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Story/Review Submission Guidelines
Okay, here we go. I know that this may seem a bit tyrannical, but in reality these simple little rules are just designed to both edit your work for "publication" (read: posting on fanfic sites) and give me less of a headache when I actually am posting your stories. More often than not, I spent more time editing and actually finding chapter divisions than I do cutting and pasting your writings onto this site. So, the rules (which I certainly hope can be followed pretty easily) are as follows:
For Story Submissions
Guideline #1: Please submit ALL works in .doc format, or if you don't have Word pretty much any compatible word processor format... but never submit them in zipped format! I cannot emphasize this enough... my email account is a bitch when it comes to downloading zipped attachments for whatever reason, so I can practially guarantee that the stuff that you zip up before sending to me will take three times as long to post, if it does get posted at all.
Guideline #2: Please mark your chapters and breaks clearly. This is one of the major problems that I have when posting a story - "Where are the thrice-dammed chapters?!?" All I can say is underline, italisize, make the chapter headings bold... something to make them stand out. Same goes for page breaks... don't just leave a space, put a set of asterisks in (like so - * * *). Whatever you do, make them visible.
Guideline #3: I beg of you, edit before you send! Run your writing through at least one spell and grammar check before you send it to me - this makes it a lot easier for people to read and for me as well. Look for punctuation mistakes too... a revised copy is a lot easier and more enjoyable to read than a first draft.
Guideline #4: Please be patient with me when I'm posting your stuff. As much as I would love to be able to work on this site 24/7, neither my life in the real world (it does exist) nor my attention span will permit it. I cannot get your stuff up right away... in fact if it has more than 3 or 4 chapters it could take close to a week. Rest assured that I am not ignoring you and that I did get your submission, I'm just busy and I don't have as much time as I would like.
Guideline #5: If you're sending me an update, such as an additional chapter for your story, then please cut-and-paste the new chapter text into a seperate Word file before you send it to me, rather than sending the whole story all over again (the only exception is if you're sending me a revised version of your entire story which also has additional chapters, but I'll probably kill you for that anyway). You can delete the chapter file as soon as you're done sending it, but at least make it for sending.
Follow these simple rules and I won't end up sending you death threat emails. ;)
For Review Submissions
Guideline #1: Guidelines 1-4 for the stories also apply for reviews, but I won't subject you to my repeating them here.
Guideline #2: Reviews should follow this format:
Short Plot Summary: a short, spoiler-free blurb regarding the plot, much like what you'd find on the back of a novel.
Evaluation of Plot: a short evalution of the plot's intensity, how well it captured your attention, continuity issues if there were any, etc., along with a score out of 10.
Evaluation of Characters: a short evaluation of the story's characters, such as their realism, their depth, and pretty much anything else about them (plus a score out of 10).
Evaluation of Writer's Skills: another short evaluation of the writer's technical skills (i.e. how many flaws there were in spelling, punctuation, and grammar) plus a score out of 10.
Overall Evaluation: another little blurb wrapping up the review, with a score out of 10 totaled from the previous three scores.
Guideline #3: There should be no spoilers in a review! The purpose of a review is to read and see if the story's worth it, not to get cliff notes on the work.
See? Not so bad. Just follow these rules, and you won't get email after email from me screaming death threats at you.
Peace.
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