I’ve had a LOT of new visitors this past week, which is awesome. Loads of those new visitors went the extra step and subscribed to my blog, which is even more awesome. (Hi, readers!)
Many of those new subscribers are wordsmiths of some sort or another — journalists, poets, bloggers, story writers, novelists — and I’m loving checking out all their work. But here’s something interesting: a sizable number of you new subscribers are visual artists: painters, sketchers, photographers, digital artists, sculptors, illustrators. At least one of you is a fabric artist working in embroidery. And, you know what, gang? Wow! I’m blown away by the talent that’s out there!
So, here’s the deal: in one of my lives, I’m production editor for the literary magazine/publisher Jersey Devil Press, and one of the things I get to do in my job — one of my favorite parts of my job! — is find the cover art for the monthly magazine. I’ve had some incredible good fortune tracking down some excellent artwork in my first few months (see below), but you know what? I’m always looking for more.
The thing is, we have a pretty quirky aesthetic at JDP. If you take some HP Lovecraft, some Philip K. Dick, some Kurt Vonnegut, some Star Wars, some Twilight Zone, a whole bunch of comic books, some juvenile pornographic jokes scrawled on bathroom walls, some Jorge Luis Borges, and, just for flavor, some Bruce Springsteen, and you throw them all into a Slap Chop . . . Jersey Devil Press is more or less what you’d get.
Or just read our “Behind the Curtain” article for a peek inside our brains. (Be warned: it’s messy in there.)
But all that said, I’m actually REALLY open-minded when it comes to what I think might work for a cover. I mean, I put a bottle of chloroform on the cover of our “Valentine’s Day” issue. The cover of our recent All-Star issue included a piece of artwork entitled “Finger Bang.” Probably our most popular cover this year was a smiley face. You get the idea. Plus, FYI, I’m a big fan of Hieronymous Bosch and Alfred Kubin and MC Escher and HR Giger and Mark Ryden and, recently, Casey Weldon. But that’s just painters and drawers. I love comics and photography and quilting and embroidery and collage and scultpture (you know Stanisław Szukalski? he’s awesome) and silkscreening and wood carving and string art and Etch-a-Sketches and Lite-Brites and Spirographs. Okay, maybe not Spirographs. Like I said, I’m really open-minded. But bear all this in mind when you’re thinking about whether your work might be right for our cover.
If you think you’ve got something I might like to put on the cover of an issue, go to my “About Me” page and send me an email. (NOTE: The submissions system online is just for fiction. If you want to talk to me about art, you need to send me an email!)
And all you fiction writers out there (sorry, poets, we’re only running fiction right now) — go check out Jersey Devil Press, read the guidelines there, and submit your work through that website! We’d love to hear from you. 🙂
Samuel Snoek-Brown 
I wish I’d heard of you earlier. What a welcome you give to people who are perhaps unsure of themselves and their work. Very best wishes.
Hey, best wishes to you, too! Your book sounds interesting — I’m not usually much of a mystery reader, but gloomy British islands covered in ancient burials and secret caves are always cool! And from the write-up on Authonomy.com — “some people deserve to be murdered” — I’m definitely intrigued. I’ll have to keep an eye out for it. Good luck, and keep me posted! 🙂
Thank you, Samuel, I shall.
Samuel, blowed if I can make head nor tail of the email facility on your ‘about’ page, so please drop me a note to mairi.bheag{at}gmail.com and I will give you some details about an artist I think you might like.
M
Ah! I forgot that the email was only on my bio page. Thanks for reminding me! I added the email link to the About Me page as well. But I’ll shoot you a message anyway. 🙂
Did you get my email? 🙂
Yep! It’s been a busy day, but I was about to reply. 🙂
Okay 🙂