Submission Rules and Guidelines

Introduction     Poetry     Art     Short Stories     Non-Fiction
Copyrights     Critiques     Contact Links
Payment for Publication     Disclaimer     Removal Requests

Introduction (applies to all submissions):

The Poet's Haven is a place for artists across a wide and diverse spectrum to feel safe seeing their work published.  We are open to unsolicited submissions from both experienced, published creators and talents new to submitting work for publication.  We offer no restrictions on length or style, and minimal restriction on content and genre.  What little content that is disallowed is as follows:  Material that is obscene, excessively vulgar, pornographic, racist, or in any way bigoted will not be published here.  The Poet's Haven also does not accept religious material.

This site is intended for mature readers.  While our primary audience is college-aged, between 18 and 30, the audience is NOT limited to that demographic.  We have knowingly published work from creators as young as 9 and as old as 95.

We are free to publish what we wish, but will maintain a level of decency.  Therefore, nothing obscene, pornographic, racist, or bigoted will be accepted.

The publisher here has decided to focus on non-religious poetry, artwork, and stories.  That said, since many authors are highly influenced by their faiths, work that expresses faith may be acceptable.  Writing or artwork that preaches a faith will not be accepted.  Work that questions faith in general may also be acceptable.  Work designed to insult the followers of any certain religion will be rejected the same as work of a racist nature.

Writing that is badly misspelt or in need of severe grammatical or punctual corrections will be rejected.  Your word processor program has a spell check.  Spell Check is your friend.  Use it.

All submissions MUST be made through the online forms.  We are NOT accepting ANY submissions via e-mail or snail-mail unless it is specifically noted.
 
 

Poetry:

The Poetry Gallery makes up the largest part of The Poet's Haven.  The emphasis sought is emotion rather than form.

All work submitted must be reviewed and approved by a senior Poet's Haven staff member.
 
 

Artwork & Photos:

Acceptability of nudity in artwork will be determined on a case-by-case basis.  Nude photographs are not accepted for publication (though they may be added to various staff members' private collections).  Photography should be creative.  Use of religious iconography may be acceptable as part of a larger work of art, to be determined on a case-by-case basis.

JPEG format files are preferred, and the image should be 500 pixels wide.  Larger images will be resized.  If you do not have access to a digital camera or scanner, try Office Max, Staples, or Fed-Ex Office.

We reserve the right to change file types, resize the image, or clip edges for space as needed.  If we feel a major change is necessary, you will be contacted.  If you see a change was made and you don't like it, please contact us.
 
 

Short Stories:

Stories must be original, and feature original characters.  NO FAN-FICTION!  Characters based on mythological figures or fairy-tales are acceptable.  References to heaven, hell, angels, and demons are okay, as these do not directly pertain to any one religious faith.  Subjects such as King Arthur's quest for the holy grail, where religious motive is part of a story's background but NOT the story itself, are acceptable.
 
 

Non-Fiction:

True story essays should be submitted as short stories.  Other non-fiction is limited to The Poet's Haven Special Feature.  The Special Feature is an editorial type essay about a current event or ongoing controversy.  Events must be of national or global interest, as the audience is not confined to one region.  The idea is to make people think about something from an angle they never have before.
 
 

Copyrights:

The Poet's Haven receives the rights to publish all work submitted both on the web site and in any future paper publications.  The author of a work retains ownership and is free to have it published elsewhere, provided the other publishers do not require first-time or exclusive rights.

Submissions must be made by either the creator of a work, or on behalf of the creator.  PLAGIARISM IS A CRIME, AND WILL NOT BE TOLERATED!  We will assist any investigations of a submitter for fraud to the best of our abilities.  Works of established (meaning, published and in print) authors may be submitted ONLY as part of an art piece.  If you are submitting a work on behalf of the creator, be certain to give us a way to contact him or her, other than through your e-mail, if need be.  A postal address will work fine.  The author or artist MUST BE AWARE THAT HIS OR HER WORK IS BEING SUBMITTED!

Again, all work is copyright ©, property of, and fully owned by its original author or artist.
 
 

Critiques:

Due to time restraints, we are not able to critique each and every item submitted.
 
 

Contact Links:

Along with your work, we include a link for readers to contact you via e-mail.  If you do not wish to be contacted through a family or work e-mail address, we recommend setting up a Gmail or Yahoo account for your personal use.  You may also list a link to your own website.  All website links will be checked by staff before your work is approved.

JavaScript encryption is used when displaying your e-mail address to prevent "robots" from harvesting addresses for spam.
 
 

Payment for Publication:

Access to The Poet's Haven web site is free of charge.  Any profit generated by advertisements either goes toward promoting the site or towards the offline events and publications.  We can not pay for work to be published on the site.
 
 

Disclaimer (this is VERY important!):

The Poet's Haven is a privately held publishing company.  This is not an open forum.  We, the publisher and editors, reserve the right to refuse any submission for any reason we see fit.  This may include work that we feel is questionable, may be in violation of any of the above guidelines, or that we have any objection to.  We have a policy of "ZERO TOLERANCE FOR BULLSHIT."  If you attempt to cause problems by initiating spam campaigns, attempting a DDOS attack, or harassing any member of The Poet's Haven staff, you will be blocked from accessing this site.
 
 

Removal Requests:

The Poet's Haven website should be thought of no differently than a paper print publication.  If your poem is published in a magazine and a year later you decide you don't like the piece anymore, the publishers can not go through all remaining copies of the issue and tear out the page.  The Poet's Haven will not entertain any requests for removing a poem from the site on the basis of the author not liking his or her older work.  Removal requests can be made for the following reasons ONLY; reports of plagiarism and copyright issues, such as exclusive rights being sold to another publisher PRIOR to the piece's submission to The Poet's Haven.  Proof is required to accompany all removal requests.

In the modern age of Google, many authors have expressed concern about work written many years ago, perhaps when that author was still in college or even high school, being found today by prospective employers.  Your work was found to be of a high quality when it was submitted, and should not be removed from the site.  However, if you are concerned about the emotions of your youth influencing your professional standing today, we can alter the name and e-mail listed with your work.  Your e-mail address can be removed or changed, and we recommend simply changing your first name to your initial.  This way, if you do someday return to writing, you can still take credit for your early work.