the time to give us a look. :)

-- Johnathon

On Mar 28, 2008, at 6:00 PM, TheOldMole wrote:

> Johnathon --
>
> Nice poem by Anthony Robinson, at one time a member of this community.
>
> I like the format. Is there an error in Zachary Schombuirg's  
> reading? He seems to be saying "chain and pendant," where on the  
> page the line seems to be "charm and pendant."
>
> The (unintelligible) is part of the poem? Interesting. And something  
> you couldn't do outside of an electronic format that includes audio.
>
> Since it's one poem, up for a week, have you thought of doing more  
> with the visual layout of the page?
>
> Have you considered putting more information (click to receive RSS  
> feed, ITunes podcast) on the page with the poem?
>
> All in all, good luck with this. It's a great format.
>
> Johnathon Williams wrote:
>> I edit an online poetry journal at Linebreak.org, and we only  
>> accept electronic submissions. The benefits are many:
>>
>> 1. Our staff can work from anywhere
>> Electronic submissions allow myself and my two co-editors to  
>> collaborate remotely without the cost of photocopying and mailing.  
>> Our publication doesn't have an office or a mailing address — only  
>> an URL.
>>
>> 2. Organization
>> Electronic submissions eliminate the clutter of being inundated  
>> with reams of paper. There are no SASEs to track or manuscripts to  
>> return. We read, track, vote on, and accept/reject submissions  
>> through a shared Gmail account. All correspondence is archived  
>> online, which creates an instant record of everything we do.
>>
>> 3. Speed
>> This is a byproduct of organization, I think. The delay between  
>> making the decision to reject or accept a poem and notifying the  
>> author of the decision is a matter of seconds. And because we can  
>> all access submissions at the same time, we make most decisions  
>> quickly.
>>
>>> Open electronic submissions can be debilitating, if one is not  
>>> careful.  MiPOesias allowed these for awhile; I became  
>>> overwhelmed.  I had to get assistants, and what began as a labor  
>>> of love became a labor.  I found that many people did not read the  
>>> magazine before submitting.  I rec'd a range that included poetry  
>>> I wouldn't look at cross-eyed, even some cowboy poetry.  If many  
>>> of the submitters had read even two or three poets I was  
>>> publishing at the time of open submissions, it would have likely  
>>> cut my submissions in half.
>>
>>
>> Amy's point above is true in our experience, too: some people who  
>> submit electronically obviously haven't read our archives. In our  
>> experience, though, the benefits of electronic subs far outweigh  
>> this one drawback. In our case, inappropriate submissions haven't  
>> been debilitating so much as slightly annoying.
>>
>> Aside from submissions, we manage all of our internal documents  
>> (style guide, production schedule, etc) online as well using Google  
>> Docs. I'd recommend a similar setup for anyone doing an online  
>> publication.
>>
>> By the way, we're a relatively new publication, and submissions are  
>> always welcome. You can check us out here:
>>
>> http://linebreak.org
>>
>> -----------------------------------------------------
>> Johnathon Williams
>> Co-editor and webmaster
>> http://linebreak.org
>> http://madething.org
>> me at johnathonwilliams.com
>> _______________________________________________
>> New-Poetry mailing list
>> New-Poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu
>> http://wiz.cath.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/new-poetry
>>
>
> -- 
> Tad Richards
> http://www.opus40.org/tadrichards/
> http://opusforty.blogspot.com/
>
> The moral is this: in American verse,
> The better you are, the pay is worse.
> --Corey Ford
>
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