Open now for submissions! Please read full guidelines below before sending your work.
All submissions for issues 17 and 18 should be emailed to [email protected] by Wednesday 26th May 2021 (this is the new, extended deadline).
Growth & Spoil
For issues 17 and 18 we will be doing something a little different. These issues will be themed and they will be counterparts to one another. The theme for issue 17 will be Growth and for issue 18 it will be Spoil. We will be taking submissions for these at the same time so please specify which theme you are responding to in your email. Everyone is welcome to submit to both issues. Feel free to respond to the terms in whatever way you see fit and to utilise whichever definitions you like but do be aware that we are expecting a surplus of soppy stuff for Growth and we are generally not a soppy sort of zine, so maybe avoid doing anything too nice. That said, if you send us something nice and it's insanely good then we're not likely to say no to it. Whatever, do what you like and we'll let you know if it's what we're after.
General Guidelines
We're happy to receive poetry, art, prose, illustration, photography, articles, essays, manifestos, recipes, instruction manuals, letters, life advice or anything else printable as long as it is in some way surreal and does not include any snails. Generally speaking, written submissions shouldn't be longer than three sides of A4 but we have made exceptions in the past; these need to be in Word or Open Office document files as PDFs can be a pain in the arse for various reasons. All image submissions must be at least 300 dpi resolution. We are no longer making any exceptions on this. 300 dpi or we won't use your submission, however good it otherwise is. Further to this, issues 17 and 18 will be printed on uncoated paper and so colours may print darker, so please be aware of this before sending us your work. Submissions that use both text and image may also be considered but please be advised that we may wish to use one part and not the other.
Disclaimer
While we're obviously looking for the best work we can find, we want to make this very clear: We are not purveyors of taste.
We have no right to tell you that your work is good or bad and if we reject your work then it's probably just because it doesn't vibe with the zine. The zine is ultimately made up of stuff that we really like and that we think works well together but we've said no to plenty of great work. We may also send you edited versions back for you to review. This is not because we think we're better than you, we're very clearly not, but because we think your piece could work really well for the zine if it is edited. None of our edits are demands, you can dispute them and we're very willing to discuss various options for your piece, but if we edit something it's because it needs editing before we're happy to publish it. If we can't agree then that's fine and we obviously won't publish anything you're not happy with but please be nice to us and we'll be nice to you. The fantasy of a solitary, genius writer is precisely that, a fantasy; a myth. All good writers collaborate with editors, fellow writers, friends, family and colleagues. The only potential example to the contrary that comes to mind is Proust and if you think he's so good then prove it; go read the entire of In Search of Lost Time and if you don't fall asleep in the middle of the first book then we'll be amazed.
All that said, we can't wait to see what you send us!
Lots of love and slime,
The Just Snails?! Team