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How to Get Your Work Published in Art Jewelry Magazine
By Nanz Aalund, Associate Editor

Becoming a published metalsmith/author is easier than you think. To remove the fear factor, here is a step-by-step breakdown of the process.

Step 1: Pick a piece for a project article.
Pick a metalsmithing technique that you like and feel confident with. Pick a piece of your work that exemplifies the use of that technique. Alternatively, pick a piece of your work that you had fun making and that has a design you really like. You don't have to give away your signature design style or technique, but don't send outdated or amateur-looking work either. Don't worry about being copied - reader surveys show that only 13% of readers will try to copy the projects exactly, and a majority of them will only do that to build their skill level. Of our readers, 87% use the published projects as inspiration and will apply the techniques illustrated to make their own work.

Step 2: Put together a proposal.
Write a brief synopsis of what you would cover in the project. Is the project's focus to highlight a special style of stonesetting, resin inlay, marriage of metals? Is the project's focus to teach a different way of using an old, familiar technique? Take a few digital pictures of your process, and include a professional-quality image of the finished piece for the magazine's staff to see, and send this to the editor along with your outline. Jpegs via e-mail are acceptable for the proposal.

Step 3: New Proposals Meetings.
Once a month, we at Art Jewelry magazine have a “New Proposals” meeting, at which time we jury the submissions sent to us from across The United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and England. Occasionally, we even get submissions from the Netherlands and Denmark. So your work will be in good company during jurying. I will divulge some insider information - we see a lot of hearts, leaves, butterflies, and flowers. Avoid these clichés and your chances of being selected will increase.

Step 4: Assignment Letter and Submission Guidelines.
Once an article is accepted at a New Proposals meeting, the editorial staff will contact you, and you'll receive an assignment letter. This letter will include an outline of the general concept of your article, submission guidelines, and a deadline for getting your article into the magazine, usually a month from the date of the letter.

Step 5: Write the article.
This may seem like the hardest part, but it's really not. Working from an outline makes writing the article easier, because without having to write a lot you can plan for the images you want to use. Break your project or your process down into small, simple steps, and then document each step. If you have taught the technique in a workshop, use your workshop handouts as a starting point. Include all the tips and tricks you have picked up working at your bench. For the article, you'll want to take big digital files (RAW or TIFF formats) and burn them (untouched) to a CD. As tempting as it may be, don't PhotoShop the images; our production department will take care of all necessary color correction. Digital images can also be uploaded to our server at www.contribute.kalmbach.com.

Step 6: Send in the article by the deadline and get paid.
Art Jewelry magazine will not publish or pay for an article until it is delivered and inspected. The graphic art department must approve the digital images for publication quality. If there are steps that are missing corresponding images, you may be asked to take and send in additional images. To insure your article will be approved and scheduled for publication, submit the text in a plain Word document. Do not manipulate your digital images in anyway. Art Jewelry pays on acceptance, rather than publication, so providing that your images and text are good, a check will be winging its way to you in short order. Because Art Jewelry magazine works 6 months in advance, your article may not make it into the next issue, but be patient - and start working on another article proposal!