Transition: The Future of Elsewhere

With the publication of Elsewhere No.04 in September 2016 we reached the end of the initial four-issue cycle that we envisaged at the time of our crowdfunding campaign in early 2015. Over those four issues we learned a lot about the process of putting together a journal such as this, the costs and the challenges, and it became clear that for the journal to move forward we need and want to make some changes. We are really excited with our plans for the future of Elsewhere and wanted to share them with you here:

Print Journal

Elsewhere No.05 will be published in June 2017 and from there on we aim to publish at least one print edition a year but without a fixed schedule. We need this flexibility as Elsewhere is a labour of love – none of the editors (Paul, Julia, Tim and Marcel) are paid for their work and so the journal has to fit around the projects that allow us to pay the landlord, the supermarket and tram tickets.

For subscribers this means nothing really changes. If you have issues that you have already paid for, these will be delivered to you on publication of Elsewhere No.05 and, for those it applies to, Elsewhere No.06. We have stopped taking future subscriptions, and will sell the journal individually (or as back-issue sets) from now on.

Elsewhere No.05 – Transition

We have also decided to increase the number of pages in Elsewhere No.05 and, for the first time, have a theme for the issue. Elsewhere is and will remain a journal of place, but within that we thought it meaningful to explore a theme and for the next issue it is TRANSITION. As always, the writing that will appear in Elsewhere No.05 can be travelogue or memoir, history or short fiction, reportage or descriptive essay… or a combination of them all or none.

Submissions

With a theme comes a new submissions process. We will open submissions for Elsewhere No.05 for writing on place and transition from now until March 31st. The only guidelines are that completed pieces should be linked to the general theme of place and the issue theme of transition. With regards to length, most pieces we publish will be between 1000 and 5000 words. We also remain interested in photography, illustration and other visual arts projects related to the theme of place. Please note that, unfortunately, we cannot continue to pay contributors to Elsewhere. We have long had this as our aim, but the project as it is right now cannot sustain it.

If you are interested in writing for the journal, please send your work to paul@elsewhere-journal.com.

Blog

We also are inviting submissions to the blog. For the blog there is no theme other than place, and we will accept blog submissions at any time. Please note that for the blog, we very rarely accept pieces that are over 1000 words and again we are unable to pay contributors. We also encourage submissions of photography, artwork, illustration or film for the blog. Submissions for the blog can be sent to paul@elsewhere-journal.com.

Marketing and PR

We are not massive fans of these words, which might explain why we are – in all honesty – not very good at it. So we are looking for anyone who is interested in joining our unpaid team working on this labour of love to help us spread the word about Elsewhere. We offer free copies of the journal and our eternal gratitude. And a more funky position title, such as Minister for Propaganda or whatever you think fits best.

If you are interested in helping us reach more potential readers of Elsewhere, please let Paul or Julia know.

A Big Thank You to end the blog

If you have read this far you are probably one of our dear readers and followers that have jumped on the Elsewhere train over the past two years and stuck with us. We are really proud of the four issues of Elsewhere that we have published so far, and we wouldn’t have got this far without your support. Independent publishing is tough, and to keep going through Elsewhere No.05 and No.06 and beyond we need your help, whether it is buying the journal, sharing the links to the blog or simply telling your friends about us.

For everything you have done up to now we say a great big thank you, and we hope you enjoy what we have planned for the future.

Paul & Julia