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Submissions can be emailed to: submissions@onecoolword.com

Or you may snail mail them to:

one cool word magazine
#1102 950 Jervis St.
Vancouver, BC
V6E 2B4

How to Submit

Want ocw to take your work seriously? Want to know what you are agreeing to when you submit to ocw? Then make sure you read these thoroughly!

You may skip down to specific guidelines for art, writing, and music - but keep in mind, if you don’t follow all of the guidelines below, we may not acknowledge your submission.

• Please include a cover letter with your submission. If you are sending it electronically, the body of the email will be considered your cover letter. Please include your full name, phone and email contact info, and a 20-30 word bio in third person.
• If you are sending your submission by email, please attach each submission separately, with each file saved as ‘Your Full Name - Title of Work.’.
• If you are mailing your submission, please send us a copy of your work, not the original - unless you really like us and want to give us a present. We do not return work.
• There is no limit to the number of submissions that you may send, but please be reasonable and only send your best work. For example, if you send us 10 amazing poems or 20 amazing photos, we will be thrilled. But if you send us 2 amazing poems and 8 first drafts or 3 amazing photos and 17 photos of your cousin's wedding... we will be annoyed. If you are submitting music, it is not unreasonable to send us a full length CD.
• Please do not send us emails with Myspace or personal website links as submissions. Due to the volume of submissions we receive and the time consuming nature of searching through personal sites, we ask that you choose your best work and send it as an email attachment or by mail. If you would like to share links with us, feel free to include them in your cover letter with your contact info.

What to Submit

We are always looking for your best art, writing, music, and spoken word. We accept all types, styles, and genres.

• Unlike many other publications, we do not consider past experience or accomplishments when reviewing submissions. What we do demand is that each contributor create a reaction. Make us cry, laugh, scream, relate. Move us, shock us, appall us, inspire us. And do it well, with attention to craft and audience.
• It is a good idea to check out a copy of one cool word magazine to see what kind of work we've published in the past and to get an idea of what we are all about. If you want to really impress us, send us something that we've never seen before. We love surprises.
• We value diversity. Use that concept when you choose what to send us. Our most common submissions are probably poetry and photography - keep them coming! But also keep in mind that if you include a stage play, a non-fiction piece, an essay, a sculpture, a comic strip, or a tattoo, then you will have also sent something that automatically stands out because of what it is. That goes for music too; if you haven't heard it on one of our CDs, we are probably dying to get a hold of it!

Rules and Restrictions

Don't worry, we don't like this part either. It's not as scary as it sounds.

• You must be a Metro Vancouver Resident to submit.
• Please send original, unpublished work only.
• As a modest thank-you for your contribution, one cool word magazine offers all contributors free entrance to the release party of the issue their work is in, where a discounted copy of the magazine will be available to them at the door.
• We reserve the right to manipulate any submissions that are sent to us. This doesn't mean we will mess with your masterwork. It just means that if we need to chop off a bit of silence at the beginning of a song submission, we will do that. If an image doesn't fit exactly within the magazine, we reserve the right to manipulate it so it looks best. If we find a typo, we will correct it. Don't worry. We're here to help.
• By sending a submission you are giving us permission to publish your work. one cool word asks for first serial publishing rights, meaning that we have the right to publish it once, for the first time, and afterwards it’s all yours. You also agree to give us immunity from any copyright that your work may infringe on. What does this mean? Well, It means if you're going to send us that song you made by re-arranging old Shabba Ranks tunes, then whatever copyright issues that may occur are on you. You shouldn't be stealing anyways you bad kids.

Writing Submission Guidelines

• If you are submitting by email we prefer Word documents (.DOC), but will also grudgingly accept plain text documents (.TXT) or a .PDF.
• Make sure you include a word count, a title, and of course, your name. Otherwise we will affix a name of our own choice to it, usually something like Abraham or Sally.
• Double-space all prose to keep us from going cross-eyed, pretty please.
• Be absolutely sure that you have only pressed the space bar once after each period. Otherwise we have to go in and delete one space after each period. It is very time consuming, and can help sway a decision when deciding what will and will not go into the mag.
• We do not have a word limit, but keep in mind the length of our publication (32 pages). On average, our longer pieces are usually about 3,000 words. You can also pick up a copy of our magazine to see the general word lengths we include.
• Unless you are an absolute genius, please avoid sending first drafts. We want to see writing that you have paid careful attention to crafting, with purpose and without grammar or spelling mistakes. Make sure you pay attention to those little red underlines on your computer screen and fix them before you send it to us.
• Also, though we realize there are a plethora of strange and wonderful fonts available, please resist the urge to use these in your pieces (unless it is necessary, as for a piece of poetry). Using a font that doesn’t make our eyes bleed makes it easier for us to love you and your writing.
• See What to Submit above for more info on what kind of writing we like.

Art Submission Guidelines

• Please DO NOT send us full 300dpi print quality images. Send us smaller images of the work, and if it’s selected, we will request the print quality image from you. We can’t afford to tie up our mail server with gigantic files. And besides, it’s just rude.
• Accepted digital formats: JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP, PDF, TIFF.
• Be sure to let us know in your cover letter if there are any specifications of how you would like your work displayed. If you do not say anything, we will assume that we may use it as we like. This includes our right to print your work in colour or black and white. Keep in mind the dimensions of the magazine: 8"x10.5".
• See What to Submit above for more info on what kind of art we like.

Music Submission Guidelines

• No covers allowed. Please send us original works only.
• All accepted tracks will appear on the CD exactly how we receive them. Please master your track accordingly.
• Accepted digital formats: MP3, M4A, OGG.
• Please make sure the file you send us is less than 7 MB. If necessary, we will request a higher quality file from you.
• See What to Submit above for more info on what kind of music we like.