Submission Guidelines

Blog Guidelines

The BeZine Quarterly Issues
Online

Only Send Submissions by email

content (themes) and dates

• Read our Introduction & Mission Statement.
• Read these guidelines in full.
• Read “How to Submit” in full and follow the guidelines.
• Note: We will no longer publish themed issues as of 2024 (Volume 11). From now on, each issue will have material relevant to our four previous themes: Peace, sustainABILITY, Social Justice, and Life of Spirit and Social Activism plus Best Practices (related to those themes) and BeAttitudes. (See the next section for more details.)
• The four issues will come out during the first 2–3 weeks of each season: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter.
• The BeZine is open for submissions only during specific periods. Work that is submitted at dates OTHER THAN during the submission periods will not be read.
  • Spring Issue Submissions— January 15 – February 15 (note, for 2024 February 1 — March 1)
  • Summer Issue Submissions— April 15 – May 15
  • Fall Issue Submissions— July 15 – August 15
  • Winter Issue Submissions— October 15 – November 15

Only Send Submissions by email

What we accept

• All work must relate to at least one of the six themes of The BeZine:
  • Growing SustainABILITY
  • Creating Peace
  • Building Social Justice
  • Living Activism and Spirit
  • Best Practices related to our foundations and themes
    • Please read information at the link if this is relevant to your work.
  • BeATTITUDES — work that fits the mission and values of The BeZine but either is not directly related to a specific focus-theme or is related to more than one of the themes.
• We are looking for :
  • Poetry
  • Fiction
  • Creative non-fiction
  • Analysis and opinion
  • Expository essays
  • Hybrid
  • Art
• We accept previously published work. You must have the copyright, though. Please include prior public information and any relevant link if the publication is online. We want to promote other sites that publish our contributors and will include the link with your work.
• We accept work that has been posted on social media. Do not provide links to social media posts. Simply note that the work appeared on social media and on which platform.
• We do not accept unsolicited multiple submissions to The BeZine in the same genre for the same issue. See the genre guidelines for more information about what you may include in a single submission.
• We do accept simultaneous submissions.
• Work submitted for an issue of The BeZine may be accepted for the blog, depending on our needs. We will ask your permissions to publish your work in the blog if we think the it fits there.
• Genre guidelines
  • Poetry submissions should be no more than three poems and total no more than 180 lines (i.e., 1 poem = 180 lines, 2 poems = 180 lines, 3 poems = 180 lines, maximum) in an attached file (Word, Pages, Open Document, or RTF — NOT PDF, NOT GOOGLE DOC).
    • We prefer stanza or section breaks in longer poetry.
  • Prose and hybrid submissions should be limited to no more than 2,000 words in an attached file (Word, Pages, Open Document, or RTF — NOT PDF, NOT GOOGLE DOC).
    • Flash fiction or nonfiction (750 words or fewer) is welcome, as are short stories (750–2,000 words), essays (2,000), and hybrid prose (up to 2,000 words).
    • Work 1,500 words or fewer will receive preference, as we are an online journal.
    • Send a query for prose over 3,000 words that tells us why you think it belongs in The BeZine.
  • Photographs or artwork: submit as an attached jpg file of high resolution (preferably 300 DPI and resolution of at least 1800 x 1800 pixels).
    • Do not submit files over 5MB, please.
    • Note: We will proportionally resize accepted work to fit our format and layout of particular pages where the artwork is used.
    • We may use details from an artwork in some layouts.
  • Video / music: submit links to audio or video work in the body of the email with a short (50–75 word) synopsis of the work and how it connects to the issue theme or our blog.
    • If you submit music with lyrics, please include the lyrics in a separate file as an attachment (Word, Pages, Open Document, or RTF — NOT PDF, NOT GOOGLE DOC).
• All submissions must be via email.
• Read “How to Submit” for details about how to format email attachments for your genre.

Only Send Submissions by email

Copyright

• By submitting work to The BeZine, you are confirming that you own or hold the right to publish the work with us.
• If your submission is accepted, you agree to give us the right to publish the work on the blog or in The BeZine, including re-publishing on either or in any subsequent collection published by The BeZine.
• If you are submitting previously published work, please affirm in your email that you continue to have the right to publish it. If you do not know, check with the editor of the publication where your work previously appeared. This is your responsibility and not something we have the staff to do for you.
• You retain copyright for any work we accept and publish in The BeZine; you may re-publish it elsewhere. We request that you acknowledge publication in The BeZine with any future publication elsewhere.

Only Send Submissions by email

PAYMENT

• We regret that we are unable to offer payment or editorial feedback. While we don’t offer payment, neither do we charge for submissions or subscriptions.

Only Send Submissions by email

Only Send Submissions by email

How to submit

• Only email submissions will be read.
• Prose, poetry, and hybrid: please submit as a single word processing file attachment for each genre (Word, Pages, Open Document, or RTF — DO NOT SEND PDF OR GOOGLE DOC). If you’re submitting more than one work in the file, begin each work on a new page. (Do not put more than one poem or flash fiction piece per page.)
  • Work must be submitted in English and properly edited. Submissions in other languages are encouraged with a high-quality English translation.
• We may make editorial suggestions for submitted work before we accept it.
  • Check your work carefully before submitting. We may on occasion send work we like back to the writer for copyediting.
  • Please note that we are less likely to accept work where language errors (as opposed to clear experimentation) get in the way of its message or our reading of it.
  • We may make corrections without consultations for obvious typos or grammatical mistakes and to match the style of the publication where the content is not affected.
• Please suggest a short collective title for groups of works that you expect to be published together (for example, 3 poems or 3 flash fiction pieces).
  • If you don’t suggest a group title, we likely will create one for the page the group appears on. This makes our ToC easier to read.
  • sustainABILITY
  • Waging Peace
  • Social Justice
  • A Life of the Spirit and Social Activism
• Include a 50–70 word bio in an attached file (Word, Pages, Open Document, or RTF — NOT PDF, NOT GOOGLE DOC.
  • Within your bio include links to specific publications you mention (but not to your social media, web page, or blog—see next item). If you don’t know how to create links in your wordprocessing file, please put the full web address in brackets— ( ) or [ ] —after the title of the publication or journal (we will add the hyperlink to the text to make it clickable).
  • After your bio include a list of additional links you would like to share: social media profiles, web page, blog, etc. We will have these as buttons below your bio.
  • Attach to the email an optional headshot JPG of high resolution (at least 1000 dpi width) in “portrait” (not landscape) shape (ie, higher than wide) to include with your bio.
    • DO NOT PLACE the headshot in a word processing file. Only attached jpg files will be used.
• Email format
  • Send to this email.
  • On the subject line of your email, include this (and only this) information in this order:
    • Your last name hyphen first initial (ex., Doe-J)
    • The genre (see “What We Accept“), theme (see “Content (Themes) and Dates“), and issue season (see “Content (Themes) and Dates“), each separated by a space. Note: if you are submitting to the blog, use the word “blog” in place of the issue season.
    • Do not put your work or bio in the body of the email.
    • Including a cover letter in the body of the email is optional.

Only Send Submissions by email

BEST PRACTICES

Ongoing theme for both
blog and quarterly Issues

• We are interested in learning about peace, sustainability and social justice initiatives that are working no matter where in the world. These will be considered for both blog and The BeZine quarterly issues. We encourage work that doesn’t just define or highlight a problem but offers solutions, especially when those solutions are already in place somewhere, proving effective, and might reasonably be implemented elsewhere. Indicate in your email subject line theme AND body if your submission is a “Best Practices” theme. We will consider best practices for either the blog or the quarterly issue, according to our needs. How to submit.

Only Send Submissions by email