From Z Magazine to Mickey Z.
Press Action
Tuesday, August 26, 2003
http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/full_article/hand08262003/
How to get published in a small political magazine without knowing it.
By Mark Hand
What’s up with Z Magazine? Last spring, I sent them my review of Mickey Z’s latest book, The Murdering of My Years. A few months later I receive a note from Mickey saying my review made it into the July-August 2003 issue of the magazine. Really? That was news to me. Why had I not received a letter or email from Z, letting me know the review was appearing in the July-August issue?
After hearing from Mickey, I emailed Lydia Sargent, the editor and co-founder of the magazine, inquiring into whether the magazine had attempted to contact me about accepting the review for publication and whether I could get a contributor’s copy of the issue. I have yet to hear back from Sargent in response to my Aug. 4 email.
As with most monthly or bimonthly magazines, I’m sure the folks at Z face at least a couple weeks, probably more, of time between when an issue of Z is sent to the printers and when the issue gets dropped in the mail to subscribers and distributed to newsstands. Couldn’t they have spent a couple of minutes of this lead-time to shoot off a quick note to me?
In the meantime, I have since purchased a copy of the July-August issue of Z from a local Border’s. I’m grateful Z published my review of Mickey’s book. And I’m not looking for money for the piece. I’m sure Z’s miniscule staff works on the flimsiest of shoestring budgets. I just wish Sargent or whoever else handles Z’s communications with contributors would have contacted me to let me know that the review was going to appear.
Since Z probably receives hundreds of unsolicited articles each year, the magazine may think it doesn’t need to spend the time to maintain good relations with certain contributors. Why bother taking that extra step, albeit small, with certain writers when you have a large pool of writers, including Noam Chomsky and bell hooks, to fall back on?
I would bet, though, that most successful small magazines practice good relations with outside contributors. When a piece is selected for publication, the magazine lets the writer know. The magazine keeps him or her informed of the publication date. And, if possible, the magazine lets the contributor know if any major edits were made to the piece. Some small magazines may even have contracts for contributors to sign before the magazine goes to the printers. These contracts may stipulate the magazine owns the article once the contributor receives payment for the piece.
In the case of my review of Mickey Z.’s book, all I expected from Z was a simple acknowledgement that the piece was running. I didn’t care about the money. I didn’t care about having final say on any edits (I think Z ran it pretty much as is). I made do without receiving a contributor’s copy, although I think that’s a simple and worthwhile gesture for magazines to make. After learning from Mickey that Z opted to run the review, all I wanted was a basic acknowledgement from the magazine that it had run the piece. But Z couldn’t pull off that simple task.
Lydia Sargent and Michael Albert launched Z Magazine in 1988. Both were part of the collective that founded Z’s sister operation, South End Press, in 1977 using $40,000 raised by the collective’s members. Z is essentially the magazine version of the publishing house. Both entities tend to publish works that explore the issues of race, class, sexism and imperialism.
Sargent, 61, and Albert, 56, are no longer part of the South End collective. They devote their attention to Z and other projects. Sargent’s son, Eric, also is a staff member of the magazine. Both South End and Z, along with David Barsamian’s Alternative Radio and the Speak Out speakers bureau, are projects of the nonprofit Institute for Social and Cultural Change Inc. South End Press reportedly takes in at least $1 million a year in annual revenues, while Z Magazine‘s are about $550,000.
In its 26 years, South End’s lead author, Noam Chomsky, has helped to keep the collective financially afloat, with some of his titles each moving tens of thousands of copies. Due to the increased interest in U.S. foreign policy since Sept. 11, 2001, South End has reissued some of Chomsky’s titles.
More recently, South End has published some strong-selling books by other authors, including a couple of works by Arundhati Roy and the updated Iraq Under Siege, a collection of essays edited by Anthony Arnove.
During its 15-year history, Z Magazine has remained true to its mission to offer a fundamental critique of the U.S. power structure. When it came onto the scene, many on the Left welcomed Z?s activist orientation and critical stance on the top issues of the day. The prominent left-leaning periodicals - The Nation, The Progressive, In These Times and Mother Jones - appeared to be dominated by those wedded to the ideals of the Democratic Socialists of America. These ideals included maintaining close ties with the Democratic Party, even if the Democratic Party wanted nothing to do with the DSA. Today, many of the DSAers are the ones who still criticize Ralph Nader for working outside the Democratic Party power structure and for helping to throw the 2000 presidential electric from Al Gore to George W. Bush.
Z Magazine publishes its fair share of DSA-inspired material, including the writings of Barbara Ehrenreich. But the magazine appears more open to independent voices than some of the other prominent left-leaning publications. In Z, there’s less of a focus on why we need to support the lesser of the two evil political parties. After reading an issue of The Nation or In These Times, you’re sometimes left with the feeling that its editors believe in suspending all core beliefs in freedom and justice in order to support Democratic candidates whose only salient trait to the Left is a pro-choice stance on abortion.
For its part, Z could become more selective in the articles it chooses to publish. Getting through an issue of Z full of articles on eradicating racism and democratizing the workplace can sometimes be a chore, especially with the text heavy design of the magazine.
A more selective editorial policy at Z probably would have led to my review of Mickey Z.’s book not making the final cut in the July-August issue, given my lack of clips in the leftist press and the fact that I had already posted the review on my website, Press Action. But since Z decided to run the review, you’d think the magazine could have at least alerted me to that fact. With contributors such as Chomsky, Herman and Zinn, though, Z certainly will continue to attract a strong readership, even though it may have temporarily alienated a first-time contributor.