Congrats! There is no selection process for Supraterranean.com, so your creative work has already been approved! Send all submissions to submit [at] supraterranean.com. If this is your first time submitting to Supraterranean, please read this entire page.

Quick submission info:

(UPDATE 12/14/09: This section has changed, so please read carefully.)

For TEXT submissions, send an email with the subject line containing the following: Supraterranean, the category, and your last name. Ex: “Supraterranean, fiction, Meador.” Attach your work in a Word document, as opposed to pasting the text in the email.

For VISUAL (or audio/video) submissions, follow the same email instructions as for TEXT. For photos or graphic design, attach the file in the email (preferably a 300 dpi JPG, or PDF if applicable), or send us a link where we can download the image from the web. For video we prefer that you upload your content to Vimeo (or YouTube) and send us a link, as opposed to an email attachment. That way we can embed your video in a player without filling up our web space.

In your email, please include a short bio (10-40 words) about yourself, and tell us how you found Supraterranean (e.g. – search engine results, web ad, a friend, etc). If you’re submitting a written piece, we recommend finding a free-use stock image to go with it at Stock.Xchng or Flickr (on their advanced search page, scroll down and click the Creative Commons checkbox). If you don’t include an image in your submission email, we’ll do our best to find one.

By submitting you agree to the default Creative Commons 3.0 license, which means people can share the work with attribution to you, for noncommercial use, as long as they don’t make modifications. This does not affect your ownership of the material, nor does it prevent you from publishing the material in the future. In rare cases we can post your work as “all rights reserved” (e.g. – traditional copyright) or a different CC license, but you have to provide adequate reasoning for doing so.

General Info:

Since Supraterranean is supposed to be an open-access creative community for and by the people, we will attempt to impose editorial guidelines as little as possible. With that said, the Internet is a mess, and we don’t want the site to be cluttered to the point of hysteria. As long as your work meets these basic criteria, has some artistic or cultural value, and is a sincere creation, we should be able to post it. The administrator reserves the right to deny publication of any submission if it is determined to be too offensive. All word or page count guidelines are flexible, but please try to stick to them.

We only accept electronic submissions. Unless you specify which issue you want the work to appear in, we will post it as soon as possible. The site will publish material on a rolling submission process. New posts will go up approximately once a week.

Please include “Supraterranean,” the class of submission (e.g. — “Fiction”), and your last name in the subject line of your email. See above for our file submission preferences. If you’re not attaching a file in the email, make sure there is a recognizable link to your work, and that we can readily download it.

Either in an attached Word document or in the email body, include your whole name, full contact information, title of the work, and a short description of the work (i.e. — what it means to you, how the idea came to you, how you made it, etc).

If your work has hyperlinks, you can either include the URL in parentheses after the desired link text (underline that text), or you can simply include the HTML coding (<a href=”URL”>link text</a>) where it belongs. If you’re going to include HTML mark-up for bold or italic, make sure to do it like this: <b>bold</b> <i>italic</i>

All submissions must be original work. Your work can be previously published. However, if a piece has been published elsewhere, you must have clear copyright to reproduce the work on Supraterranean. If the work has been created in cooperation with others, we must receive written permission (via email) from everyone in order to publish the material.

Submissions can also be an original combination of previous work, so long as the secondary works are used in a legal manner. For example, photos are available at Stock.Xchng, and can be used with simple attribution. Other options are Wikipedia (all content is usable with an attribution link back to original article) and Wikimedia Commons (follow usage instructions for specific content).

By default, we will use a CC license 3.0, which means people can share the work with attribution, noncommercial use, and no derivative works. Otherwise, authors can opt for “all rights reserved” or a different CC license. For example, a creator could choose to allow modifications of their work, as long as the person changing it shares the new work in a similar manner. This is trustworthy, legal, and a great way to promote creativity and cultural progress. However, if you reuse content that was originally distributed under a Creative Commons license, it’s likely that you’ll have to attribute the original author. For more information on Creative Commons licensing, see creativecommons.org/license/.

You (the author or artist) retain all moral rights for your own work. By submitting, the creator only gives us first-time rights for the specific issue, as well as the right to list the item in online archives. If there comes a time when Supraterranean would like to print some material in a paper issue, we will ask permission from the author beforehand. The creator also agrees to have their work appear on the same page as automatically generated, discreetly placed advertisements (hey, we have domain hosting fees to pay). We are capable of offering your writing, photography, and art as a PDF download, but you must specify this beforehand, as the default at this time will be not to include this.

You are also agreeing to subject your work to ratings, comments, and other interactive user responses. Pieces with the highest ratings and most visits will appear in a Featured box on the front page of Supraterranean.com along with Editor’s Picks. Furthermore, all material on our web site will have links to post the piece on various social networking sites. An author can probably opt out of these interactive features by specific request at the time of submission.

Guidelines by Category:

Fiction: 500-8000 words : We will accept short stories or a portion of a manuscript. We also accept (and even encourage) satire and parody. We may consider original dramatic works, and even video recordings of dramatic performances, but they must be of an experimental or progressive nature.

Nonfiction: 1000-8000 words : We will accept short stories, memoirs, and in-depth interviews (an interview alone can be 1000-4000 words). NOTICE: We will not publish news or “straight facts” stories — only analytical, meaningful works that provide perspective on actual events, through first-person (i.e. memoir) or third-person (i.e. observational) view.

Essays: 1000-8000 words : We will accept researched and opinion essays, whether they criticize some aspect of modern culture, or dig deep into the past to uncover lost truths. Due to the expressive nature of our web site, we’d prefer that the articles aren’t solely academic. There also may be an overlap between Essay and Nonfiction, if the essay is based on a continuous narrative.

Poetry: 1-3 manuscript pages : We will accept any poems — from sonnets to song lyrics to bizarre abstract phrasings, as long as it comes from the heart and holds some meaning for the creator. Submissions can either be a single poem up to three pages, or up to three poems on a single page each.

Video: 1-15 minutes : We will accept short films and films scripts, either together or separately. However, since our main emphasis is on writing, we prefer to at least publish the script (a script, at about one page per film minute, can be 5-15 pages long). We will write a 10- to 40-word synopsis of the film if you give us background info. Please at least include filming date(s), location(s), camera info, editing info, etc.

Audio: 1-15 minutes: We’re open to environmental sound recordings, experimental audio mash-ups, sound art, etc. We won’t take submissions that would fall under the traditional categorizations of song or music. In other words, this isn’t a place to post your demo (or even your self-released album).

Photography: 1-3 photos : We welcome a wide variety of photos, but especially ones that capture modern people (alone and together), culture, and society. We really prefer an image with a story behind it (please tell us in your submission email). That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t send in a photo of dogs or mountains or sunsets; it’s just a preference. We will write a 10- to 40-word caption for the photo if you give us background info. Please at least include date (if known), location, camera type, film type, editing info, etc.

Art: 1-3 items : We will accept any paintings or drawings — from oil paintings to crayon drawings to notebook sketches. We will also publish non-commercial graphic designs. We’re more interested in contemporary, controversial, and progressive art than traditional “fine art.” As usual, the artist must contend that it is meaningful, even if it’s lost on the general public. This could also involve satire and parody (For example, we would LOVE it if someone did a spoof of those moronic American Apparel ads that appear on any website directed at an audience under 30 years old. Graphic designers, start your engines…). We prefer 300 dpi JPG files, to present the material in high quality (the artist must create this file). We will write a 10- to 40-word intro to the piece if you give us background info.

Other: This is an experiment, so SURPRISE US. Since this is the beginning of the experiment, there will undoubtedly be many necessary improvements. Help us hasten the progress. We are open to any and all suggestions.