An independent general-interest magazine dedicated for cultures, histories, traditions, mythology, folklore, arts, society, people, places, and cuisines from East Asia, Turkic countries, Palestine & West Asia (Middle East), Bangladesh & South Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Americas, Europe, Africa and Oceania. We also focus on ideologies, philosophies, social issues, class struggles and religion. Alongside, we allow poetry, short stories, your real life stories (could be about your struggles, social issues you face or just slice-of-life, or regarding culture, traditions etc.), memoirs and photo essays on our magazine.
You don't need to be an academician or professor to write. You can simply be an ordinary person with deep interest and knowledge about a particular subject.
Interested to write for our indie magazine ? Feel free to submit your article to us or pitch us, by sending us an email.
But before that, you must follow our specific set of guidelines :
1) Do not write your article using A.I. We want your own analysis/opinion, your own voice. Yes, you might use A.I for some small refinements, but do not make A.I write your whole idea.
2) We will proofread your article before publishing, but it is better if you do it as well before sending us the piece. We highly recommend using tools like Grammarly to help edit your work. It’s immensely helpful regardless of your writing or English language abilities.
3) Keep your article within 400-6,000 words. And please use American English for writing your article. However, under exceptional circumstances, we allow non-English pieces. But they will be first translated to English and then published, while the original one will get published after the English one.
4) Your articles focusing on analysis, investigation and research, must be well-sourced. You can cite your sources within your piece seamlessly or add a "Reference" section at the end of your article. If you are adding sources through the Reference, please make sure to use Chicago Style (Author-Date) citation system.
5) Don't send us someone else's work from another publication. You have to write your own piece, we value originality. While you send us your piece, please do not send it to other publications at the same time. If we do not consider your piece for some reason, then you are free to submit it to other publications.
6) Use copyright-free images, if you aren't using photos you clicked yourself. You can use copyright-free images from Wikimedia Commons, Unsplash and others. But definitely cite the photographer or the page with a hyperlink, if you are using an image from the mentioned sites. If you have permission to use images from certain websites, you must provide us the proof of it.
7) Our editorial mission focuses on the timeless traditions, mythologies, artistic heritage, societies, people's stories and histories of the regions we cover. To maintain this focus, we usually avoid content centered solely on the usual everyday mundane political or diplomatic affairs. But if a piece related to culture, society, people's stories and history, touches upon these areas, then it is acceptable. The magazine allows 'success stories' about countries and societies, and politics inevitably becomes a part of it. For example, if someone writes an article about Shenzhen's success story, Deng Xiaoping's name eventually comes into it. In such cases, writing about political aspects is more than welcome.
8) Reviews on movies and drama series are allowed, but it should contain your analysis on how it relates to the particular country's society/culture/folklore/
history or others.
9) While The Sea Drop Magazine usually celebrates stories of human resilience, cultures, histories, cuisines and societies, it also fully embraces criticism of certain aspects regarding the societies and cultures that have bad impact on humanity as a whole (e.g; criticizing the "bride kidnapping culture of Kyrgyzstan" and other social issues). Stories of human resistance, colonization/decolonization, resistance against imperialism, class struggles, working class stories and other complex themes are welcomed in this magazine.
10) You are free to use your own artwork in your piece, but you must mention it below the attached image.
11) We also allow photo essays. We request you to use photos taken by yourself, rather than using photos taken by someone else. Historical archival photos are allowed as well, if the essay is based on history, or partly based on that subject.
12) Send us your piece in a Word file (.docx). While sending us your article for submission, you must mention your full name and give us some additional information about yourself (e.g; where you work or are you a student, about whether you have any previous writing experience and information like that), in the email. After sending us the submission email, wait for 2-5 days for our response.
Since, this is an indie and student-run magazine, we can't unfortunately pay for articles submitted by external contributors. But when the opportunity opens up for a paid program, we will update the information here.
Now, good luck with your submission ! We are looking forward to having your article on our magazine.