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Philosophy Philosophy Serpentine publishes poetry, prose, and short stories where the internal is universalized, the unconscious made conscious, and the unity of all opposites: man & woman; good & evil; creation & destruction; black & white; life & death; and body & spirit are acknowledged. Mission Serpentine functions as a not-for-profit entity dedicated to providing a forum for the poetry, prose and short stories of emerging writers and poets. The staff of Serpentine volunteer their time and energy to production of the quarterly & special issues and administration of the annual writing contest. Operational funding is obtained from private grants. All fees collected from the annual writing contest are applied to funding the awards, with any excesses applied to defer operational costs. How to join Serpentine's email list If you'd like to be placed on our private email list for contest information and updates, please send email to publisher@serpentinia.comHow to become a part of Serpentine's staff If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area and are interested in becoming one of the staff, please contact us at publisher@serpentinia.comFrequently Asked Questions Q: How has the Internet changed your approach to publishing? Q: Has the net been good or bad for unknown authors? Why? Good or bad for publishers? Why? We believe it has been excellent for both writers and publishers. For instance, we conduct an annual short story contest where we publish and award cash prizes to the winning authors. Via the Internet, we promote this contest and the issue with the winning stories. We also publish the winning authors' biographies and links to other material they have published online. Hence these new/emerging writers receive significant geographically wide-spread exposure. Since our contestants are primarily new/emerging writers we also benefit by being the first to publish these emerging authors. Incidentally, we feel that the material has improved in quality every year since we began conducting the contest. Q: How do you see the net effecting the literary or publishing industries in general? I foresee online literary magazines such as ours as being the conduit for new/emerging writers to break into traditional printed media. Q: How has the net helped/hurt your business? The Internet has helped us by reducing our distribution cost to "zero". Our capital equipment expenditures (computers, printers, presses) are also very low. If we choose to publish hard copy, there are now online, "on demand" publishers (for example: iUniverse) that we utilize for a very reasonable cost. We would pay a set-up fee (approximately $100) and iUniverse would handle the production and sales transaction mechanics and return a royalty payment based on sales. Since this capability now exists, I could not foresee utilizing a traditional publisher to produce hard copy. Q: How would you tell aspiring authors today and readers interested in alternative in the small press scene to approach cyberspace? Most new/emerging writers (and many established ones) write in a vacuum. We suggest that new writers join a writing group to refine their material (short stories, novels, poetry) before sending it out to online or hard copy magazines. Entering contests in one way to gain exposure. Our magazine has been conducting an annual short story contest since 1997 which has helped new/emerging authors gain significant exposure. We also have a links page that lists writing contest information on many other sites.
Last Updated: 01-01-2000 |