About

Who we are: a non-profit independent literary and art collective and community of writers and artists who may not have been seen otherwise, but whose work is filled with such passion and spirit it demands to be seen.

This site will stay non-profit and ad-free until I can’t afford to maintain it anymore, and even then I would rather shut it down than join hands with the corporate world, which I find dilutes art, passion and self, unless it is willing to weave in with our independent beliefs, and not the other way around. So, if you’ve got a buck or two, consider donating.

If you would like to sponsor something that would benefit this collective as a whole, please contact me. All media and/or sponsorship inquires should contact me directly at stacy | at | indieink | dot | org. Who is “me”? I’m Stacy. Nice to meet you. About page here, should you be so inclined.

Note: I am one person doing this. I don’t have detailed guidelines and high expectations because I’m a jerk; I just don’t have the time to fix things on my end.

WHERE TO SUBMIT:
Writing submissions should be submitted under essays > submit; and
art/photography submissions should be submitted under images > submit.
Note: They’re different forms, so please submit under the category for which you are submitting.

YOUR WRITING SUBMISSION IN GENERAL: Tip: I highly recommend cutting and pasting from another document rather than writing it in the body field box. Please see the “Submit” page for more information. Your piece does not have to be new, recently written, from your blog, a blog post, etc. I don’t care when it was written or if you scan a poem you wrote on a napkin and submit. I. don’t. care. Just submit.

Curse all you want, be yourself. Submissions about sexual topics are fine if they’re not so pornographic they make my skin crawl (and trust me, it takes a lot). This isn’t a porn site. Again, there are sites that do this far better than II, so please direct your porno submissions there, where they will appreciate it, likely in more ways than the one for which you intended. That written, I have no problem with sexuality in general if it’s not over the top and inappropriate. (NO ANIMALS.) It’s your writing and prose that count, not the subject matter. If you can tell a delightfully well-written and lyrical story about a Dirty Sanchez, have at it. The writing is what matters. That written, if you’re uncomfortable with either of these things, you will probably not enjoy it here.

Submissions should be proofread, words should be chosen carefully. If there is anything that can be revised, revise it however you can before submitting.

YOUR ART SUBMISSION IN GENERAL: It goes without saying that the piece should be your own and by submitting you are verifying that you own the copyright for that image and it is free and clear of anyone else’s rights to it. Please submit by visiting the “Images” section of the site and clicking “Submit.” Link may be found here. If you are having a problem with the upload feature, please let me know and I’m happy to help. NOTE: Larger images look better on the site, in my opinion, so if you submit a piece of your work, please resize to approximately 800×600 (or vice versa), depending on your image BEFORE you upload your piece. As with writing subs above, I don’t care when you created your piece. I don’t care if you have a photoblog or flickr or anything else. Just submit.

Do not submit anything you wouldn’t want your mother to see, basically. Nudes – fine. Shots of sexual congress or other pornographic images are not okay. Violent images depicting people or animals are not permitted. Have some class, don’t be an ass!

FORMATTING: I will not publish anything that includes a “shout-out” or link to someone else’s blog. Do not use code for different colors or special fonts. If you would like to use italics, bold or blockquote, please use the HTMLz for those functions. Close your tags.

You are not e.e. cummings. Use of proper capitalizations is required right along with spelling and grammar. I have had to leave several of these unpublished and that is irritating.

GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSIONS: This site exists for people who love to write well and/or whose passion is art. You know who you are – you spend time and energy creating something and a part of your soul is in everything you do. You aim for perfection, you proofread, look closely, make sure there are no spots or typos or bad graphics.YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE A BLOGGER TO SUBMIT SOMETHING. This is a site for everything and everyone -creative non-fiction, fiction, humor and poetry and for any kind of art that can be visually represented in some way.

II is NOT about: getting linked, getting traffic, comments, popularity, who is posted, how many times a person is posted or anything else that sucks. II is and will always be a corner of the internets where we can get away from all the bullshit and fluff and write or shoot or draw [etc] our asses off without worrying about popularity or who links to whom or gets more comments. Absolutely ANYONE can submit – the only thing you need is an email address and something you are proud of that you’d like to contribute. It is your responsibility to read these guidelines before submitting as I retain the right to change them at any time. And I frequently do when I’m drunk. Which is pretty much always. Your submissions are not cleared based on what I think is “good.” You do not have to have a website, blog, photo site, Flickr, etc. Anything goes. Submissions are not judged based on who you are or how big your site is, how wide your readership and/or how many visitors will come to our site. I do not care who you are; everyone is held to the same standards and everyone is on equal footing. Your work is not judged by subject matter, although I’m not going to post anything deliberately controversial because I don’t have time for that shit. Your work is not judged based on whether I know you. Submissions are only judged on whether significant effort was made and that anything you submit is solid. That’s all.

You can submit as many things as you like.

SUBMISSION CYCLE: Submissions are chosen randomly and held indefinitely. Once a piece is approved for suitability (Criteria: Did you proofread? Did you try? That’s pretty much it.), it will go to the submissions queue. Once in the queue, a highly complex and top-secret algorithm is used to generate randomness based on the author, the subject, author’s middle name, date of submission, author’s grandmother’s favorite pasta dish and author’s social security number divided by the square root of author’s shoe size. Sort of like how your FICO score is generated.

I may/may not be lying. They’re just chosen at random. No preference is given to anyone, but we will work to ensure that the publication process is “fair,” because even randomness can seem unbalanced at times. We will try to ensure that no one author or artist is published more than once in one category in any given week and we’ll try to make sure that one subject matter doesn’t dominate any given week. There are only so many days one can read about death or love or kittens before one wants to punch one’s fist into the computer screen.

Because it is a random process, you are hereby forbidden to be offended if something you write isn’t posted right away. Remember that there are no limits on submissions, so long as they are appropriate for the site. Submit more items, increase your chances of being published sooner.

EXPECTATIONS AND/OR THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND: Submissions can be about anything and the art can feature anything, but please keep the following in mind:

Your submission and every submission represents you. Proof accordingly.
I reserve the right to make minor revisions to your written submissions when such revisions will not compromise the integrity of your submission.

Again, nobody is judging you. This community is about being on an equal platform. We’re all here to learn from each other. If you’re that scared, submit anonymously. Do not be concerned that your writing is not “good enough.” I want you published.

DONATIONS: are gratefully accepted. You can donate via paypal to stacy | at | jurgennation | dot | com.

BUTTONS: Are here. Help II reach a wider audience; show off the fact that you’ve been featured here. Add a button to your blog, talk about II, tweet the posts you like, contact the author or artist. The larger the audience, the more people reading YOU. Everything helps.

COMPLAINTS: Complaints and hate mail should be directed to me, the one person responsible for maintaining this free (and ad-free) site for the benefit of people I don’t know, who pays for this site out of her own pocket and who just wants to provide a place where regular people can write and display their art and learn from others. The highest level of vitriol should be used, for I am obviously a horrible person who should rot in hell.

GENERAL FEEDBACK, SUGGESTIONS, QUESTIONS, FAN MAIL AND QUERIES AS TO WHERE TO SEND GIFTS: Contact me at stacy | at | indieink | dot | org.

THE ULTIMATE II GOAL:
I want this site to be a place where readers can find something thought-provoking and well written every day and to display images that leave them with gaping maws. I don’t care about traffic. I just want YOU to love it.

THE II GUIDELINES IN TWO SENTENCES BECAUSE I VALUE YOUR TIME ONLY ENOUGH TO WHERE YOU MUST READ IN ENTIRETY THAT WHICH ALLOWS ME TO ENJOY MY OWN VALUABLE TIME WITHOUT BEING PISSED OFF AND SHOUTING AT PEOPLE TO DIE IN A FIRE:

1. Make it good.
2. Submit it.