Ema is a reader driven webzine we welcome articles, essays, poems, works of fiction and visual arts. Please submit and share your work with us, no one is guaranteed to get on to the website but we work to read all submissions and contact all contributes to express our thoughts. Ema is made possible by it's readers and i'ts contributes, keep reading, keep contributing, and if you like what is going on here share us with others.
If you'd like to contribute here is how:
1. Submit your article in the body of the e-mail. Attachments will not be opened. Trust us, it’s easier this way.
2. Title your article well. We get a decent amount of junk mail. “Buy anti-virus Software” and “Change the world by donating 48144” are not good subject headings. We can usually figure it out if you don’t follow these instructions, but if you don’t have an obvious heading, your submission may get trashed. Accidentally, of course.
3. Know the site. The best way to tell if we’ll accept your piece for publication is to read the articles we have already published. It’s not actually this cut and dry, but knowing the site should give you a general sense of what we prefer. We have different parameters for each section.
Essays: We are looking for thoughtful writing on important issues. For instance, if you wrote an essay on being pro-life, and it took into account pro-choice stances and discussed them thoughtfully, that’s the kind of stuff we love. If we’re going to pick three adjectives for what we look for in Essays, we’ll go with: provocative, distinctive, and, above all, entertaining. We like memoirs and narratives but the sames three adjectives we use to describe what we want in essays applies for memoirs and narratives.
Social Justice: Social Justice articles are about making the world (or your little corner of the world) a better place. We want essays that illuminate obscure issues, and stories that shed light on people who have been marginalized and forgotten. Write with your heart on your sleeve, but get the facts across too.
Arts: We accept reviews of anything, from Christian ska bands to literary fiction, from that latest ridiculous reality show to the most under-appreciated art house flick. We appreciate a steady stream of reviews or thoughts on new releases, but we’ll gladly publish an essay that offers a fresh look at an old classic, or would-be classic. We love interviews too – especially interviews that delve into the artistic process, interviews that surprise us, interviews that makes us look again at a songwriter, author, actor, or director we only thought we knew.
Visuals: We love the visual arts so if you can find a good way to send us a high quality image or movie we will take it even if it is sent as an attachment. Make sure to remember to title your emails as well as you possible can, we would hate to miss some great piece of visual arts.
Fiction: The submission guidelines for fiction are a little bit more difficult to nail down. We like fiction but we don't want to stair at our computers for hours trying to read your fiction piece. Make sure they are not much longer then ten minutes. If you have multiples that you would like to submit email them all to us at the same time, we reserve the right to take one or all of the pieces.
Poetry: There is not set style, theme, or topic, unless otherwise requested by the editor. No epic-length poems, please. You may also include a brief, one or two sentence bio in the body of the email.
4. Be patient and tenacious. If you’re writing a time-sensitive piece, it helps to let us know in the subject heading. If you haven’t heard back on your submission in two weeks, email us again. We’re not ignoring you.
5. Be prepared for feedback. Sometimes we’ll like a piece, but it is lacking something. In that case, we’ll send it back and tell you what we think. Writers are sensitive about their work, we know, but we promise we’re not on power trips. We want to publish your article if we possibly can. Still, the majority of contributions get rejected. If you want to, feel free to email us and check ahead of time to see if your article idea is something that would appeal to us. Additionally, it’s very likely your article will not appear on the site exactly how you submitted it, though we will not make any major changes without consulting you first.
6. Sometimes we break our own rules. The great thing about this job is we don’t have to follow the rules we lay out. It’s important to remember this when we reject your piece for whatever reason, and then you see a published article 3 months later that seems hypocritical. This isn’t an exact science. Additionally, the site may change with time. It was certainly nothing personal.
7. Keep submitting. One of our goals is to give new writers exposure. Please don’t be discouraged by rejections, and keep trying!
8. Payment. There isn’t any. We don’t pay for articles, at least not at this point. Maybe someday when we’re dining on lobster and have the income to pay an accountant, we’ll pay our writers. Until then, we’re all squeaking by.
If you'd like to submit your work email
jonnydm.18@gmail.com
