Frequently Asked Questions

General

1. When did Legends Magazine begin printing?

October, 1990.

2. What themes does Legends cover?

Currently Legends has two main themes, music and literary. We review music and interview bands that fall within darker genres. We do cover many styles, such as metal, industrial, gothic, ambient, ethereal, trance, punk etc. For our literary theme we present dark fantasy and horror fiction, essays, rants and other forms of prose, with occasional poetry.

3. How long has Legends Online been operational?

Somewhere in late 1995. I never bothered to write it down.

4. How many people read Legends?

More than 25 thousand every month.

5. What editions of Legends are available?

Hardcopy, PDF electronic hardcopy and HTML (web site).

6. How much does Legends cost?

The web and PDF versions are free. The hardcopy edition costs $3.50 ($4.00 CAN) each and any back issue may be ordered. Recent issues, if still in stock, cost $3.50 each. Advance subscriptions are $3.50 each issue.

7. What size is Legends Magazine?

Letter size, 8 ½” by 11” paper. About 32-40 pages each issue.

8. Where is Legends Magazine available for purchase?

Legends Magazine is currently available via mail order and in some small select specialty record shops and book shops. Use our contact information to order subscriptions. Legends Online allows you to purchase advertising space and copies of Legends Magazine from the Internet with a credit card.

9. What are acceptable payment methods?

A check or money order payable to Marcus Pan is preferred. We also accept cash, but if you are posting it we are not responsible if it gets lost (conceal it as best you can). The most preferable is ordering online at our website with your credit card via a secure server.

10. Does Legends Magazine have a mailing list?

No. However, the Pan Pages is one of my other projects and provides an electronic mailing list that includes, but isn’t specific to, Legends Magazine.

11. Do you mind if I link you at my site?

Of course not. Please do, we encourage it.

12. Can I make copies of Legends for my friends?

Yes. As many as you like. You may not modify them.

13. How much should I charge for them?

You may not charge for them.

Music Submitters

1. Does Legends accept unsolicited music submissions for review?

Yes. Legends retains the right to reject out of format material.

2. Should we ask first before adding Legends Magazine to our service list?

No. But we’d love to hear from you if only to thank you for placing us there.

3. Is it ok to use mailing services that require a signature upon receipt (i.e. UPS, FedEx)?

Yes.

4. What media will Legends accept submissions in?

CDs and VHS video only. We are no longer accepting tapes or records for review. Videos are not typically reviewed, but may serve as a special insight into the music. We also accept book submissions for the “Off the Shelf” column. Legends will accept a single copy of your CD...two is no longer necessary.

5. How many copies of a CD is suggested?

Only one is necessary. However, if it is assigned to a staff member who is not in our central office in NJ it will be ripped into MP3s for the sole use of that single staff member only and provided digitally to them on a secure server. Your music will NOT be used for any other purpose other than that without your direct permission.

6. Will Legends accept burned CDs or demos?

Yes.

7. What material should be included with my CDs?

A media kit if you have one. If you do not, provide at least a slip of paper with all contact information written on it if it’s not on the CD jacket.

8. How long will the review take?

Our review schedule has been moving rapidly. If it is assigned to someone in our central office, it may very well appear in the next month’s issue. If not, give it a couple months or three. If there is a specific timeframe you want contact us and we may be able to make arrangements for you to coincide with a release date or some other promotion timeline you may have. Realize that we do get as many as three dozen CDs a month at some times.

9. May I copy or reprint my review?

Yes. You will also get tear sheets of the pages that appear in the magazine.

10. When you are done with my review what will you do with my CD or video?

We will keep it and continue to enjoy it in some cases. In other cases we will pass them along to DJs, other media partners or even friends who may enjoy it more. We will NEVER sell your promotional material, but we can’t return it.

11. Will you review my MP3s?

No. Due to demands, we can only review CDs that are submitted.

12. Can we request an interview?

Yes. That does not guarantee we will do it, but you can request it.

13. How will I know if you received our CD?

Fist check out the News page at the website which is updated very often with the latest things received, finished, etc. We will also add you to an electronic mailing list that we do once or twice a month. This e-mail will list CD & book reviews on our schedule, who the article was assigned to, sometimes what issue the article is due to appear in, status and other information. You will receive this only when your CD is received, so this can be considered a confirmation.

14. Will you remove us from the mailing list once we have confirmation if we ask?

Yes. Additionally, your e-mail address will be removed from the mailing list once your article(s) are finished printing. For more on electronic privacy see our Privacy Policy in our Legal Policies at our website.

15. What will Legends do to my CD once received?

If assigned to a staff reviewer not in our main office, we will rip the CD to our digital distribution network for overseas and further away reviewers. This is a secure system and the MP3s and cover scans will be used only for review purposes of that staff member.

16. Can we request a specific staff reviewer?

Maybe.

17. Can I use my review in promo material before it runs in Legends?

Yes. You do not need to wait for it to print to include it in your own materials or those of your label.

18. Can you put up a link to a page where my CD is sold like you do the Amazon links?

No. That style of link is there on an exclusivity deal with Amazon.Com. A link may be placed in the “Contact Information” section of the article at the bottom only.

19. If my CD is now available at Amazon but you already ran our review, will you add an Amazon link?

Yes. Simply let the editor know and if I can search and find it at Amazon.Com’s website I will add the sales link for you.

20. What are “editorial privileges?”

“Editorial privileges” are when a magazine offers a band or label the ability to review and sign off on a review of their work or other article about them before it may go to print.

21. Can we get editorial privileges from Legends Magazine?

No.

22. Can we see and edit the review before it goes to print?

Yes. Legends Magazine will honor requests to make changes to factual information of the article (names, dates, contact information, etc.), but you may not change any opinions or views of the writer. We will not honor requests to not print.

23. What if I don’t like my review?

The review will print. There has never been a case where Legends has been bullied into not printing a review – and in fact it infuriates me. Your lawyer won’t help here either. Feel free to try, you won’t be the first.

24. If I buy a lot of advertising space, will you make sure our review is good?

No. Fuck you.

Writing / Art Submitters

1. Does Legends Magazine accept unsolicited material?

Yes.

2. Who retains copyright of the work?

You do. I only retain the right to do the following:
o Print your material with some editing in the hardcopy and PDF issues of Legends Magazine.
o Provide a full copy of your work in the designated issue at Legends Online.
o If Legends creates a Best of Legends edition in the future (such as the currently in the works Decade of Dark book), your material may appear to represent the issue you were originally printed in.

3. Will you sign this contract before you print me?

No.

4. What will I gain from appearing in Legends?

Your work is submitted on a donatory basis, so you will not receive a check. However, Legends is currently read by over 25,000 people each month, so you would get a lot of exposure. You will also receive a copy of Legends Magazine in which your work appears if you provide a postal address.

5. What kind of material does Legends accept?

First, most of our illustrators are on staff or commissioned. However, we are always looking for new ones, so submit some samples of your work and we may consider taking you in to illustrate some of our fiction or other works. For writers we accept dark fiction (horror, fantasy, surreal, etc.), essays and rants. We no longer accept poetry unsolicited.

6. What length should a submission be?

We have no limitations at this time on submission length. Long pieces may be run as a serial over several issues.

7. Does Legends accept chapter series?

Yes.

8. What is the difference between a staff member and a submitter?

A staff member is usually in the music and illustration departments. A staff member will accept assignments from me on a regular basis and be expected to meet a deadline. Submitters are not held to any deadlines and may come and go as they please.

9. Can I review music or write columns for you?

Maybe. Introduce yourself.

10. What compensation do I get for being a music reviewer or columnist?

Possibly lots of sex by having the ability to use the line “I write for Legends, let’s fuck.” Yes, this has worked. Also, over 25,000 people a month will read your opinion and believe you.

Advertisers

1. Why should I advertise?

Because you can't yell loud enough to let the whole world know you have something cool to sell them.

2. Why should I advertise in Legends Magazine?

That's an easy one, too. Besides all the hoopla of Legends being, well, the best...there's always the idea that you should be advertising your product or service with people that have an icicle's chance in Hell of buying it. It's simple...if you were selling hamburgers, you wouldn't go advertising in Militant Vegetarian Magazine, now would you? No, of course not. Legends Magazine's readers typically fit the gothic/industrial, rivethead, industrialite or otherwise darker subculture sector. So if you're selling coffins, corsets or good dark-edged music, then this is where you're going to find the people that are going to buy those coffins to decorate their homes with, those corsets to go clubbing with and that music to dance their corseted, coffin-loving asses off to. That's why. Oh, and we're also the best.

3. What's your distribution rate?

Typically a couple thousand will download the full PDF copy to their computers. Straight hardcopy is expected to be up around a couple thousand as well shortly. And don't forget the other 25,000 or so people that come to browse the online version each month.

4. Why can't you give me solid numbers of how many issues you sell a month?

Legends was created with one thing in mind – support of the underground scene. If someone wants to hit the nearest Kinkos and make a pile for their friends or club event or whatever, that's cool. I know, based on web stats, how many people download the PDFs and I know how many people come by to visit. I also know how many hardcopies I distribute to stores and via subscriptions. I DON'T know how many people around the world are making even more copies – and it does happen.

5. What's all this talk of versions? Isn't Legends ONE magazine?

Yes...one magazine available in three formats. You can come to Legends Online and browse the website – that's one version. You can come to Legends Online and download the PDF version – that's an Acrobat cross-platform electronic copy that looks exactly like the hardcopy – except it's in full color throughout. And then there's the good 'ol tree killer hardcopy edition on top of all that.

6. So that means I can advertise in either Legends Magazine or Legends Online?

Precisely.

7. How often do issues come out and what are the ad placement deadlines?

Monthly. Typically, ad placements for the hardcopy and PDF editions must be ordered and graphics in by the 5th of the previous month.

8. What are acceptable payment methods?

A check or money order payable to Marcus Pan is preferred. We also accept cash, but if you are posting it we are not responsible if it gets lost (conceal it as best you can). The most preferable is ordering online at our website with your credit card via a secure server.

9. I have questions that haven't been covered here. Who do I ask?

Ask me, Marcus Pan. Write me at marcus@legendsmagazine.net.