i. Fickleness
SUBSTACK IS A BRILLIANT PLATFORM, but it’s far too easy to change your name and logo.
I’ve taken advantage of this feature too many times - initially, I wrote under Storefronts and Subways, a line I particularly liked from a poem I wrote (incapabilities - now available in Inframince Journal). I published my first collection of short stories with that link, storefrontsubway.com (now defunct) on the back cover, and since then I've had to add in a redirect every time I've changed my publication name.
I didn’t like how long Storefronts and Subways was to say, so I went in a different direction; first weurd, then paraphenatic, both words I'd entirely made up, one a misspelling of ‘word’, the other a sort of portmanteau of paraphernalia and fanatic - some clever wordplay, I thought. I briefly owned both weurd.com and paraphenatic.com, and both times I thought I'd figured out the name I'd build my brand on.
Well, neither weurd nor paraphenatic lasted very long, because, you know, they’re not real words. The problems were especially obvious with paraphenatic - it’s hard to say, hard to remember how to spell, and Google autocorrects you to paraphernalia if you look it up. So, once again, I went in a different direction.
Next came Desolation, Blue, and I stuck with this one for a while. It was a combination of my two favourite Bob Dylan songs; Tangled Up in Blue, and Desolation Row. I thought it was sufficiently pretentious, and I held onto this name for a while. But then, again, I had doubts; the name was too long, like Storefronts and Subways, and I really liked the one-word Substack names, because it just seemed so much more official.
So, Desolation, Blue became Desolatia, another word I made up, and I won’t insult you by belabouring the point - you see where this is going.
Eventually, I gave up and resigned myself to writing under my real name (though even this came with some variance - luca’s substack vs Luca Zani). This has been fine, especially for building a personal brand, but I've always wanted something bigger from writing and building a presence on Substack. I’ve been envious of the bustling literary magazines, collecting the brightest voices and the most brilliant literature from this community, building something bigger than themselves.
ii. The final rebrand
This is what I'm hoping to achieve with Critick, my biggest - and final - rebrand. I really have made it official this time. You can follow Critick on LinkedIn, or find our magazine listing on Chill Subs. You’ll see our other promo here, or in the Critick subscriber chat, and in time we hope to have a separate section (and maybe podcast?) for paid subscribers.
But more than branding, or audience growth, my goal with Critick is to collate the best writing I've seen on this website, and from the wider internet, in one place. We’re offering poetry, fiction, essays, reviews, interviews, and more - every medium you can think of, because it doesn’t make sense to me that you’d constrain the offerings of a magazine in that area.
In time, we’ll be running themed submission calls, and emphasising certain mediums over others, but for the time being - while we get on our feet - we want anything and everything (as long as it’s good). Send us your experimental poetry, your niche essays, your interviews with feline companions. If we like the writing, we’ll publish it.
We want experimental, provocative works that question our cultural conditions. Whether it’s fiction, poetry or an essay, your work should challenge us as readers to see things differently, to assess things with a new heuristic. We want to read (and publish) works that push us, challenge us, occasionally offend us (one can achieve this without being racist, misogynistic, hateful).
If you’re considering submitting a review, ensure that the cultural artefact you are reviewing is of a similar kind of importance / provocation. We’re interested in reading your well-formed opinions on these transgressive and interesting works of art.
As with every constitution, there ought to be some boring housekeeping, so here it is:
iii. The boring stuff
I’m Luca Zani. I’m the editor of Critick, but I'm also the sole employee. We don’t have a poetry editor, an editor-at-large, or any staff writers, and for the moment we don’t need any. I monitor the submissions inbox by myself, and I aim to respond to all submissions within a week, maximum two.
You can read our full submissions guidelines here, but to be honest there’s not much more to it. Send us everything and anything. We don’t pay, because right now we don’t make any money (that’s where you come in - a paid subscription helps keep Critick above water, and allows us to pursue larger goals like the podcast and extra supplements), but we’re also entirely free to submit to.
We’ll promote your work, link whatever you want to plug on the post, and, if you’re on Substack (and chances are, you are), add you to our recommendations list of Critick contributors.
All we ask is that you subscribe to keep Critick going, and if you like the stuff we publish that much, consider throwing us a couple pounds of your hard-earned cash. We won’t waste it.
If you’d like to submit to Critick, and you really should, you can email me directly at critickmag@gmail.com. You can also find the link to submit on the magazine homepage.
Thank you all, very much, for indulging in my latest venture. I swear it to you that this one will last, because all else aside, I seriously can’t be bothered to design another logo.
I am beyond grateful for everyone who has already submitted their work to Critick, and those of you who choose to donate a small portion of your immense wealth to the magazine. Keep reading, and I hope you’ll consider becoming part of the work yourself!
All the very best,
Luca Zani
Editor-in-Chief (isn’t that fancy!)
Great work! Looking forward to seeing where this goes.
Exciting!