EDITORIAL PROCESS & NEXT STEPS

• Our editorial team consists of “Hone Your Craft” facilitators Alice Stephens and Sara Easterly.
• After all submissions have been reviewed, we will connect you with 2-3 other adoptee-writers with similar pieces (e.g. poets together in a group) for a peer review and revision process.
  • By choosing to publish in the e-Zine, you agree to share your email address and writing submission with these group members. You also agree to read their writing and provide them with kind and timely feedback to help prepare their piece for publication.
  • You will have the choice as a group whether to exchange manuscripts and feedback over email or to meet on your own over Zoom.
  • We ask that you commit to reading each other’s writing and giving supportive feedback within the two-week posted timeframe.
  • As a writer, you also commit to making necessary revisions to prepare your piece for publication. Of course, you are not required to heed every suggestion given by your group members. But a general critique group guideline is that if two people are giving you similar feedback, you should probably listen.
• Once the peer review process is complete, Alice and Sara focus on developmental/substantive and copyediting/line editing. We also reflect on all of the submissions to come up with an e-Zine theme that we feel encompasses the spirit of the collective stories.
• We will contact you if we recommend any developmental edits that we believe will help you put your best foot forward for publication.
• We do not contact you to discuss copyediting/line editing that we consider minor and (hopefully) does not change your intention or meaning. But if you are uncomfortable with any of our edits, you can always request changes.
• Once the issue is ready, we will send it to all contributors for a final review. We do not launch the e-Zine until we have had final sign off from each contributor.
• When we officially launch the e-Zine, we’ll share it in our newsletter and on social media. Unless in our private Facebook group, we never tag any of the contributors. We’ll leave it to you to share if and how you wish. We certainly hope you will feel compelled to share your words and the words of your fellow adoptee-writers, but understand if this feels too vulnerable, so there is no expectation to do so.