Baba Yaga Cover Contest for Timeless Tales Magazine (With Publishing + Cash Prize!)

A very cool opportunity and announcement from Tahlia at Timeless Tales Magazine!

In the past, I've always designed TT's front covers myself using the wonderful, magical design website, Canva. Considering that I have no background in art, I usually feel fairly satisfied with the result. But for a long time, I've pined after the possibility of having a real artist design them.  

Thanks to a new paid freelance writing gig, I finally have a little extra room in our budget to host a cover contest.  

Here are the details: 

The Prize: $40 to the contest winner and the possibility of future paid gigs in the future. Your cover will be featured on our Baba Yaga issue and credit will be given inside the issue to your work, including a link to your portfolio/website. 

Submissions announcement image only - you do not need to reference these visuals in any way!

The work of Five Favorite Runners-Up will be chosen to be featured in a blog post when our cover is revealed.   

The contest will be judged solely by me (Tahlia) and is completely based on my opinions and vision for the magazine.  

THE RULES: 

• WHEN: From Now Until August 15th 2015, 12am CST -- winner announced before the end of August 16th, 2015 (CST) 

• WHERE: Email all submissions to timelesstalesmagazine@gmail.com with the words "Baba Yaga Cover Contest" in the subject line. 

• FORMAT: PNG preferred, but will also accept high quality JPGs. Please label the file with your name. 

• SIZE: Either 940 x 900 or 816 x 1056

Elements it must include:

1. The title "Timeless Tales Magazine". Would ideally like it to use our official logo's font, but will consider different fonts. See this Dropbox link for PNG files of our title:https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hg3ve42d9cxzsza/AAAwihto9ob4HrbSfVJdWbEKa?dl=0 

2. The words "Baba Yaga" somewhere. 

3. The words "Issue #5" somewhere.  

4. A graphic that vividly represents our theme, Baba Yaga. This could be your interpretation of Baba Yaga herself or it could be her infamous house, her mortar/pestle, or anything else you feel captures an aspect of those tales. 

5. Your bio in the body of the email that we can use if you win. If you want to include a few lines about your process coming up with the cover design, feel free. 

6. Optionally, I've included TT's Hourglass logo in the dropbox graphics (See item #1). I've never found a way to incorporate it into a cover, but if you want to try using it, feel free to give it a try. 

IMPORTANT: Please avoid classic storybook styles. 

We are aiming for a style that looks like a modern magazine cover (or vintage/retro at the oldest). Look at our other covers for inspiration HERE. 

Don't forget to check out the mini-covers we create for each story, too (click on each issue to view the mini-covers for each)! 

For example, you notice that our 12 Dancing Princesses doesn't look fairytale-ish because we want to prepare our readers for a variety of genres, from sci-fi to westerns, in our magazine.  

Please only use graphics you legally have a right to use. 

Please, please, please don't put me in the awful position of getting a nasty email from a photographer/artist saying we're using their image without asking permission.  

Have fun, be creative and think outside the usual boxes!  

You're always welcome to email me (Tahlia) questions at timelesstalesmagazine@gmail.com, if you want to run a risky idea by me before creating it. 

The clock starts ticking... NOW!

Have fun and good luck!

Tahlia Merrill Kirk

Editor of Timeless Tales Magazine

www.timelesstalesmagazine.com