Clever Magazine, Publishing Guidelines (www.clevemag.com)

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Clever Magazine
publishing guidelines

The editor, Diannek is
also known as The Phantom.
The drink is a special one from
Brenekes (Poipu, Kauai).

Clever is known as the ezine for the neglected demographic. When I created clevermag.com in 1998, the internet seemed to be for everybody except me. I couldn't find the sort of content that entertained me and I figured there were other folks who probably felt the same way. That's when I got the idea to create my own ezine and call it Clever Magazine, the ezine for the neglected demographic. And, I figured there were other writers who would like to have their work published but wanted a larger audience than a personal website might provide. The first issue of Clever Magazine was published in August 1998, and we are still going strong. For the first four years we updated the site on a monthly basis. Beginning in 2003 with over 1,000 pages archived, we decided to update the site about every three months or so. We figure we'll change with the seasons.

Update! October 2018: We are passing another milestone. Our 20 year anniversary issue is in progress. I can still remember how exciting it was to begin this long journey. I didn't give much thought to the future when we began this project. That I still might be doing it 20 years later is amazing.

As I acknowledged a few years ago, the internet is changing. Social media comes in many forms. We're facebooking, twittering, reading electronically, and who knows what else. Ezines like Clever have become sort of traditional, and not as edgy and interesting as they once were.

Clever still get lots of traffic. We get fewer "new" subscribers, except for contributors. That's another clue to the changing way we are using the internet. Writers are having a more difficult time than ever finding outlets for their work. Ezines are still collecting the short stories, travel articles and so forth but we are having a much more difficult time interfacing with the new media outlets.

So we need to change with the times. For now, we will still look at submissions but we will be much more selective. We will be looking for work that will interest the casual surfer, or will get picked up by other websites. We will continue to publish: essays and short fiction, travel and humorous essays, and nature stories. Our format is designed to remind us of print magazines and our goal is to amuse, entertain and inform the readers, with a touch of humor on occasion. Most of the articles come from contributors (rather than the editor herself) and "Payment" is in the form of bragging rights only.

We are looking for:
Essays and short fiction: I'm easing up the rules here. See length. If you have a 10,000 word short story, I will look at it. As usual, no guarantee that I will publish it, but if you have gone to the effort of writing a traditional short story, send it.
Travel essays: travel essays. Photos are required. (.jpg files only)
The Environment: nature articles, or travel experiences with an environmental message.
(Poetry: Clever is no longer accepting poetry.)
Humor: Our humor page consists of short jokes, funny stories, one-liners -- the best of the current email humor that is making the rounds. If the humor piece is your original work, please indicate that information with your submission. All other humorous material is considered to be anonymous email humor and free to anyone who cares to copy it.
Pet Pages: personal essays or fictional short stories about animals. Include photos, jpg format.

The bottom line:

Send material as attached MS Word files to editor@clevermag.com via email: If your material is of relatively short length, please include it in the body of your email. Photos and accompanying artwork must be simple, quick-loading images: .jpg only. Send them as attachments. Do not embed them in your text.
Length (number of words): Short stories of 10,000 words or less will be acceptable. I will not consider chapters from book length manuscripts. We are always looking for flash fiction, and short essays, but longer stories have a hard time finding a home, so we will attempt fill that void.

Formatting your article: Arial font, 12 pt. type preferred.

Do not double space between lines.
Do not double space between sentences.

We will not edit your work for you. If it isn't ready to publish, we will return it to you.

Content exceptions: We are not interested in publishing x-rated or pornographic materials of any kind. We know it when we see it. We do not publish political or religious pieces. There is some leeway, depending on the story, but we are not interested in publishing political screeds like the stuff we can all read on facebook. Same is true for religious stories. There are other ezines that are covering that genre.

Review process: All submissions will be reviewed by me, the editor. If I am not sure whether a piece is suitable, we will hold a meeting and talk about. You will be contacted within four weeks. If you don't hear from me by then, send me a reminder email. Sometimes things slip off the radar. Our criteria for accepting work for publication are:

1) quality of the writing. We are eager to work with both previously published and new writers.
2) whether the material will "fit' into a future issue
3) whether it fits the general tone of clevermag

Payment for your contribution is limited to bragging rights that your work is suitable for publication on somebody else's website. .

Archiving your work: We have a new policy. We will no longer archive anything that we publish. If your work is not being read, we will delete it when we publish the next issue. If it is being read, we will keep it for another 6 months or so. There is no database for looking up older material. (We are still in the process of cleaning up our old files.)

Contributor's obligation: If you are published on our site, let your friends know. Encourage them to visit Clever. That will definitely help drive some new traffic our way.

Restrictions: None. You are free to simultaneously publish your work on any other electronic or print magazine.

If you have any questions about Clever Magazine's publishing guidelines, please fire off an email to editor@clevermag.com.

Diannek, Editor
www.clevermag.com
(9/18)

FYI: Here's the text of an interview I did with rejectioncollection.com about editing Clever Magazine. Occasionally Clever rejects material that we receive. This article might help prospective writers understand the process.