Housekeeping

Hints, tips, must haves and recommended reading

As another month draws to a close, I just wanted to address some ‘housekeeping’ issues to give our writers some ideas of the writing and presentation we need to see used for you to get published, Featured and/or Boosted via Counter Arts.

When formatting your title block, we need to see: Title — use the large T on the menu which pops up after highlighting a section. For your title, each word starts with a capital letter — but please don’t capitalise the whole word. Subtitle — use the small T (next to the large one on the same menu). This is the one which most often needs fixing in editing. Subtitles use standard sentence format (capitalise the first letter of the sentence and the first of Proper nouns, otherwise lower case please). Image — always use an image in the title block, but this comes after the title/subtitle, rather than right at the top.
More on images. Each of the images you use MUST HAVE a credit line filled in underneath, giving name of photographer/artist/source website and copyright status. What we are checking is that your images were either free use/copyright free; OR you have permission from the photographer/have paid a fee; OR the photos were taken by you yourself, in which case add something along the lines of ‘photo taken/image created by the author’. If you are submitting a photography piece containing lots of images, it is acceptable to declare that ALL images are your own. We prefer that this is stated under the first image. If you have used a tool, eg. Canva or an AI image generator, then add that information too. This is very important, because we don’t want to see any of our writers hit with copyright litigation. It may seem unlikely, but it does happen. Please protect yourselves and DO NOT steal images you have no rights to!
While we are on the subject of using tools and AI in your submitted work: We are not fans of ChatGPT-type writing assistance here at CounterArts Please DO NOT send us anything “written with the assistance of” AI. I published a couple of pieces of work which stated that, when it first emerged, out of curiosity and to show readers who were interested what it could do, but I feel that’s enough. I realise some people use it to inspire or help nudge their way through a block, for example, but I’m going to say no thank you at this point and not get bogged down in shades and degrees of usage.
For writing about AI: maybe, it depends — some pieces I will accept (for example, Jeff Hayward always brings me great work about his experiments with and thoughts on AI)
Please also note that our ‘Design Tech’ section won’t be hosting articles linking to specific sites or products. Nor will we be accepting anything else along the lines of ‘How to build an app for android’. Essentially, I’m looking for work which is more along the technical design side of things: graphic design or art&design. Something which contributes to the ‘Counter Arts’ brief a little better. For examples, have a look at the pieces I’ve accepted for this section recently. **Editing September 10 2023** Please not that we no longer have a dedicated ‘Design Tech’ section on this publication. Any pieces of work still appropriate can still be submitted and tagged for another category — probably ‘Art’, or maybe ‘Culture’. If in doubt, submit and we’ll let you know. Thank you.
We do accept pieces of work which are self-published onto a writers own Medium profile page, but do consider that the older it is the less likely it will show on the publications main page. That page shows the work in order of latest published by date at the top and running down in reverse chronological fashion. On the other hand, the dedicated category sections will always put the latest work an editor hits publish on to the top. I prefer draft submissions, but leave the choice to the writers.
I aim to get to new submissions within 24hours, but please try to bear with me if it takes a little longer on occasion. There might be a slight delay if there are a lot of submissions coming in at once, I’d prefer not to send more than half a dozen out at once, maybe a couple of times a day (max), so as to give newly published work a decent chance of being seen and read. If you would like your piece to be published during a certain time slot. please send a note to that effect, we will TRY to accommodate your requests if possible. Please also be mindful of differences in time zones. I realise Medium is an American company and most writers will be in the USA, but we’re all over the place on Counter Arts. I myself am in the UK, so I may be asleep while you’re frantically wanting published today (which may well already be yesterday for me by then).
You may have already noticed that I have installed a ‘Featured’ section at the top of the Counter Arts main page (directly below the Book Club and Monthly Prompt). I will be choosing three pieces to highlight each week.
We (the pub and myself, as owner) are now part of the Boost Nomination Pilot. In other words, I am now an official Nominator able to suggest well written work to potentially be Boosted by Medium Curation staff.
Presentation. Quotation fonts, indicated by a “speech mark” on the bar which appears when you highlight — you are given two options: The Block Quote has a solid black line down the left-hand side and puts the text in italics. This is for quotes from other people. Please be sure to provide accreditation — who said/wrote this, plus a link to the place you read it (or heard it if on video). The Pull Quote enlarges and centres your selected text. This is to be used for enhancing and emphasising your own words. You can also use bold (B) and itallics (i) to highlight and pull out words/phrases/sentences you feel are important enough to be stressed.
Style Obviously we are looking for well written articles, essays, reviews and stories. Try using a site like Grammarly (others are available). You don’t have to, but Medium feel it is worth considering; especially if you are unsure about your spelling and use of English.
Which brings me, last but certainly not least (far from it!) to the actual CONTENT of the work you submit. The body. The meat and the bones. I’m looking to publish written pieces which show some sign of analysis, insight, opinion and/or thought. What I’m not really wanting is the kind of information that can easily be found with a quick search or by reading a Wikipedia page (ie. Lists of facts about an artists life). Instead, try to include some form of personal commentary and response.