Frequently Asked Questions

Do you take pieces that aren’t traditional text or visual art forms?

Yes! In fact, we love having as much variety in our journal as we can. Recipes, children’s books, meditations, whatever creative thing you have! As a digital journal, we can only publish things that will work in a PDF, but if you have something and you’re not sure how to make it work, you can always email us info[at]burnbeforereadingmag.com

What formats should my submissions be in?

We accept any of the basic image/text file formats (png, jpg, doc, rtf, pdf, etc). However:

For images, we need something fairly high-res. There’s a chance that we’ll need your image to take up an entire page, and low-res images might get pixelated. If you have both a high-res and low-res version, and you want to make our lives easier by sending both, please do!

For text, it’s best to use some kind of word processor, rather than just including it in the body of an email. The reason is that emails don’t do a good job of managing line-breaks and empty space. When we copy-paste your work out of the email, we’ll probably have to go back and put the spaces in manually. It’s a lot less work if we receive it as a doc (or something similar).

Is there a word-count restriction for text?

There is no hard and fast restriction. However, BBR has limited resources, and this can put a constraint on the number of pages that can be included in each issue. Shorter pieces are just easier to fit into an issue than long ones are. A good guideline would be to keep it under 6000 words.

Can I use Burn Before Reading to get the word out about a product, service, or event?

No. Burn Before Reading adheres to the Decommodification Principle, which means that we cannot run anything that advertises a product or service, however burner-y it may be.

Are there any major content restrictions that I should know about?

We reserve the right to not publish any pieces for any reason, and will not consider any that are offensive, exclusionary, transphobic, racist, sexist, or incite violence.

Will you publish all the submissions you get?

We hope so! But sometimes we can’t, and we have to make tough decisions. When this happens, we will gather a group of readers to make decisions anonymously. They will consider pieces based upon the following criteria:

Ambition/vision: How interesting/unusual/clever/authentic is this piece? Does the reader find this piece compelling or exciting?

Appropriateness: Does this piece make sense for Burn Before Reading, or would it make more sense in a completely different publication? 

Theme: Each issue of Burn Before Reading has a theme! Does this piece fit into that theme?

NOTE: Theme is by far the least important of our criteria. The vast majority of our submissions have absolutely nothing to do with the theme, and that’s fine! But, if we’re really struggling to make a decision between two pieces, this might be what edges out one of them over the other.

Do I need to proofread my piece before I submit it?

Yes, please.

Do you take simultaneous submissions?

Yes! You may submit your piece wherever you like, as far as we’re concerned. However, keep in mind that other publications may not feel this way. If you wish to publish something here and in another journal, make sure that its appearance in BBR will not disqualify it elsewhere.

If my piece gets published in Burn Before Reading, does that mean that I lose rights to it as intellectual property?

No! It remains yours. Burn Before Reading owns a copyright over the issue of Burn Before Reading, but not the pieces contained within it. Basically, we own the layout and formatting work we do, but we don’t own the piece you created. See: copyright law on Collective Works https://copyright.gov/eco/help-collective-work.html

How much control do I have over what my piece will be presented?

For text, we have a unified style which we apply to all text in a given issue. Usually this is some kind of sans-serif font such as Garamond, approx. 12pt. We will make editorial decisions about how a page should be laid out, and in what order the pieces will appear. However, we will always send a mock-up to the contributor before publication. If there are any major objections, we will work with you on them.

Are you excited to look at my stuff?

You know it :)