Polka Dot Creations is in search of interesting and well-written polymer clay tutorials encompassing a variety of techniques. The articles will be featured on our website and available to visitors free of charge. We accept previously-published articles as well as brand new exclusives. All tutorials are featured on a single Free Tutorials home page, as well as fully-integrated into the site so as to show up in author searches, New Publications listings, PolyPubs mailings and so forth. Our goal is to publish one to two articles per month. If you have a written-up technique you'd like us to consider, please email lisa@polkadotcreations.com and run it past us. Read on to get some more specific questions answered...	See Also Full-Size Books Project Books Videos (VHS) DVDs Magazines Clip Art Books/CDs eBooks on CD Free Tutorials Forthcoming New in Last 7 Days New in Last 30 Days Rare and Out of Print On sale Closeouts Everybody's doing it Close your eyes & point Author List Shelf List Series List Publisher List Quick Updates more updates via Twitter To be notified monthly of new Polymer Clay publications, join the PolyPubs mailing list! Keyword Search word or phrase: search in: Description Title Author Publisher
Submitting a Previously-Published Article The idea of giving a home to hard-to-find tutorials and out-of-print articles really appeals to us. There's a whole new generation of polymer clay enthusiasts who haven't seen that faux stone article from 1997 or last-year's complex cane tutorial. If you've had a technique published in the past, chances are you retain enough rights to the work to let us use it. The first thing you need to do is check your contract with the magazine that published your article and see which rights you have already sold. (Need some help figuring out your rights? We found this article helpful when we were researching this idea. This list of publications may help as well.) If you are able to sell us electronic rights then get in touch with us. If we are interested in your article, we'll email you a contract which will need to be signed and mailed to us. We pay $50 for previously-published articles that are submitted to us electronically and don't require any editing on our part, aside from formatting. Submitting a Brand New Article We are also happy to look at new tutorials. If we are interested in your article, we'll email you a contract which will need to be signed and mailed to us. We pay $50 for never-before-published articles that are submitted to us electronically and don't require any editing on our part, aside from formatting. You'll want to write up step-by-step instructions and include plenty of illustrative photos.
Why Established Authors and Artists Should Get Involved Each tutorial includes an author bio as well as links to every other item in our store with your name on it. Besides the good feeling you get by sharing your techniques with creative people who are eager to learn, you also get the added benefit of free advertising for all of your available books, videos, and magazine articles. If your tutorial speaks to someone, it couldn't be easier for them to get more of you and keep those instructional materials of yours selling. Why Emerging Authors and Artists Should Get Involved We currently rank very high on Google searches for polymer clay instruction. If you are looking to get your name out there, this is a great place to start. Besides, doesn't it feel nice to get paid for your article and still let the general public benefit from your expertise free of charge? We don't ever intend to charge our visitors for access to the tutorials. Additionally, we are willing to put a link to your website or your email address in your biographical information. That will increase your exposure and possibly lead to interest in your artwork if you are inclined to sell it.
Possible Sources for Vintage Tutorials Some magazines leave authors with more rights to their articles than others. As we talk to more authors and more publishers, we are learning more about which sources are agreeable to the idea of re-publishing electronically and which sources are not. We will update this list as we learn more. If your tutorial appeared in a publication not listed here, check your contract. It should spell out which rights you sold to them. If your article originally appeared in the following publications, you may legally sell us Non-Exclusive Electronic Rights: PolymerCAFE, articles published before the Fall 2005 issue Jewelry Crafts Polymer Clay Polyzine* Any online tutorial site or polymer clay community that did not require you to sign a contract* Any publication that did not require you to sign a contract, such as a guild newsletter * Our preference is for articles that initially appeared in print magazines. If instead you are considering submitting a tutorial that is currently online at another site, please think first whether it would be of any benefit for the information to be repeated here. While it may be LEGAL to submit it to us, we aren't likely to accept it for publication unless there is a good reason to do so (for instance, maybe we sell some of your books and videos and an article by you would make a nice tie-in). If we do choose to publish it, our version may exist online concurrently with the original version. We do not have a legal right to ask that the original article be taken down (nor do we have any desire to do so). If your article originally appeared in the following publications, the chances are good that you no longer retain electronic rights to your work and therefore may not legally sell them to us: PolymerCAFE, after Fall 2005 Bead and Button Art Jewelry Any publication that required you to sell them Exclusive World Rights or Exclusive Electronic Rights indefinitely.