Poetry Submission Guidelines

Content:
Aphelion will accept original poems with a science fiction, fantasy, or horror theme. Poems that, in the opinion of the editor, contain bigotry or slander will not be published. Any form of poetry will be considered; the only guideline is if the editor likes it, really, and that's a matter of my (warped) taste. We've previously published everything from haiku to mock - saga by way of limericks and sonnets. Works of any length will be considered, but if anyone sends in something equivalent to "Beowulf," I  reserve the right to serialise it.

We will accept previously published works, but please tell us where they have been published before, so that we can include a link or an aknowledgement.

We provide a free webzine, and have no income from this enterprise. Consequently, we do do not pay for submissions.

Copyright:
Being an amateur publication, Aphelion ask only the right to publish the work once in our webzine, all other rights are kept by the author. We ask to be able to archive previously published work, but will remove a work from the archive at the authors request (so as not to interfere with potentially paying markets). From time to time we may run 'best of' selections, in which we may re-run previously published material. If you do not wish to allow your work to be included for consideration in this manner, please let us know.

Writers will receive copyright notices at the end of each poem, a short biography, and if you include one, a picture. We can handle most graphic formats, but GIF or JPEG are preferred.

Cover Letter:
The cover letter should state that you are submitting the poem to Aphelion and should contain a brief biographical sketch for inclusion with your piece. One or two sentences is generally enough, but feel free to submit more if you are so inclined. I reserve the right to edit the bio if it is longer than the poem. If you wish us to publish link to your homepage please include the URL, but note that we do not generally publicise or include links to other publications, particularly paying ones!

Format:
Do not send more than one poem in a single email. The poem may be included either as a file attachment (Ascii text, HTML, or MS Word are acceptable) or as text within the email. You should be aware that when you export a story from a word processor as text, you will lose paragraphing and italics. If you are sending a story in text form, you might want to insert hyptertext markups to indicate paragraphing and italics.

1. To indicate a paragraph break, insert <p> between each paragraph.

2. To indicate italics, mark the italicized material as follows:

<i> This will appear in italics </i>

Please follow the suggested format:
---------------
Title
By (Your Pen Name)
[Text left justified]
THE END
---------------

Please always: 

• include a title for your poem
• indicate your byline beneath the title
• place the words "The End" at the end of the poem so I will know that I have received everything.

If you have deliberately not punctuated or capitalised your work, please indicate this with a note at the start. I have a tendency to apostrophise.

Submissions must be received no later than the 20th of the month to be on time for the issue then under production. Submissions received after the 20th will be held for consideration for the following issue. We tend to include no more than one piece by a given author each month, but will gladly run additional pieces over a number of months.

You will receive a galley proof of the poem in HTML for review prior to publication. If you do not respond to the email, it will be assumed that you accept the document as it stands.

Aphelion welcomes your submissions.

Iain Muir
Poetry and Filk Editor
poetry@aphelion-webzine.com