Beta search post

[briarwood.livejournal.com]

All stories submitted for Summergen must be beta'd.

In case anyone doesn't know what that means, a beta is someone who reads through the story you've written, helps to correct any spelling and grammatical errors (particularly important if English is not your first language) and, in some cases, gives more in-depth advice on the story.

You can find a beta via several SPN communities, or you may already have someone who regularly betas for you. That's fine: you can use any beta you want to.

If you need help finding a beta, please comment here. Likewise, if you're willing to offer beta services to others, please leave a comment, or hook up with someone who is asking.

Submission Guidelines for 2011

[briarwood.livejournal.com]

There are about three weeks left before the deadline of July 1st, so no one panic. But for those over-acheivers who are done or nearly done, here are the submission guidelines. You can turn your submission in at any time - early will make me 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 and submit one story.

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

( Submission Guidelines and required header info )

Deadline and extensions

The deadline for submissions is July 1st.

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 30th. We won't begin posting until July 11th 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:

This came up for a couple of people last year, so I'll say it here. 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. As long as it's before the deadline, we'll pick up the most recent vesion 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 last 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!