Submission Guidelines for 2012

[briarwood.livejournal.com]

There's more than a month to go before the deadline of June 30th, so no one panic. But for those over-achievers who are done or nearly done, here are the submission guidelines. You can turn your submission in at any time - early will make the mods really happy :)

First, just in case anyone is confused about this point, you only need to work with one of the prompts you've been given (though mixing two or more is allowed) and you are only expected to submit one story.

The minimum story length is 1,000 words. There is no maximum.

Submission Guidelines

• Fiction can be submitted in .txt or HTML (.htm or .html) or .rtf formats. We will not accept .doc or .docx files.
• You must format your story ready for posting on LJ, that is with any bold, italic, centring etc already coded in as HTML. Please see this guide to HTML formatting for LJ posts if you're not sure how to do this.
• If your story is too long for one LJ post, you should either send it as multiple files (part one.txt, part two.txt etc) or indicate in your file very clearly where the chapter break should be. Anything longer than 9,000 words should be split into multiple posts.
• You should include the header (below) in the story file and in your email.
• Do not include any fancy font formatting (that is, no coded-in colours or font styles. Heading tags, bold and italics are okay.). This is to make sure your story is readable for everyone - if you code in colours they may clash with someone else's style, and coding in fonts only works if everyone reading has the same fonts as you on their PCs/phones/iPads/etc.
• Including art (e.g. banners or illustrations) in fic - this is allowed, but you must supply the art files, not just a link. Image files must be in .gif, png or .jpg format. If it's not obvious, clearly indicate in your story file where each image is supposed to go.
• Please get your fics beta'd! Stories riddled with errors will be rejected, but we won't send a piece back for relatively minor mistakes.
• Do not code web-bugs or counters into your story. If you do, it will make me cranky and it will be removed before posting.

Also, please give your story file a name a bit more unique than "summergenfic.txt". You wouldn't believe how many files of the same name I get each year! It really makes downloading them all a pain in the butt. (Yes, I know, it's easy to change the file name. But I've got more than 70 files - you've got one. Be nice, okay?)

If anything in the guidelines is not clear, please contact the mods and we'll talk about it.

Header Info for ALL Submissions:

You should email your submission to supernatural @ summergen.co.uk (without the spaces). Include  the following header information in both your email and your story file:

Title:
Author: (We'll remove this before your work is posted, but we still need you to include it.)
Recipient:
Rating:
Warnings: (not optional - see note below)
Author's Notes: (optional)
Summary:

Ratings: you can use any rating system you like, as long as the meaning is clear.

Warnings are at your discretion. You are more than welcome to put "Warnings: Choose not to warn" or something similar if you prefer not to include this information. But please do include the field in your template. If your fic has nothing you feel the need to warn about, just put "none" in that field.

Summaries can be difficult, I know. If you don't like to use a regular summary, you could state the prompt you've used or maybe give a quote from the work. But please do include something here.

You may add additional fields to your header if you wish (e.g. spoiler warnings, beta credits), but you must include everything in the header as given above. You may thank your beta(s) by name if you believe doing so won't give away your identity. If naming your beta will be a dead giveaway, maybe use just her initials or something. She'll know who she is, right?

Deadline and extensions

The deadline for submissions is June 30th.

If you cannot finish your story by the deadline you can either drop out or request an extension.

If you need to drop out, please let the mods know as early as possible. We will do our best to find a pinch hitter for you but the more time they have, the better.

If you need an extension, you must ask for one before the deadline, that is by June 29th. We won't begin posting until July 9th so a short extension won't be a problem. But please be realistic about how much time you need. There are no extensions on extensions, and if you ask for an extension and then default...well, that's not fair to the mods, the pinch hitters or your recipient.

If I email you chasing your submission you must reply promptly.

When we have received your submission we will reply to your email to let you know. If you submit on or close to the deadline, don't expect to receive that acknowledgement instantly - we're going to be busy!

Making changes after submission:

If, after you've submitted your story you find some mistake in it you absolutely have to change, you may re-submit your work. Just email it to us again, using exactly the same format you did before (again, include the full headers in both your email and the story file). As long as it's before the deadline, we'll pick up the most recent version when it comes to posting time. If you need to change something after the deadline, you can do the same thing but we won't guarantee to use the amended version.

You can only re-submit once. Blame the person who one year re-submitted four or five times for this rule. I understand the need to tinker with a story, but if you're going to do it, make sure you catch everything you want to change on the first try!

Essential Links:

Rules, schedule and FAQ

Advice for when you receive your prompts