Contributors wanted

PolletteIrieska

PolletteIrieska

Feel free to smack this message down, guys, if you don't feel it's appropriate. I just wanted to say that this is an awesome site, I love the concept and the campaigns are very creative. I'd like to ask the designers of the campaigns to consider submitting some of their ideas to Knowledge Arcana magazine. Yes, I work for them, so I'm slightly biased, but they're a good mag and they showcase specifically the talent of the gamer community. If you'd like information on it, just ask and I'll make the obligatory post of submission guidelines and publishing policies.

RobJustice

I'm interested. I've been thinking about trying to put together a portfolio of my work and trying to get myself published.

Micah

The first person to advertise something else on our forums! It's a sign of reaching the big-time when people start using you to promote their stuff. Just search for all the borderline spammy posts I've left on other forums...

Please do post the guidelines, and contact me directly ( [email protected] ) with the details. I might put a post on the front-page.

Also, you can use the private message system to contact the individual GMs directly. Most are very amenable to talking about their campaigns, hence why they're here :) Just find a campaign you like, click on the GM's name, then click on the little envelope next to their name.

Still, I'm sure I don't have to tell you, but it's good to get out in the open: all the original content is owned by the original authors. We (the site) make no claim to any of this, so only the original authors can give permission for publication.

photoneater

This is an interesting proposition. Is KA a D&D-specific publication?

PolletteIrieska

It's not DnD specific, but we did just get out from under the official WOTC umbrella, so you'd better believe it's always gonna be a big part of the magazine. We do seem to concentrate more on DnD than anything else, but we also put in articles about the Star Wars RPG and M:TG. Not sure how long Star Wars is gonna stick around, though, Lucas and his legal team are a scary bunch.

OK, here's the fun techie submission stuff for those that are interested.

Articles must be submitted in .doc, .rtf or .txt format. Preferably .doc or .rtf, if you can manage it. It saves on our editor's eyes.
Art guidelines came straight down from our layout director, they're a bit more hardcore. Everything must be at least 300 dpi and in .gif, .jpg or .psd format. If you're submitting full page art, it needs to be at least 1000 pixels wide.
Whether art or article, it should be sent to [email protected] from where we'll pass it along to the appropriate editor.
Also, just a side note, I know that scantily clad fluff is a tradition in both sci-fi and fantasy art, but we're keeping this strictly PG, so leave the fig-leafing on, please.

Micah, I'll have that email off to you directly.

PolletteIrieska

Oh, and just to make this clear... While we get the right to publish your work and archive it for a short time, that's all we get. You keep your copyrights, and if we want to use it in any way other than the magazine, such as a reprint on the website, we contact you and get written permission, first. Just wanted to clear that up before anyone got nervous.

photoneater

Ah, thanks for the clarification. I doubt you'll find much MTG content here (unless its me poking fun of the people that play it), but there are a few Star Wars games, and several d20 Modern games.

I think it is fairly natural to concentrate on D&D, as it is the most ubiquitous game out there. I was just wondering about some of the other games on this site that weren't D&D, because many of them are very imaginative and worthy of recognition.

bq. Oh, and just to make this clear… While we get the right to publish your work and archive it for a short time, that’s all we get. You keep your copyrights, and if we want to use it in any way other than the magazine, such as a reprint on the website, we contact you and get written permission, first. Just wanted to clear that up before anyone got nervous.

Good to know.

AidanDark

Interesting. What do the articles have to contain?

PolletteIrieska

At this point, we're mostly looking for fiction, but we spoke at the last meeting of including a creature lair feature. We also publish adventures, strategy guides, etc. My suggestion is to just send in something you're proud of and see how it flies.
I'll see if I can get more info at the next staff meeting (Wednesday). Being promotions, I don't really get to peek at the content before it's released. *cries*

PolletteIrieska

Update! I finally got ahold of our fiction editor and I can now give everyone a better idea of what we're looking for. We have a ton of fantasy submissions, so while we'll definitely look at them, keep in mind that you'll have a lot of competition.
We are at the moment most interested in seeing fiction based on d20 Modern, Axis & Allies, anything sci-fi. Our fiction editor would love to see fiction based on non WotC games like Shadowrun or GURPS. The minimum submission should be 1500 words, max should be 4500, though there is some wiggle room on the upper end. If you have any questions, feel free to send me a PM, I'd be glad to answer them for you.

DarthKrzysztof

I'm keenly interested in contributing; if I can find _time_ to write anything up I'll be sure to send it your way!

FemmeLegion

Oh wow...there may yet be incentive to keep working on my in-character journal for the HERO campaign. It's woefully out of date by now (I started it a year into the campaign and just sort of threw up my hands at the amount of material yet to cover), but we've had some pretty epic battles ('cause we have a pretty epic DM).

PolletteIrieska

I can tell you right now that our fiction editor would love to see it written up into a story. Put it together according to the guidelines and submit it. We still haven't chosen our fiction for i11 (i10 is about to be released) much less i12, so I can guarantee that it will be looked at quickly.

FemmeLegion

This Saturday is the big denoument for the campaign. I think it would be fun to start from there and flash back to the rest, so I'll wait until next week to start in earnest.

PolletteIrieska

I found out at last night's meeting that they've chosen the fiction for i11 already (hate being out of the content loop!) but we haven't even set a theme for i12, and that's the one that'll be coming out around Gen-con. We're not going to have a booth there. Just way too expensive for a non-profit magazine.
We do, however, have three members of our staff planning to be there talking it up and handing out printed copies.
In other words, hurry hurry hurry!

As for the articles, everyone is trying to figure out a way to throw something 4e specific in the magazine without shelling the 5 grand WotC is asking for the early SRD. We're not asking anyone to violate any NDAs, but if you know something or someone that would be a good article for it, I believe that our editors may just bow down and kiss your toes.

Now, we do have our own forums, at which I will be posting the updating Terms of Use for submissions. There's a public area that anyone can view and a private area where the staff does most of their talking. Any member can view the private area, you don't need to be staff to join it. The address is
http://s3.excoboard.com/exco/index.php?boardid=7663