New writing magazine - the Orphan Leaf Review

Drew makes some good points there. I'd be interested in hearing people's opinions on what my submission guidelines should be. Should I: (a) just ask that it be 2 pages of A5? (b) ask for previously unpublished? (c) ask that the submission is not part of a longer piece? I'm finding it hard to decide, especially given the format of the magazine ("orphan leaves" - see original message). I like the idea of pieces being written specifically for the mag as orphan leaves, makes it more of a work of art. But perhaps that's pretentious and not essential - maybe a mix of stuff would add to the mystery. Further, maybe the origins don't matter at all, as long as the content is good. Does anyone have a view on this? James

Hmm, it's not really specialised, it's just unusual. A collection of short pieces of writing. Do you know If On A Winter's Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino? In that, chapters with a thread of narrative are interspersed with chapters supposedly from books that you (it's written in the second person) are reading. These chapters are all very different, glimpses of stories. In a sense, the Orphan Leaf Review is a short version of that - rather than orphan chapters, it's single orphan leaves. I envisage the readership as people who like words, design (I'll be playing with format, layout, paper size, paper type), surprises.

I look forward to seeing this! And may even be moved to try and write something. As for your earlier questions... I suggest a variety of pieces from whichever sources but nothing too long...

I noticed 'If On a Winter's Night a Traveller' was on the lists at book-a-minute the other day...

Go to the Classics section.

It sounds highly specialised. What kind of readership/customer do you envisage?

I hope people are going to have a crack at this. I've decided that mine will be two pages torn out of a book that I only imagine exists. I had quite a bit of fun writing it. http://www.abctales.com/story/57044 No, I still can't be faffed with the link. Have a go and help James out.

PS A bit more on submissions: Each orphan leaf submitted should be two pages of previously unpublished new material, to be printed back to back on a single sheet of paper, A5 or smaller (allow 10 mm margin for binding). Please email submissions to jpwallis@ukonline.co.uk Copyright remains yours. Successful contributors will receive a complimentary copy of the Orphan Leaf Review. NB note the "previously unpublished" - please don't make your submissions avaliable online until/while the relevant issue of the magazine is on sale.

Can I just say, James, that having read Andrew's orphan leaf I would be much more likely to purchase the magazine than less. I rather liked Andrew's piece and before that didn't have any concept that what you're after could be any good. This obsession by small magazines to have previously unpublished material is silly. And the same goes for competitions. Their potential market is so tiny that any crossover is extremely unlikey. (I take it that not all your pieces are going to come from abc.) My advice to any writer would just be to lie. 'Oh no, never appeared anywhere before.' What you're suggesting also kind of defeats the object of abc. abc acts as way for writers to get initial feedback on their work. You'd be better of asking people if they wouldn't mind taking their stuff off abc after you have published your magazine. That seems fair enough.

Good luck James and go for it ABCtalers!

For anyone interested, I've reflected and decided to remove all unnecessary restictions from my submissions guidelines. (The necessary ones being that each submission is an orphan leaf*, printable on A5 or smaller with 10mm margin for binding.) *orphan leaf: a single sheet appearing as though torn from a parent book. A pure orphan leaf exists only in those two back-to-back pages.