For our next two issues, though, we have decided to shake things up a bit. Issue 8 will be an all-poetry issue, and issue 9 will comprise solely of short stories. We are looking forward to dedicating an entire issue of the magazine to each of the types of writing we showcase here at Sparkbright. It will allow us to focus on each writing style separately and, hopefully, bring the finished magazine to the attention of a wider, more diverse, audience.

Submissions should be sent to our usual address, and you can view our full submissions guidelines here, though obviously only adhere to the guidelines which are relevant to the upcoming issue. For now, we ask that people only submit poetry for issue 8; any fiction submissions will be returned to the author, and we will begin taking fiction submissions after the publication of issue 8 in June.

We look forward to reading your submissions for the forthcoming issues of Sparkbright, and hope that these two issues will give us the opportunity to showcase some fantastic writing. Most of all, we hope that you will continue to read and enjoy Sparkbright as much as we enjoy working on it.

In its pages you will find the work of 22 contributors from all over the globe. We have for you a mix of high-quality poetry and short fiction, so(we hope) there is something to suit everyone’s tastes.

Gracing our pages are a few previous contributors, including Howie Good, Martin Lochner and Matt Markle, as well as some exciting new writers such as Elli Stewart, Bob Kalkreuter and Len Kuntz. The cover art has been provided by the very talented Sarah-Jean Holmes, who also provided the artwork for issue 5. She has been a joy to work with, and has provided us with a gorgeous cover.

We would like to say a huge thank you to all of the writers who grace our pages – and to those we unfortunately were unable to include. We enjoy the chance to read every single submission that we receive, and we wouldn’t be able to put together such wonderful issues without your help.

Hopefully you enjoy reading issue 7, and we look forward to seeing you all again in June for issue 8! As always, you can find our full submissions guidelines here.

Sparkbright is now looking for submissions of short stories and poems for our seventh issue. There’s no particular theme for the issue, we just want to see some good-quality writing. In fact, I think we all would, really.

Our full submissions guidelines are, of course, here. We hope you take time to have a look around the rest of the website, and we look forward to reading any poems or short stories that you send over to us at the usual email address – submissions@sparkbright.org

And please remember: Sparkbright relies entirely on the stories and poems that you send us. We couldn’t put together a single issue without you, so we’re hoping that you’ll help us to put together another issue full of really great, new, exciting creative writing for people to enjoy!

We’re now taking submissions for our seventh issue, and we’ve been running for three years. I’ve learnt a lot in this time, and thought I’d share some of what I’ve learnt.

• Do research the idea before starting up. Have at least some idea of where you’re going to get submissions and readers from, and how you’re going to generate interest in your site.
• Do make sure you’ve got enough time to dedicate to running the magazine. I’m very aware that I fall behind with submissions quite regularly, and I’m even more aware that in the last couple of months I’ve not given Sparkbright as much attention as it deserved, so I’m trying to get back on track.
• Do have some idea of what you want to include in your magazine. Make this as clear as you can in your submissions guidelines. If you’re not picky about subject matter, at least be aware of a basic standard of writing quality against which you judge your submissions.
• Do use social networks. We’ve got a Facebook profile (be our friend!) and a Twitter account (follow us!), and they’re great for interacting with your audience.
• On a related note, if you use sites like Facebook and Twitter, do remember to update them! I’m very bad at this. I may also be developing social-networking-multiple-personality-disorder. OK, it’s not a real thing, but it does get very confusing at times!
• Don’t expect overnight success. If you keep at it, word will spread and you’ll gradually find yourself with more submissions coming in each month, and you’ll start to hear things like ‘I heard about you from a friend who was in issue X’. And that’s always exciting.
• Don’t worry about any negative comments. As long as you run the magazine with a professional attitude, and you’re never rude to people, you should be fine. I had an incident a few issues back where someone accused me of ignoring her submission, and got very angry about it. I found the response that I’d already sent to her, and re-sent it with an apology that she’d not seen the original email. Since then, I’ve heard nothing bad said about me as an editor, which is a relief!
• Don’t expect to keep your magazine running forever. Many different people have told me that most online magazines fold after the first or second issue, which is fine. Don’t feel like you have to keep it running –  you’re under no obligation to do so.
• And finally: don’t be afraid to have a go. What’s the worst that can happen?

A lot has happened since I last updated here in January. For starters, we released our June 2011 issue, which you can find here. And, of course, you can find all of our previous issues in our archives. We are taking submissions now for our December issue, and you can find all the submissions guidelines in the usual place.

In other news, I am now an official university graduate. I’ve got my BA(Hons) in English Literature, after three years of hard study, and couldn’t be more proud. Or more unemployed, but that’s another matter. As for Ami, she is around six months pregnant with a baby girl, and is currently on ‘maternity leave’ from the magazine, though we aren’t sure for how long.

Nonetheless, the December issue will go ahead whatever happens, so please do send your poetry and short fiction to us at the usual address.

This is just a short post for now, but I’ll be back soon, I promise. Or at least, sooner than seven months from now…

• A new home: That’s right. Early 2010 (February, perhaps?) we moved from our horrible old freewebs site to this one. I’ve just paid for another year’s worth of… er… whatever it is that allows us to be sparkbright.org so we’ll be here into 2012, too!
• Two new issues: Well of course you know that by now. The magazine releases issues every six months, in December and January. Feeling nostalgic? Well here’s issues 4 and 5 for you as a reminder of 2010.
• Our first review: Courtesy of Sabotage Reviews – you can read their review of our fourth issue. And, while you’re there, maybe you’ll take the time to look round the rest of their site. It’s a pretty good read…
• We joined Facebook!
• We judged a poetry contest and featured the winner (Renée Sigel) in our fifth issue. The contest was run by the wonderful team at One Stop Poetry, and we had a great time helping with the judging.

I could bore you with facts and figures about how we’re growing as a site and the increase in numbers of submissions we’re getting, but that’s not very interesting unless you’re a bit of a numbers geek like me. Let’s just say that 2010 was a great year for us at Sparkbright, and I’m hoping that 2011 will continue in much the same vein. Keep your eyes open for issues 6 and 7 coming later this year, and remember to keep sending us your submissions!

Happy new year from Emily and Ami at Sparkbright magazine.

Gracing our pages is the work of the winner of One Stop Poetry’s Fall 2010 contest; her poetry is featured alongside previous contributors like Chris Holdaway, Matt Markle, Peycho Kanev and Howie Good, to name but a few. We also have a large selection of writers who are new to the pages of Sparkbright, with Steve Nash and Richie McCaffery being only two of the talented wordsmiths that we are proud to have been given the opportunity to include.

We would like to say a massive thank you to all of the writers who we have included – and to those we have not. We enjoy the chance to read every single submission that we receive, and we wouldn’t be able to put together such wonderful issues without your help. Also, we would like to thank Sarah-Jean Holmes, our cover artist, for being so easy to work with, and for providing us with a beautiful cover for this issue.

Hopefully you will all enjoy reading issue 5, and will send us some more writing to consider for issue 6, due June 2011!

Meet One Stop Poetry, a fab blogsite where you can fulfil all your poetic needs. I’ll tell you more about them another day, but until then, this:

The One Stop Poetry Fall 2010 Competition.

Announced earlier this week, the One Stop Poetry team bring you their latest competition, with the theme of “Through a Child’s Eyes”. The competition is running until 22nd October, and the winner gets published…. right here in Sparkbright!

I’m thrilled to be teaming up with the One Stop Poetry team on this; it’s a great opportunity for both of us. And I’m really excited to be able to offer publication to the winning entry, in our December issue. We at Sparkbright will be assisting with the judging (in the later stages, I think), and I’m really looking forward to seeing what people come up with.

I do need to say a quick thank you to Leslie at One Stop Poetry for getting in touch with us in the first place; I’m thrilled to be working with you guys on such an exciting project.

Go and check it out. Tell your friends. And just spend some time browsing all the wonderful poems that are showcased on their website!

Three things you should consider:

• What you are submitting
• How you are submitting it
• Where you are submitting it to

What:

So you want to send some of your creative writing out to be considered for publication. That’s great, but take a second look at it before you do so. Check spelling, grammar and that there’s no typos. Edit it, at least once. Read and re-read it to make sure that it flows and that it makes sense. Are you sending poetry? Then check formatting and line breaks. Are you sending fiction? Check your paragraphs. No-one likes to read a solid block of text that goes on for three pages without a single paragraph break. You want to make your work easy and accessible to read. If the writing you are submitting gives the reader a migraine as they try to get through it… well, that’s not exactly the impression you want to leave them with, is it?

How:

Are you sending it by email or by post? If it’s by email, is it an attachment or is it in the body of the email? (Hint: places normally specify in their submissions guidelines. If in doubt, send work in the body of an email, as it makes it more accessible, minimises the risk of viruses, and minimises the risk of compatability problems when opening the document.) At Sparkbright, we like our email submissions in the body of an email, and make a rule not to open attachments. You will get a message back asking you to resubmit in accordance with our submissions guidelines. And while that may seem trivial or petty to you, it makes our lives a LOT easier.

If you’re sending your work out by post… DON’T send your only copy! Most places will not return your work to you after considerating it, so make sure you’ve got spares. You should also check that you’ve paid the correct postage, and that you’ve enclosed your contact details. It’s always helpful to include a stamped, self-addressed envelopes for those all-important response letters.

You should also consider your covering letter or email. It is generally expected that with postal submissions you will send a covering letter, but it is suprising how many people send their email submissions to us without one. I’m not saying you should draft a formal letter to us, but you should send something. Even if it’s just “Dear Emily, I am sending you pieces X, Y and Z for consideration in issue # of Sparkbright. I hope to hear back from you soon. Regards, Joe Bloggs.” That said, you can put too much into a cover letter. It’s not that we don’t care, it’s just that your life story and a list of EVERY SINGLE publication credit (yes, even that poem you had in that school anthology when you were five) to your name, is a little too much information for us to take in. We want to keep our minds fresh for reading your writing, rather than get bogged down in the minutae of your life. See what I mean?

Where:

Hopefully you’ll have given this some thought before you got started. But it is very important to match your pieces to appropriate places for publication. For instance, you wouldn’t send your story about the Satanic lesbian witch to a magazine run by the Church of England, would you? But it’s a good idea to have actually read a previous issue or publication by the magazine/journal/small press that you are sending to. Browse their most recent issue, try and get a feel for the type of writing they’re after. If you’re sending your writing to us at Sparkbright, you’ve got no excuse! You can find all our past issues for free, here. This is the case with many online magazines. And many print journals have sections on their website where you can read samples from their latest issue.

You might also want to try and find out the editor’s name. A submission starting “Dear Joe Bloggs” is much nicer than one saying “Dear Sir”. At the very least you should have an awareness of whether the editor is male or female. We receive lots of emails here started “Dear Sir”, and neither of us here at Sparkbright are male. It’ll save you some embarrassment when you get an email back signed “Miss Josephine Bloggs”…

Oh, and one last thing. Always make sure you read the submissions guidelines!

Think we’ve missed anything? Let us know. Otherwise… Go forth and publish!

WalkingBlind magazine is headed up by Kendra Gimblet as the Executive Editor, and released its first issue earlier this month. It contains a wonderful mix of visual art, creative writing, and informative articles, as well as some captivating cover art. WalkingBlind magazine is currently taking submissions for its second issue (deadline 20th August) – I for one am considering submitting some poetry for Kendra to consider.

From the very first issue, you can already see that this magazine looks fantastic. It is very well put together, visually striking, and works very hard to combine visual and literary art side by side. You can find their first issue (as well as any subsequent issues) here, and their submissions guidelines here. (Please note that submissions are sent via a form on the website, rather than by post or email.)

I am very excited to have come across this very exciting art and literature magazine. I hope that you will join me in wishing Kendra and her team all the best in putting together their future issues, and I am really looking forward to seeing how this magazine carries on, after such an exciting, promising start.