Hi guys! So just some quick updates here for both Dipity Literary Magazine and Dipity Press. Also, sharing this interesting Disco Doom music video as it inspired some theme ideas. Check out the poll at the very bottom of this Substack release too!
CHAPBOOK ITEMS
Firstly, if you ever notice a print chapbook title is unavailable or pending that’ll usually just be the USA print store linked on our website and the review time varies sometimes it’s a few days or another week or two before it’s relisted as available because they inspect them all over again in a queue before allowing prints. Our Great British Bookshop listings update and re-list fairly instantly in the event we ever make minor changes. The Kindle eBook versions of our chapbook series will never be 100% identical in formatting but as close as possible to our print versions.
Also, some have inquired both via e-mail and in our Discord chat if we permit photos inside chapbooks, and as of right now, no. However, if there’s enough interest we totally may permit or incorporate original photos, comic art, and illustrations in the interior of our chapbook series someday too!
STAFF UPDATES
We welcomed two new awesome volunteers to team dipity. recently, Lara Amelie and Dylan Tran. Also thanks to everyone else on the team: Eartha Davis, Jazz Meyer, Cait Maree O’Shea, and Kandice. Read more about them in our Staff section!
NEW YOUTUBE CHANNEL
If you haven’t yet, drop by the YouTube Channel, watch, and listen to “The Condition of The Wolf” by Lara Amelie and “MANifesto” by Dana Kinsey. I’m putting together a series of visual clips for the spoken word accepted subs to the Dipity Lit Mag channel [name subject to change] so you can follow along with the written word. These must be previously unpublished. I am also considering sharing video flip-through previews or creating shorts of our chapbooks and magazine issues out on YouTube instead of Instagram and discussing my experience with various print facilities etc.
READER METRICS
We started the digital library system back up again as you know this year in February under the READ section of our website which is separate from the online tank. So these are our reader stat views from 2024 alone below:
While this is awesome, we currently collect nothing or ZERO from readers nor have a paywall implemented over those issues digitally so. We also face monthly fees for the library too. It would also cost us a bunch to implement the premium, mobile reader application, and paywall features so we’re leaving as is right now. More seem to be reading the free digital issues of course vs. purchasing print. I know some liked purchasing our PDFs but to me it’s quite tough for others to read to those, but we might put those back if others want to grab those as well as an option.
With our chapbook series, of course, Dipity has picked up more expenses of course since we’re licensing different artwork pieces primarily illustrative and a few other styles for chapbook cover designs especially, so I’m looking into more ways to support Dipity. I know most or nearly everyone hates fees and there was talk a while ago in the community on various threads in comments — I’ve seen various discussions over time bring up “blacklisting lit mags who charge fees”.
At Dipity currently, over most categories around 80% are free to submit to — the very 1st time to us except for some like chapbooks, so it’s tough to facilitate a fee-free environment magazine and press. Ideally, I would love to avoid implementing initial fees and paywalls because we all know they def suck. We recently adjusted our 2nd time or more sub fees by $2 by the way. The fees do help though go toward future publications and our operational expenses. I’m still determining what else we can do so that hopefully we can one day to get to a point to pay writers for their work, even volunteers, and sustain Dipity overtime better in the process. I do absolutely believe writers should be paid for their work. For right now the only paid contest is the Symphonic Challenge. If you’re not familiar with it, visit the Symphonic sections of our website and online tank or listen to episode no. 128 of the Hummingbird Blink: Nectar Poetry podcast and get some music recs in the process.
UPCOMING NEWS & OTHER NOTES
We have chapbook no. 2 underway at Dipity Press!
Do note our chapbook publications are eligible for nomination events. I am also devising possibly a fun “Dipity” award of some kind too TBD in the future.
I have seen engagement on social media decline substantially this year aside from our IG story shares in part due to the algorithm woes so that’s why we’re working on growing our e-mail subscriber list and our YT channel. I know quite a few other poets and artists who have migrated away from IG or moved to primarily Substack or other subscriber platforms.
We will be announcing the winner of the first Symphonic Challenge round no. 1 of 2024 on the Hummingbird Blink podcast sometime this year soon. Some things got pushed back because of us prioritizing chapbook facilitation. And some new voices will be on our podcast and we’re always looking for more!
We will probably be changing the Symphonic Challenge structure to feature one musician/artist at a time too rather than multiple at once. So round no. 2 will open up some time again. We’ll be further highlighting various musicians’/artists’ songs featured in issues of Dipity and on this Substack.
Some book ads can cost hundreds of dollars. You can now for a small fee promote your own publication on our Substack or the publication of another in the community. We’ll try it out and see who is interested (consider it as an alternative to print and web banner advertising) so you’ll still be potentially eligible to be in our book recs pool/print section though if it’s accepted. If others like this, then we’ll continue it.
I am looking at selecting more past publications from our online tank and the Substack in the community bonus shares section in future print magazine issues.
It has come to my attention some were confused as to why we use Submittable’s COMPLETED status rather than just leave it on the green ACCEPTED. It just really helps us keep track of the submission all the way up to its publication items and any remaining steps on our side (once those are all done e.g. sending 5 copies to a poet of their chapbook) it’s marked as complete in our archive.
I apologize in advance that manuscript reviews and poetry feedback are on hold or not open from me as I must prioritize other items at the moment. If you have a question in regards to submitting to Dipity Press or Dipity Lit Mag you’re welcome to hop into our Discord chat server. I’ve posted new links to the landing page on the website.
P.S. I found out that if your phone is on low power or energy-saving mode the videos we have e.g. just primarily the one on our main page doesn’t autoplay. Some updates also happened so not everything video-wise on our website is set to autoplay as well anymore.
More fun Q&As from artists and writers are headed your way!
Lastly, we need another vote below to break a tie and will take this vote into consideration:
MOVIE I WATCHED RECENTLY
Infested (2023) on Amazon Prime: My VFORROW Rating 3.3 out of 5.
We appreciate anyone who takes the time to comment, subscribe here, pledge support to our Substack and other channels, or donates directly to community projects of our website’s new GiveButter landing and footer support campaign. Thanks for your support! Have awesome days ahead! ~ Jazz Marie Kaur (Vevna Forrow)