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Submission Rules: The Admin Edition
Submission Rules: The Author Edition Submission Rules: The Admin Edition Each chapter is read and screened for quality. Content: Placed in correct archive and category. If the characters are too OCC (Out of Character) that they cannot be recognized the story is to be rejected. Plot/Story Development: The story has a smooth development, it isn't choppy and jumps all over the place ( without reason). Check each chapter for coherency. Language: Language that is not child like in thinking, is to be for the adult audience; beyond primary or grammar school reading level. Netspeak or computbr> And another example: "That is all I have to say." She turned away and walked to the door without another word. (Full stop here because there is no speech attribution.) Split dialogue: "What did you say? Are you telling me," he gasped, "that you are pregnant?" (The second speech fragment begins lower case because the sentence is split.) "What?" he shouted. "You are pregnant? How the hell did that happen?" (The speech attribution separates two complete sentences here.) Spelling: Canon misspellings equal rejection. More than three non-canon misspellings equal rejection. Length: Anything under 600 words is to be rejected - 600 words must consist of only story content not including author's notes or replies to reviews. 100 Word Challenges: Must have at least four responses, the challenge guidelines/note and any author's notes needed to equal at least 500 words. They must be actual challenges and not 100 word. Poetry: Poetry must contain recognizable parts of the characters if posting at one of the character focused archives. If vague send them to Chaos if the poetry is only good though. Epilogues: Epilogues are to be at least 300 words and can be a chapter within itself. This will allow the author to finish the story and let readers know there is one more part instead of just putting it in the last chapter. Formatting: Story content must fill the entire width of the page, if it does not it is to be rejected immediately. If < p > tags are in the text box area at the bottom the submission is to be rejected asking for correction. New dialogue and paragraphs need to have double carriage returns (new line with a space between each paragraph/dialogue.) Author's notes/Scene changes: A seperation must be clear from the story content and author's notes; all scene changes are to be clear also so not to cause confusion. Summary: If any misspellings are in the summary it can be rejected or a letter sent to the author asking for corrections. Ratings: If the rating is wrong but the story is fine, send a 'Yes Letter' stating that the validation of the story is being done but the rating will be changed. It can be changed by validating the story then going to the Edit feature. Warnings: If the warnings are not sufficient for the chapter, add them as needed. Sexual Scenes: No one under sixteen years old is to be in descriptive sexual scenes. Top Submission Rules: The Author Edition Each chapter from an unvalidated author is individually read and screened for quality by the Admin staff. Age Restrictions: Sycophant Hex does not accept stories from underage writers. We host adult content that is not appropriate for minors and such we will no longer take submissions from them. Content: All submitted stories will be checked to ensure they have been placed in the correct archive. If they have not, a 'No Letter' will be sent asking the author to resubmit the story to the appropriate archive. Stories will be rejected if the canon characters are so OOC (Out Of Character) that they cannot be recognized. Plot/Story Development: Each chapter will be read to make sure that, at a minimum, it is internally consistent. Readers expect stories to make sense and develop in a steady and coherent fashion. Beta readers are strongly recommended for any problems in plot development and will help any author keep on track. Language: Our primary readers are adults; therefore, the language of all submissions to Lumos must be at an appropriate level. Our readership expects fully developed works of prose or poetry whose style is reasonably sophisticated. Stories using Netspeak, computer chat abbreviations, or (except in dialogue) colloquial languau here, Miss Granger." (Note the comma after the attribute and the capital letter introducing the spoken sentence.) There is only a comma within the dialogue when it is linked to direct speech attribution. If the speech is followed by action, or other descriptor, then there is no comma. Here is an example: "I hate you!" She glared furiously at him. (Glaring has nothing to do with the act of speaking.) And another example: "That is all I have to say." She turned away and walked to the door without another word. (Full stop here because there is no speech attribution.) Split dialogue: "What did you say? Are you telling me," he gasped, "that you are pregnant?" (The second speech fragment begins lower case because the sentence is split.) "What?" he shouted. "You are pregnant? How the hell did that happen?" (The speech attribution separates two complete sentences here.) Spelling: Each chapter must be spell checked even if a beta has read it - beta readers make mistakes too. Depending on the severity and frequency of misspellings, a writer will either receive a letter asking for corrections before validation, or a letter explaining that the chapter could not be accepted. Canon spellings: Correct spellings of canon names, places, and object are crucial for acceptance! Consistent misspelling of canon names will result in immediate rejection. Please take the time to read through your chapter before uploading to ensure canon spellings are correct. Names of characters, spells, magical items, and fictional places can be verified in the books or at the Harry Potter Lexicon and added to your spell check program. The proper names and incantations of all spells, curses, and hexes must be capitalized. If a potion is not a JK Rowling potion, it can be spelled in lower case only if it is a type of potion, not the actual name. It is best when making up potions to use the title as the name of the potion and capitalize it. (For example, burn-healing paste and boil cure potion aren't capitalized, but Aging Potion and Blood-Replenishing Potion are capitalized.) Length: Story length per chapter must be at least six hundred (600) words: This must be story content itself. (Author's notes and/or replies to reviews are not counted towards the 600 words.) Exceptions will be made for poetry and a special rule is given below for one hundred word challenges. 100 Word Challenge Rules: Must contain at least four (4) responses including the rules to the challenge and any notes that are needed to equal a minimum of five hundred (500) words. Anything below this will be rejected. 100 word challenge responses must be that, challenge responses, not 100 word random drabbles. Poetry: Poetry must contain recognizable parts of the characters if posting at one of the character focused archives. If it is vague the Admin have the right to refer you to Chaos, original works archive, for posting it there. Epilogues: Epilogues are to be at least 300 words and can be a chapter within itself. The Epilogues will need to be clearly marked so the Admins can appropriately assess submission. (This does not include Prologues they still must be 600 words or more.) Formatting: Proper formatting lets the reader view the story comfortably. Stories must fill the entire width of the page before going to the next line in a paragraph. If stories do not fulfill the requirement they are to be rejected without consideration until the author reformats it correctly and resubmits. Taking out the tags within the text box area and deleting the spaces to move the line up will solve this error. Using < p > tags will result in rejection because they change the settings set up by the Webmistress on the script, and result in your story being posted incorrectly and quite possibly illegibly. Double spacing between paragraphs and each new line of dialogue is required in order to make stories easier to read. A new line must also be in place when changing character point of views. Admins use their own discretion to validate, or send a letter requesting these changes and asking for resubmission. Author's notes/Scene changes: Author's notes may be included only at the top or bottom of a story and must be separated from the story text in some fashion. Lines across the page ( < hr > HTML tag) or dots/dashes should be used to indicate the difference between the story and notes from the author. When creating the lines to separate the author notes or scene changes we request it does not take more than 90% of a 800x600 screen resolution or fifty (50) character spaces across the page, if you do it may force the browser to have a horizontal scroll bar (on the bottom of the window) to enable the reader to view the complete story. You can check this by doing preview of your story when uploading. A story may be rejected for offensive or inappropriate author's notes, if author's notes are used within the text of the story itself, or if the Admin feel the separation of author's notes, and story text, is not defined. If need be, footnotes are acceptable within the story. Informational fields about stories: When filling out the information for the story/chapter, proper English is required or the submission will be rejected. This includes proper capitalization and punctuation marks. Badly spelled and grammatically incorrect summaries often discourage readers from even opening a story. Please use spell check to verify these parts as well. Uploading: We will reject stories that have more then three (3) chapters uploaded at once. (On Ashwinder we ask for only two (2) submissions at one time.) Such submissions take long periods of time for the Admins to read, and cause delay in validating other submissions. Ratings: All ratings must be appropriately marked. When Admins read a story and feel the rating is not correct, they reserve the right to change it as needed. Underage authors are not allowed to post stories beyond the rating appropriate for their age. Please do not submit adult rated stories if this rule applies to you. Warnings: All warnings must be acknowledged accordingly. Admins reserve the right to add any if the need arises. Categories: When uploading stories authors are given the choice of a category they feel will best suit their chapter, but when an Admin validates it, they reserve the right to place it in the correct category if mistakenly placed wrong. Validation time: While Sycophant Hex has numerous Admins placed around the world and in different time zones, they have other real life obligations and give time to this site for free, so please be patient. We endeavor to validate your story as soon as realistically possible. Please allow at least twenty-four (24) to forty-eight (48) hours for validation of a chapter. If you do not see your story validated or have not seen a rejection letter within this time, please email us so we may assess your story as soon as possible. Validation withdrawal: When a story is validated it is subject to removal if the quality is questioned by any other Admin. Only an Owner, Admin Mistress (in cooperation with a Senior Admin) or Senior Admin (with consent from an Owner or Admin Mistress), will be allowed to pull the story. Quality Review Panel: The Quality Review Panel exists to review works that are referred by the public as being below standard. There are five (5) members to this review panel, which will make an independent decision as to the future of a story on site. If anyone notices a story that is questionable please submit an email to the Webmistress, Admin Mistress or Public Relations Mistress so they can start the process of having it reviewed. Validated Authors: This means the author is validated to upload stories automatically without having them screened. To become a validated author you have to earn the trust of the Admins that your stories will follow the submission rules at all times. Usually to accomplish this we require three completed stories submitted without violation of Submission Rules. Exceptions will be made in extraordinary circumstances. If a validated author allows their story standards to fall, we will remove them from that status and screen the stories while requiring the author to fix the stories that are below the standard. In time the author can earn their validated status back. Top |