miscellany and artist special beta signup

[ladysisyphus]

Just a couple of odds and ends:

1. If you haven't been to shousetsubangbang.com lately, you haven't seen all the lovely things Scruffy relvetica has been getting up to! (And more to come!)

2. For authors considering submitting something for the theme-free December issue, remember that this year's will be a Big Bang -- in other words, while the minimum

Comments

[scistor_skizzer]

Uhm. So the script is due September 1st, the images are due September 13th, and everything comes out on September 19th, for the comic issue?

[ladysisyphus]

The script is due on (or really before) the 1st so we can have time to edit it and send it back. The images are due the 13th so we have some panic buffer, just like we do with text submissions in the regular issue. This issue is going to involve our doing a lot more things with images than we usually do, including more uploading, more HTML, more images per entry -- and hell, I'm going to need time to read them all myself so I can determine an order. And if there are any comics that don't meet standards, for whatever reason, that gap betwen the 13th and the 19th is there so creators can make last-minute changes.

So yes! Those are the deadlines!

[hcolleen]

On a random tangent...I recall there being queries into how to penetrate the 'net better...have you considered offering the back issues as a compilation that could be read on ereaders? Converting a file to epub isn't difficult (a little work, yes, but not difficult [the work comes in setting up the text into a word document, removing extra returns by using find and replace to find ^p^p and replace it with ^p, making the story titles into headers, saving it as a html file. There's a website that will convert that to epub for you]) and once in epub, you can convert it for other readers (I know epub works for Kobo and Sony readers, mobi for Kindle and I'm not sure which nook uses) with a program called Calibre.

Just a thought.

edited for grammar fail...blame the time

[ladysisyphus]

We have indeed considered this, and one of the problems we've run into is that of permission -- after all, creators who gave permission to have their work published on the s2b2 journal didn't necessarily give (or want to give) their permission to distribute their works another format or to another site. Since there are authors and artists alike who are no longer contributing to the project, including some for whom we have no contact information, securing permission for all the past works would be something approaching an epic nightmare.

However, we've thought of two responses to this! The first would be to secure permission for submissions to further issues; it would be entirely opt-in, of course, but it could be available for download as soon as the issue itself went live. (The downside, unfortunately, would be that exporting the issues offsite would likely cut down on the already-low number of comments on each story

[hcolleen]

As I said, it was a thought and something that I've been (very slowly) working on with my own works. My biggest problem (if you wanna call it that) is lack of cover art.

Calibre will also convert pdf files for other readers. I know the Kobo reader supports pdf because I have one, but I don't know about others.

But, I'll state now I don't mind my stories being archived that way. (And, the lack of comments isn't just here. I have it with other sites, too...I tend to get more comments in my own journal than anywhere else I post :/)

[ladysisyphus]

No, it's a good thought, and one we've been having too, obviously! It's gotten pushed down the project list behind fixing up the website, but that's chugging right along, so it probably won't be too long until talk of a formatted compilation comes up again...

[aoeki]

Thank god for reminders. I've been meaning to ask a couple things about the september issue.

1) Is there a particular format the scripts should be in? Or is there a kind of standard for comic scripts or something? I'm not exactly sure what you guys need for editing. Mine currently exists as a notepad file with dialogue and random bits of stage directions/paneling notes.

2) Is there going to be a space in the issue for freetalk/atogaki pages? I've seen this in a lot of other printed anthologies, where there's a little space at the end for the contributors to talk about their story. Is the september issue going to include something similar? Or is it just going to be straight up comic story & illustrations?

[ladysisyphus]

1. All I care about seeing is the actual text that will actually appear in the actual image. I don't care about stage directions, paneling, notes, or anything else that someone reading the comic will never see. I just want to make sure there are no typos/punctuation errors/formatting problems that I wouldn't let go in a text submission. You can plot and format how you want, or work completely without a script if that's how you like it, but I don't want to have a page come in with a text bubble that says 'I'm sorry your mad' and find myself unable to change it.

2. We'll allow the same thing we do with stories in regular issues; if you want to add a small amount of text at the bottom of the entry, sure, or if you want to add a link to an lj post on another journal, that would be fine. In fact, if it's more than one or two lines of thank-yous, I'd really encourage making a post on a separate journal, and we'll link to it.

[aoeki]

So the concern is for the actual text in the actual image. Gotcha. Thanks for clearing that up!

[ruins_of_sodom]

Thanks for the information! :)