Let’s Build Something Great
Our vision, who we are, and submission guidelines
Editor’s Note: SUPERJUMP is moving to a new platform over the next couple of months. You can read more about our move here. We hope you’ll continue to support us on our journey.
Our reason for being
SUPERJUMP is a video game magazine designed to honour the art and science behind the games we love.
What you won’t see on our pages is as important as what you will. Reducing great games to a numerical score, hand-wringing about the price of the latest DLC release, or worrying about the market share of a particular console simply does not interest us. These are all newsworthy topics, but they are covered thoroughly and effectively by many others.
Oscar Wilde described a cynic as a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. We believe that there is already a chorus of cynical games critique in the world, and we have no intention to add our voice to it.
In order to fulfil this commitment, we will only ever write about the experiences that thrill and delight us; the worlds, characters, and creators that capture our imagination and fill us with wonder.
SUPERJUMP is a place to share this wonder with you, and each other.
If you believe in our mission and want to share your enthusiasm by working with us, please do say hello.
Who we are
Working with SUPERJUMP means joining a growing community of writers from around the world (numbering more than two hundred) who believe in and contribute to our vision.
That community of writers is highly diverse, too. You’ll find everyone from veteran game journalists and prominent game developers to students and even fans of single franchises.
You don’t need prior writing experience to work with SUPERJUMP, either. We value knowledge, passion, and enthusiasm. While we value our (many) talented wordsmiths, we also acknowledge English is not the primary language for many writers; this is why our editorial team works closely with all writers to help you put your best foot forward.
How to join our team
Although we are moving away from Medium, we’re still warmly welcoming new writers into our team. Complete this form to register for an invitation to join our new SUPERJUMP site.
How we manage submissions
Over time we have developed a finely-tuned editorial process that has enabled us to scale while remaining committed to the highest-possible quality. We work carefully with every submission to ensure a successful collaboration with every single author.
If you’d like to work with us, here’s a step-by-step guide that will take you on the journey from enthusiastic reader to published SUPERJUMP author.
Please note that we are not currently accepting new author applications. The guide below specifies the process for authors who are already connected to our publication on Medium.
1 JOINING SUPERJUMP
START SUBMITTING DRAFTS
While you’re waiting for approval, you can begin working on a draft story on Medium. When you want to submit your draft to SUPERJUMP, simply click the ellipsis on the top-right of the screen and then click Add to publication:
This will show you a list of publications you’re attached to. Here’s what mine looks like. Just choose SUPERJUMP then Select and continue. From there, your draft will land in our submissions queue for review.
2 THE EDITING PROCESS
HOW OUR EDITORS WORK ON DRAFTS
Our editors review the drafts queue on a daily basis. Every single draft submitted to SUPERJUMP moves through a three-stage process:
STAGE 1: PUBLICATION FIT
Prior to diving into making any changes, an editor will always check to see if the story is a good publication fit. Does it align with our vision? Is it interesting? Does it say something new about a well-worn topic? If we’re happy to take it forward, it’ll proceed to the following stages. If not, we’ll decline the submission through Medium, and leave a private note with feedback. We are always happy to provide more detailed constructive feedback on every declined article — simply ask us via a private note and we’ll connect with you.
STAGE 2: FIRST-PASS COPY EDIT
At this stage, an editor will run through your draft to check things like grammar, spelling, and overall flow. It’s typical that editors will make copy and formatting changes at this stage, but if we require larger changes (for example, maybe your piece needs a whole new paragraph or two), we’ll reach out to you directly via private note.
STAGE 3: FINAL EDIT
This is the stage where an editor does a final “polishing” pass to double-check for errors, refine formatting, change/update images, and add special SUPERJUMP touches (like our unique circular image headers). Once the final edit is complete, your draft will either be published immediately or it’ll be scheduled in advance. Once published, you should receive a notification through Medium that the piece is live.
TURNAROUND TIME
While we endeavour to publish all submissions as soon as possible, it can take up to a week from draft submission to publishing (depending on how busy our submission queue is, and how much editing effort is required for each piece). We would like to thank you in advance for your patience — our focus is always to polish every single piece so that it’s as strong as possible.
⚠️ You’ll sometimes see funny prefixes appearing on your draft’s title while we work on it. We do this as a way of internally managing each of the editing stages on Medium. If you see initials (like [JB]), that means an editor is doing a first or second pass copy edit. If you see [DONE], that means the piece is ready for a final edit. And [READY] means everything’s wrapped up, and we’re ready to move to publishing.
Becoming a regular
There are a number of benefits to becoming a regular writer on SUPERJUMP. For one thing, we’ll invite you to our Discord server, which provides direct access to our editorial team and offers a collaboration space for writers. You’ll gain access to specialised writing resources, media assets, and free SUPERJUMP swag (coming soon 🎉).
If you ever have any questions about SUPERJUMP or how we work, please feel free to email me directly at jb@superjumpmagazine.com.
