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Why
do an online magazine?
It's
much cheaper.   At
the beginning of the 1990's, when Pemmican began, the
desktop publishing "revolution" drove printing costs down.
It didn't take print shops long to recover, however,
and prices have been steadily rising since the mid-90's.  
Print shops, of course, feel that they have to raise prices
because the price of paper, ink, labor, everything, has also
gone up, and if they are to keep the same profit margins they
have to pass these costs on. Subsidized literary magazines
are inherently mainstream--not necessarily conservative or
reactionary, but not interested in biting the hand that feeds
them either.   University subsidized magazines, in particular,
are not about to insult the values of the people who are picking
up their tab. Subsidized magazines rarely tend to publish
work that deviates greatly from the stylistic, cultural or
political conventions of the day. They mainly follow the Hollywood
screenwriting rule which says, "Give us work that is
original--but not too original." They want poems
that are essentially safe but appear in a nimbus of revolutionary
danger. Sort of like an insurance salesman in a black leather
jacket. As an independent poetry magazine, Pemmican wanted
to keep publishing the good work that was being largely ignored
by the mainstream presses.   But, because of limited means,
there came a point when the skyrocketing costs of print production
could no longer be justified.   By bringing Pemmican
to the Internet, costs are reduced to a more manageable
level.   Going online is one way the independents will
be able to continue to follow their visions.  
Is
copyright the same for an online magazine as for a print magazine?
Copyright
works the same in the cyber world as the print world. The
problems and concerns of writers are addressed in the same
manner. Questions of ownership, reprint rights, and so on,
function in the same way. For more information, take a look
at The Copyright
Website .
What
does it mean that Pemmican has the copyright and I also have
it? Does it mean that I need your permission to reprint something?
Pemmican
does not retain the artist's copyright. Pemmican only asks
for First North American Serial Rights. You do not need Pemmican's
permission to reprint. Like many online magazines, a copyright
statement is made on every page in order to establish two
things: (1) a stated copyright for the artist or artists represented
and (2) a stated copyright for the page itself, as in: the
graphic content, programming, meta-tag content, domain name,
etc., which is the intellectual property of Pemmican. If you
don't make a statement on every page concerning your rights
and the rights of the artists, you can be looked at as fair
game by thieves who will lift your work right off the page.
They might anyway but this gives you a legal precedent to
take into court, should it come to that.
Pemmican
says it requires accepted work to be in MS Word or Word Perfect
format. But when I send an attachment, you say you are unable
to open it. Can't I just send you the poem and have you type
it in?
Sorry, but no. Because of the size of the magazine, volume
of daily submissions, and level of correspondence, it is simply
not possible for the editorial staff of Pemmican to transcribe
accepted submissions. If we did that with every single thing
accepted we would be here 28 hours a day. Poets
are, of course, welcome to submit poems to the Post Office
Box the old fashioned way. However, Pemmican is an online
magazine, the primary contact point of which is email. Most
print magazines require that poems be submitted typed or printed
on 8 1/2 x 11 paper and sent in a standard envelope. Sending
in origami folded poems hand written on ruled
legal paper in tiny envelopes and expecting special treatment
is not something most poets experienced in small press publication
would consider acceptable--or sensible--practice. Online magazines
have their formats as well. Pemmican's requires that accepted
work be in MS Word or Word Perfect and that it be sent by
attachment. Attachments are not hard. For those poets unfamiliar
with how to do attachments, a modest amount of research via
google.com will tell you everything you need to know. Pemmican
will be glad to be of help but poets are responsible for following
the required format.
I
sent an attachment but you say you are unable to open it.
Why?
The most common reason is that, rather than the attachment
being in MS Word (or some other familiar word processing software),
the file type of the attachment is given as "octet-stream".
Octet-stream is a label that describes the attachment as being
"a stream of octets". What is that you say? Well,
your email program knows it is a stream of octets, nothing
else. So,
an attachment coming as "octet-stream" can be pretty
much anything. You have no idea, and neither does anyone
else. Octet-stream could just as well be named "I haven't
got the slightest idea what this is, but I know it is built
up with a series of bytes". Or: "this is some kind
of a program but what--who knows?" For an attachment
to be in MS Word, for example, the file must be saved in MS
Word format. That is, the file extension must be .doc.
Also, sometimes people turn off their file extensions--never
a good idea, for many reasons. The upshot is that people think
they are saving their poem as a Word document but it's possible
they may not be. They'll never know unless they can see the
file extension. If the file that your poem is in ends with
.doc (as in: myPoem.doc), it is an MS Word document. However,
just to reinterate, if you send Pemmican an attachment that
is an "octet-stream", we can't open it. Insisting
that we try, or throwing your hands up helplessly and claiming
the boon of being a cyber-klutz is likely to reduce your options
of publishing online.
You
accepted my poems--but I'm having a terrible time with attachments
and just can't seem to get it. What can I do?
Having
said all of the above, Pemmican recognizes that contributors
to online magazines come from all skill levels. We will work
with you and try to help. That requires patience and persistence.
One of the more frustrating things, for everyone, is when
we try to walk someone through a process and they simply will
not listen or follow directions. Many poets these days teach
in universities. People who are college professors--and often
assign difficult research and analysis papers to their students--ought
to be able to figure out how to do attachments. Consider it
a test. For those people who just can't get it, however, you
can save your poem/s to a disk and mail it to the Pemmican
P. O. Box. However, it must be in MS Word or Word Perfect
format! It's more expensive to mail it--but it is a final
option.
Does
Pemmican only publish political poetry?
No. Generally speaking, a good reading of any issue of Pemmican
will yield a certain number of poems that would not be considered
"political". Although submissions of political poetry
is deeply encouraged, poetry of the imagination is also sought,
including prose poems, short poems, erotic poems (but not
pornographic poems), and poetry that might be thought of as
experimental in nature. The proportions of political to non-political
work in Pemmican will vary according to the kinds of poetry
submitted during any selection period.
However,
it should be pointed out that people who have not published
work in Pemmican before should take the time to read
the magazine, at least enough to get a sense of the kind of
work Pemmican favors. Sadly, every year there are poets
who are too busy with their poetic careers to bother with
actually reading the magazines to which they submit work.
Then, come publication time, they discover to their horror
that--gasp!--they've fallen into a nest of commies, socialists,
activists, discontents, malcontents and social protestors
of all stripes. If you're not comfortable publishing in a
magazine that leans heavily toward political poetry, then
don't waste your time and ours.
How
can I print a poem from this website?
Navigate
to the poem you wish to print, select File, Print , and OK
.
Does
Pemmican publish books or chapbooks?
Pemmican
is not publishing books or chapbooks at this time.
Does
Pemmican send out galley proofs?
Pemmican
does not send out galley proofs.   Whether
a poem is submitted via email or regular mail, poets
are
expected to send finished, proofread works.
What
happens when I discover a typo in my poem?
Typos can and do happen, regardless of everyone's best intentions.
When people send hard copy via snail mail, the poem is keyed
in by hand, taking as much care as possible. In the case of
email submissions, the poem is not keyed in but instead cut
and pasted into an HTML format. When poets discover typos
in their work online, poets should contact Pemmican
either through mail or email, politely make clear what needs
to be changed, and the necessary corrections will be made.
Whether the poem is keyed in or cut and pasted, however,
poets need to be sure that they have sent a clean, corrected
and proofread copy, and that it is the version they want to
see printed. One poet accused the editorial staff of "errors"
in his texts, of "putting things in" that weren't
there, "taking things out" that were, and in general
screwing his poems and bio up with clumsy abandon. When it
was pointed out that the "errors" originated in
his own texts, he further accused Pemmican of being
"defensive". Egotistical and pugilistic poets unable
to take responsibility for their own mistakes will be invited
to try their social skills out on other magazines. It's best
not to make every instance of a typo a High Noon issue where
fingers of blame are drawn. It's in everyone's best interests
to see a poem rendered as the artist intended it and by working
together we can make sure that will happen.
Who
reads online magazines?
The
same people who read print magazines (as long as they have
PC's or Mac's).   In other words, the same people who
always read and enjoy poetry. The average literary magazine
in America is read by less than 500 people--with certain famous,
though not necessarily exemplary, exceptions.   Online
magazines could potentially boost a readership into the thousands
worldwide.
How
do you find online magazines?
One
of the best ways to research a topic on the Internet is to
use a search engine.  
Google.com is an example of a search engine commonly
used.   Type in what you are looking for and it searches
for everything in its range that may fit the description.
  Try typing in "poetry" and you are likely to find hundreds
of listings.
The
Pemmican website looks odd in my browser window.
Although
there might be any number of reasons why Pemmican might not
look quite "right" in your browser window, there
are three immediate candidates: the operating system (and
the version) you are using; your monitor size (15", 17")
and the setting of its screen resolution (800 x 600, for example);
and the kind of browser you are using (Netscape, Internet
Explorer, Firefox, etc.). Any or all of these can affect the
way we "see" the Internet and its contents. Pemmican
was designed using Internet Explorer, Netscape, and the Firefox
browser.   Due to the number of browsers currently available,
however, and the speed with which they are updated, it's simply
not practical or possible on a limited budget to create a
website that looks exactly the same in every browser window.
  Advice on operating systems is outside the scope of
this reply, however it should be noted that Mac's and PC's
have significant differences which can cause variations in
how a website is perceived. Screen resolution, however, is
something that can be adjusted for greater comfort and flexibility.
For example, if you are using the Windows operating system,
right-click on the desktop, go to Properties, and at the pop-up
dialogue box labeled"Display Properties" select
the Settings tab. Approximately halfway down, on the left
side of the dialogue box, you will see an area marked Screen
Resolution with a slider that allows you to adjust your screen
resolution in increments. Pemmican was composed in 1024 x
768 but try experimenting until you find the setting that's
right for you.
Can
I submit a work-in-progress?
The
answer to that is...it depends. It depends on what kind of
work it is and what the author means by in-progress.
Serializing a long poem-in-progress is more likely to
be looked upon favorably--once again, depending on the nature
of the poem and the degree to which the part being serialization
is finished at the time of publication. When it comes to reviews,
articles and shorter poems, however, Pemmican must
reluctantly refuse. If an author is in the process of
writing a review, article or essay, or is contemplating the
writing of one, an inquiry to Pemmican concerning interest
would be the best approach and is strongly encouraged. Although
Web-based magazines have the capacity to edit text and upload
those edits to the Internet relatively rapidly, unfortunately
it has had the end result of inviting authors to send one
version after another of the work-in-progress until Pemmican
becomes inundated with them. This is not good for two major
reasons. First: constant updates increase the odds
that a corrupted text will make it onto the Internet, which
then causes anxious authors to send successive lists of corrections.
Second: the editorial staff is forced to spend long
and tedious hours combing the text, corrections in hand, becoming
ever more cranky and resentful as our time is wasted. Therefore,
authors are expected to send finished, proofread works and
finished, proofread works only. It is not the job of Pemmican
to endlessly chase spelling and grammatical errors caused
by the author or burn the midnight oil in secretarial bondage
patching in new and updated words or paragraphs here and there.
Pemmican will naturally correct ASAP any errors caused
by Pemmican.
(Also, see the above questions on galley proofs and typos.)
Can
I submit a poem that depends on unique formatting and fonts?
No. Each poem exists within Pemmican's
page format. The fonts of that format are either Verdana or
Times Roman. Verdana and Times
Roman are perhaps
not the most elegant of all fonts but they tend to be fonts
that are found on the vast majority of home computers. One
poet submitted a poem that mixed every conceivable font in
the universe--and believed that gumbo of typography essential
to the poem. Another poet insisted that his poem be published
using some obscure font that evoked pirate writing of the
18th century. Not only that, he wanted a background image
inserted that made the poem appear to be written on a scroll
of parchment. These are extreme examples but they demonstrate
that if every poem in the magazine were allowed to pursue
its own unique formatting and font the result would soon be
chaotic and the magazine would be unreadable. Good Web Design
depends on consistency and readability. We are not saying
that poems that use typographical effects are bad poems. Surrealism
and Dadaism are two artistic movements of the 20th century
that used layout, design, typography and fonts in marvelous
and creative ways. 20th century Graphic Design owes an enormous
debt to the Bauhaus Group alone. And that's not even talking
about Russian Constructivism. There are magazines that cater
to typographical effects in poetry. But Pemmican isn't
one of them. Work submitted to Pemmican is expected
to fit into Pemmican's
page format, not the other way around.
Some
of my poems have long lines. Will that cause a problem within
Pemmican's page format?
It's possible. We love poetry with long lines, beginning with
Homer and ending with Thomas McGrath. But, within the context
of Pemmican's page format, a very long line might get
word-wrapped against the margin and the clippings sent to
the next line as a stray word or phrase. We can deal with
that in a couple of different ways. We can shrink the font.
That's worked in the past. It's not a method, though, that
either poets or editors prefer. It reduces the readability
of the poem overall and knocks it out of phase with the style
of the rest of the magazine. (Bear in mind here, we're not
talking about changing the font. We're talking about changing
the font's size.) It's really a last ditch effort to
rescue a long lined poem from being totally mangled. The other
approach is to indent the stray word/s by 4 spaces. This is
an old editorial trick that says, in effect, "these words
actually belong to the line above." Again, not ideal
but perhaps more workable. Lest potential contributors think
this is some peculiarity of the Web, remember that print magazines
have format limits, too. Each page is a kind of "container",
of limited width and height. A great many print magazines
also have a difficult time accomodating long lined poems,
and often simply refuse to take them. We ask the authors of
long lined works to understand that any page, physical or
virtual, has its limitations. Pemmican will work with
poets to find a satisfactory solution to any problems of line
length. But if a poet really cannot bear to see the length
of any lines altered in any way or to have the font size reduced,
it probably wouldn't be a good idea to send that poem to Pemmican.
I
sent you a political poem. I thought it was good. Why didn't
you take it?
The
question of why do editors take what they take can
be one of the thorniest questions of all. Pemmican
is indeed a website friendly to political poetry. Political
as in: starting with left-of-center and working leftward.
So it's possible that the poem was not of our political persuasion.
Right wing "poetry" (an oxymoron if there ever was
one), like most fascist art, consists mainly of flag-waving,
boot-polishing and saluting, and will be kicked out the door
or given a fast track to the shredder. More often, however,
the answer is that, although the poem as a political statement
works just fine, it needs more revision to be effective as
a poem. But don't be discouraged. Some people send a lot of
work here before clicking with something. If you think this
is your kind of magazine and you belong in it, just keep knocking
on our door with work. Also, get together a poetry group,
take a poetry class, learn everything you can about the craft
of poetry.
It
was my understanding that Pemmican was going to publish
my story/ poem/ essay/ review this Summer/ Spring/ Fall/ Winter.
I can't find it at the website. Where is it? Did you decide
not to use it?
If your work was accepted, Pemmican has every intention
of publishing your work. It's true, there are magazines out
there which drop people's work without telling them. Pemmican
is not one of them. As sometimes publishing writers ourselves,
the editors have far too much sympathy with and respect for
writers to dump them or bump them without a word. But it's
important for potential contributors to understand at least
some of the differences between print magazines and online
magazines. With a print magazine, if you were promised a Winter
publication and the Winter issue appears and you're not in
itthat's it. There's no going back to the printer with
a do-over. The very nature of online magazines, however, allows
Pemmican to be fluid in terms of how work is accepted
and presented. That fluidity is exactly what characterizes
the major difference between a print magazine and an online
one. We
feel that this fluidity, which allows us to phase work in
over time, is the system that allows us to continue publishing
Pemmicanand keep our day jobs.
Occasionally there are confusions or misunderstandings about
when, exactly, a contributor's work is to appear. Polite inquiries
concerning the appearance date of one's work are, of course,
welcome. The editors of Pemmican will do our best to
answer questions and clarify matters to every contributor's
satisfaction.
Having
said that, we also need to say this: at the beginning of every
"issue", Pemmican receives a number of emails
from contributors who went to the site and since they didn't
find their work immediately want answers chop-chop. Aside
from (or in addition to) the "phasing in" of work
outlined above, we do our best to get things out in as timely
a manner as possible. But this isn't Time or Newsweek, or
even Poetry or American Poetry Review--in other words: magazines
with budgets, paid staff positions and strict deadlines. This
is not a business site, with strict contractual obligations
and money changing hands. Pemmican is an online politically
oriented literary magazine with a minuscule staff of volunteers
and organized by mostly one person. Pemmican is our
hobby, our passion, even our mission-but not our job.
We ask contributors to exercise patience and perspective and
not stand there tapping a stopwatch demanding to know where
their work is the second the next issue goes online. Very
little good will come of that. Again, if your work was
accepted, it will be published. Give it time. However,
for those writers who feel that Pemmican has failed
to honor some ironbound deadline, real or imaginary, and is
thus deserving of lectures and abuse, it is recommended that
in the future those writers find themselves another magazine
which will more fully satisfy their need for rigid deadlines.
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