Phish.net and The Mockingbird Foundation are in the process of producing the Third Edition of The Phish Companion ("TPC3"), and we would like your help.

FIRST, we may draw content for the book from Phish.Net, e.g., show reviews or “essays” which are submitted as forum posts (“essays” being any writings about Phish and their music which are not show reviews, such as pieces similar to those published in previous editions of TPC about a festival, Halloween costumes, tours, how Phish has changed your life, different eras of Phish, your experience at shows, and so forth).

We encourage you to PLEASE RANK SHOW REVIEWS AND ESSAYS posted in the forum by thumbing them up (or down), because the number of positive "thumbs" may impact what reviews and what posts are chosen for possible inclusion in TPC. Please post as much content to this site that merits potential publishing in TPC3 as you can. If we desire to publish a review or forum post essay that you submitted, you will be contacted and your explicit permission will be sought.

SECOND, as in past editions, there will be photographs in the book, and photos submitted by fans are often OUR FAVORITE PHOTOS. If you would like to submit a photo, be advised that

(1) we cannot acknowledge your submission, because we get a lot of mail and we are all volunteers;

(2) your photo must be one that you yourself have taken, and you must affirm this to us when you submit the photo, by saying something like, "I swear that I took this photo, I really did, me -- I took it"; and,

(3) if it is not your photo, then do not submit it, period. It is not enough that you "vouch" for the person.

Photos that are submitted ideally should be linked to in the body of your email, that is, submitted as a link to a third-party photo posting website such as Flickr, Photobucket, Imgur, etc. rather than attached to the submittal email itself.  (The links should be public, or “friends and family” links, such that we have permission to view and download them, of course.) If you absolutely must email the photo as an attachment, please “zip” (compress) it and attach it to the email as a zipped archive. Photos need to be  in *.jpg digital format, at the highest quality (largest size, up to approximately 3 MB) possible.

Submissions should be sent to us by emailing them to photo editor Kat Griffin kat@phish.net with the subject line, "TPC3 Photo Submission from [your name]." It is important that "[your name]" appear in the subject line, and that it indeed be the name of the person who took the photo (YOU), as it will be the name credited in the book for that photo if it is published. If you do not understand these instructions, then do not submit a photo, because these instructions must be followed in order for your photo to be considered for inclusion in TPC3.  

In addition: 

•  If the photo is specific to a date and venue, please indicate that in the body of the email.  

•  We are especially interested in photos from Phish festivals and photos from the 1983 to 2000 era.  

•  Photos should be CLEAR, CRISP and IN FOCUS.

Keep in mind that print publishing resolutions are higher than web browser resolutions, so we cannot use small, web-size, thumbnail pictures at low (72-96 dpi) resolutions. We will have to be able to download large originals, which usually run 1 - 3 MB.  

Make sure that we can download photos from the links that you provide, and that the photos are not copyright-restricted, watermarked or “bannered” with your text copyright/credit line on the photo itself. Simply put, the high quality photo that you submit should be one that we can potentially publish in print.  If we choose to use your photo, we will contact you and get your explicit permission to use it, and you will get a courtesy photo credit, similar to past editions of TPC.  

By submitting a review, essay or photograph for publication, you certify your original authorship and ownership of the materials submitted, and you agree to provide a non-exclusive, royalty-free copyright license to The Mockingbird Foundation, Inc., Backbeat Books, and its assigns for use in this and future editions of The Phish Companion in print and electronic formats.

FINALLY, if you have delved into Phish.net’s website and content, you realize that we cannot possibly publish all of it in any single book. Such a book would run thousands of pages, even in a small font. For this reason, sadly, we have to be highly selective about what gets published in TPC3. This is extraordinarily difficult for us, because some of us have spent many years working on content that is a part of this site, and we care a great deal about it. We also care a great deal about user-submitted content, of course. As in past editions of TPC, we are going to do the best we can to publish what we believe most Phish fans want to see published in TPC3, regardless of the number of pages we are limited to by our publisher.

We appreciate your understanding, and we thank you for your support of Phish.Net, The Mockingbird Foundation, and The Phish Companion books.

Sincerely,

Marco Walsh, President, on behalf of the Directors of The Mockingbird Foundation