IPAN : Iowa Pagan Access Network :: Weavings Newsletter Guidelines

Weavings Newsletter Guidelines

How it Works

The newsletter is edited, published and distributed by volunteer members of our collective. The goal of the newsletter is to publish articles, art, poetry, essays and announcements from the members of our community. All contributions should include a clear connection to Pagan spirituality. Although we will comment on attacks on Paganism, articles and art should not contain attacks on any other religion. In the event that the editors determine that a submission does not meet our guidelines, the submission will be returned with an explanation of why we felt it was inappropriate for our publication.

We rarely edit articles for content, but may occasionally correct spelling and punctuation errors or may have to shorten an article to fit the space we have available. If we have editing questions or remarks we will contact the author to verify their permission to make the changes unless articles are received after our deadline and we can't reach the author before going to print.

What IPAN is looking for

Announcements- let us announce your events, rituals, personal celebrations, classes, meetings, calls for new members, calls for volunteers, births, handfastings, anniversaries, crossings, (we remember pets/familiars too!) congratulations on a new job, thank-you's to other members, and any other announcements you'd like to share with the community.
Calendar Events- tell us what's going on in your area. Have a regular meeting? Give us the date, time and place and we'll keep people up to date. Having a ritual and want to get the word out? Give us the details. Remember to give us the URL if there's a web site associated with your event or group so people can get more information, or give us a contact name & phone or e-mail in case someone has questions or needs directions.
Articles, Essays & Stories- talk about how your faith has affected your life? How do you interact successfully or unsuccessfully with others, have you learned lessons from the deities? How do you feel about events in the news regarding paganism? Are you raising a pagan child- how do you do it? What tools do you use? What have you learned from them? What traditions have been passed down to you? What ones have you made up? Anything else about your spirituality that you would like to share.
Poetry & Prose- inspired by the deity to write something beautiful and lyric? Share it with us!
Rituals - we want to publish your rituals! They don't have to be new ones and they don't have to be for the upcoming sabbat. We'll publish them after the fact just as happily. What have you done in the past that worked? Do you have something that you haven't done yet, but you think sounds cool? Ask others to try it out and give you feedback. Want to see if you can get some people together to try something once they read it in IPAN?
Art - we love art! Small images, large images, images to go with your article, your drawings, your photos, your cartoons, and web art are all great. All we ask is that any images you send are originals artwork by you.
Songs or Chants - they're great, just watch out for that copyright thing again and attribute authorship where it's due unless they are your originals.
Crafts- tell us how you made your ritual implements or sabbat decorations- if a photograph can be rendered into black and white with clarity we'd love to include it.

Methods of delivery and formatting

We will take submissions via e-mail, file attachments, snail mail, disk or paper hand-delivered to a meeting; almost anything but telepathic transmission or phone dictation.

We're capable of transferring almost any file format for text or images, but if you want to make it easy on us Microsoft Word files or ASCII text are easiest for us to read along with body text in e-mail. Image files can come in as .bmp, .gif, .jpg, .tif, .pdf, or .eps. If you work on a Mac, please make sure to convert your file to a PC version of the format you're sending or stick with good old .jpg or .pdf for compatibility's sake.

If you have an idea for an article, or need to bounce possible ideas off someone, that's part of our role as editors too. Email the Editor and let her know what you're thinking and we might be able to help you fine tune your plan or let you know if the topic has been worked with recently and what the other author did with it.

Payment and copyright

IPAN is a not for profit organization so, you got it, we can't offer you monetary compensation for your writing but we're sure your karma will benefit for sharing your spiritual musings with the larger pagan community.

Because we don't pay you, this means we also don't put any copyright or reprint restrictions on your use of your work. If an article you write for IPAN gets great feedback from our readership and you decide to send it off to someone who can pay you we'll applaud your success! Just remember to disclose to that publisher that the piece has been published elsewhere in some form so that you don't get into trouble with them over reprint rights.