Submissions have now closed for the eleventh issue of BAIT, this time on the theme of Currents! We’ll get back to you soon if you submitted :))
Join our submitters’ group to find some prompt sheets, and browse some old issues for inspiration!
When submissions open, send them to baitsubmissions@gmail.com and drop us a message in case you have any questions. Anyone can submit, whether from Cambridge or not, no matter whether you’re a student. First-time contributors are especially welcome! 💖
We’ve put together some submission guidelines to make the process as transparent as possible: they’re pretty exhaustive, so don’t be put off by them! Submitting is fun and easy, and this is all to make it accessible as well! 🤗
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
STEP 1: Create your submission(s). BAIT isn’t limited to any one genre, medium, length, style or subject matter – we’re looking for anything that engages with our theme (no matter how tangentially), reflects on it thoughtfully, or maybe makes us laugh in unexpected ways. Short stories, sonnets, comics, translations, textiles, travel narratives, manifestos and much more – it’s all welcome. You can submit as many pieces as you like, whether that be several in the same genre or across different genres and mediums!
We’re happy to take things that have been published before, and for stuff that we print to be published elsewhere later on!
We don’t have a strict word limit – we’ve printed writing from 10 words to 2000. But simply because it costs more to print more pages, we tend to take fewer long pieces – anything that fits on two sides of A4 will always be welcome, but if you’ve written something that’s longer that you think is good, please do submit it!
For art, it’s worth bearing in mind that the zine is printed in portrait A5, with some images as two-page landscape A4 spreads – so if you’re making a collage with text in, for example, try not to make it toooo small.
STEP 2: Format your work ready to submit to us. This just means making sure that written work is in a Word, Google Doc or PDF format and sent as an attachment/link in your email.
Images can be attached directly to your email, or if you are unable to attach them all because of file limits, you can link a WeTransfer, Dropbox or a Google Drive album instead and we’ll open it on our end! Good resolution images of art tend to be best – if it’s visibly pixelated, we might ask for another one of your piece. A phone picture is definitely detailed enough, though!
STEP 3: Try to avoid putting your name on the submission itself. This is because we anonymise all of our submissions before our selection process. We separate out the attached work from the emails they were submitted in, and use a bunch of spreadsheets to make sure we keep track of everything and can link back all the work to its creators afterwards. Making your files and file names anonymous is an easy way to help us keep the submission process as fair as possible!
STEP 4: Send your submissions to baitsubmissions@gmail.com!
STEP 5: Wait a tiny bit. We’ll sit down and work through all of our submissions once the submission deadline closes, and let you know by email whether we will be publishing your submission(s) or not. Please be patient with us through this process – we try not to rush it, so it can take a while to get through every submission and to email everyone back.
STEP 6: Get ready for the zine! If your piece is going into our next issue, huge congrats!!! We generally accept and format submissions as they are, with some minor editing to make sure the formatting, spelling and grammar are as perfect as we can make them. We’re unlikely to request edits from you except in very rare cases (in which case we will get in touch).
If we haven’t accepted your work this time around, please don’t be disheartened – we would love to see more submissions from you in future, even if we didn’t publish your work this time. We are always so happy to offer feedback if you want it! And if you’d like to come along to the launch party and pick up a copy of the zine, we’d love to see you. (If you do, come and introduce yourself to us! Maybe we’ll show you the BAIT secret handshake…)
CONTACT
Find us at any of these addresses – we’re always happy to answer any and all questions!
Email: baitsubmissions@gmail.com
Facebook: BAIT
Instagram: @bait.magazine
BAIT 