Submission Guidelines for hd_hols round 2
Some of you may (hopefully) be well under way with your fics. Some of you may even finish soon (we LOVE early submissions!! ♥). So it seems a good time to go over the basics of submitting your work to us - yes there are "rules," of a sort.
First off, everyone should read r_becca's guide to being a good, decent and bad fest participant. She outlines a few of the things I'm going to mention here, so read both and heed our ideas.
1) When you communicate with Sue and me (hdhols@gmail.com!), ALWAYS include your LJ name (the one you signed up with - and if you change your LJ mid-fest TELL US) either in the subject or in your sign-off. We have you sorted on all our master lists by your LJ name, and if someone just named "Sarah" or "Jade" (or whatever) emails us, honestly we have no idea who you are, and I do NOT want to have to comb through 90 emails to figure it out.
2) on that vein, when you email/submit your fic to us (via hdhols@gmail.com), you MUST format your email as such:
Subject: hd_hols SUBMISSION, yourljname
or
Subject: hd_hols, EXTENSION REQUEST, yourljname
Subject: hd_hols, DROP-OUT, yourljname (not that we want you to drop out!)
etc.
This will help us immensely in sorting the emails that come into the inbox, and differentiate things.
3. IF YOU NEED AN EXTENSION OR PLAN ON DROPPING OUT YOU MUST EMAIL US. hdhols@gmail.com
This is essential. It's also a worst case scenario bit of information, NOT our permission to ask for endless extensions (but we have a ONE extension rule only, anyway) or drop out just because you feel like it. If you MUST drop out, email us SOONER rather than later. If you drop out now, we'll understand and fixing it up should be relatively painless for everyone. If you drop out on May 25th, I will hit you with pointy evil glares of doom (electronically, yes, but still very potent), and both Sue and I will likely NOT be very happy with you. Mods are people, too, and we can get pissed off if you're rude to us.
That said, anyone who drops out in this round will not be able to participate in the next round of hd_hols. And, personally, depending on the circumstances, I may not let you participate in any other fest I mod in the future.
4. YOUR FIC MUST BE BETA READ. And, no, not just by a friend of yours (unless they are a grammar nazi/professional editor, etc.), but by someone with a strong grasp of grammar, spelling and (English language) usage. Not all betas are created equal, and when we say we want your stories beta read, we mean by someone who will make sure there are no extraneous mistakes, narrative issues, etc. There are plenty of people on LJ who are willing to beta, who are either professional editors/writers or teachers of English/Literature, etc. When in doubt, you are free to ask the mods to beta read for you, but note that Sue and I may not have time. But we can be your last resort. We would also be happy to arrange a beta resource list if anyone would like one.
On this note: we will be proof-reading EVERY story submitted to us. This disclaimer is here in the event that we find more than just typos in your story (simple typos we will run by you and fix ourselves, provided they're not ridiculous in number to the point of indicating your story's not be beta-ed) and have need to either request you have another beta or, in the event that multiple tries do not prove sufficient, edit your story ourselves. We are not *trying* to be hard-asses about this, but if every canonical term is spelled incorrectly/not capitalised without indication of conscious style choice, the grammar is atrocious, etc. we will be. The number one thing that can sink a good fic in a fest is poor SPAG/usage, and we want every fic in the exchange to have a minimum readability level. The more betas/good betas you employ, by the way, the less likely we are to take issue with your fic. So produce clean, coherent copy the first time around, please. (this is what happens when one of your mods is a canon/editing guru, sorry :P)
5. Every story must use our uniform header, which is below. You cannot name your beta by name in your author's notes. You may refer to them by initial or without names, but too many people use the same beta readers and mentioning them is a giveaway to your identity. So don't do it.
Author:
Recipient:
Title:
Pairing(s): Harry/Draco (they should all include H/D obvs, but put any others, including implied pairings)
Summary:
Rating:
Disclaimer: All Harry Potter characters herein are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No copyright infringement is intended.
Warning(s):
Word Count:
Author's Notes:
6. You must include ALL HTML FORMATTING in your story. If we find while proof-reading that you have not, we will send it back to you for formatting. HTML formatting to use include any italics (< i > & < /i>), bolding (< b > & < /b>), underlining (< u > & < /u>), block quotes (for letters, etc: < blockquote > & < /blockquote>), etc. (without spaces, obvs.)
For your reference, once again, our email is: hdhols@gmail.com. Email us if you have any issues/questions, etc. We really do like hearing from you.
Comment here with any questions, etc. pertaining to the submission guidelines.
First off, everyone should read r_becca's guide to being a good, decent and bad fest participant. She outlines a few of the things I'm going to mention here, so read both and heed our ideas.
1) When you communicate with Sue and me (hdhols@gmail.com!), ALWAYS include your LJ name (the one you signed up with - and if you change your LJ mid-fest TELL US) either in the subject or in your sign-off. We have you sorted on all our master lists by your LJ name, and if someone just named "Sarah" or "Jade" (or whatever) emails us, honestly we have no idea who you are, and I do NOT want to have to comb through 90 emails to figure it out.
2) on that vein, when you email/submit your fic to us (via hdhols@gmail.com), you MUST format your email as such:
Subject: hd_hols SUBMISSION, yourljname
or
Subject: hd_hols, EXTENSION REQUEST, yourljname
Subject: hd_hols, DROP-OUT, yourljname (not that we want you to drop out!)
etc.
This will help us immensely in sorting the emails that come into the inbox, and differentiate things.
3. IF YOU NEED AN EXTENSION OR PLAN ON DROPPING OUT YOU MUST EMAIL US. hdhols@gmail.com
This is essential. It's also a worst case scenario bit of information, NOT our permission to ask for endless extensions (but we have a ONE extension rule only, anyway) or drop out just because you feel like it. If you MUST drop out, email us SOONER rather than later. If you drop out now, we'll understand and fixing it up should be relatively painless for everyone. If you drop out on May 25th, I will hit you with pointy evil glares of doom (electronically, yes, but still very potent), and both Sue and I will likely NOT be very happy with you. Mods are people, too, and we can get pissed off if you're rude to us.
That said, anyone who drops out in this round will not be able to participate in the next round of hd_hols. And, personally, depending on the circumstances, I may not let you participate in any other fest I mod in the future.
4. YOUR FIC MUST BE BETA READ. And, no, not just by a friend of yours (unless they are a grammar nazi/professional editor, etc.), but by someone with a strong grasp of grammar, spelling and (English language) usage. Not all betas are created equal, and when we say we want your stories beta read, we mean by someone who will make sure there are no extraneous mistakes, narrative issues, etc. There are plenty of people on LJ who are willing to beta, who are either professional editors/writers or teachers of English/Literature, etc. When in doubt, you are free to ask the mods to beta read for you, but note that Sue and I may not have time. But we can be your last resort. We would also be happy to arrange a beta resource list if anyone would like one.
On this note: we will be proof-reading EVERY story submitted to us. This disclaimer is here in the event that we find more than just typos in your story (simple typos we will run by you and fix ourselves, provided they're not ridiculous in number to the point of indicating your story's not be beta-ed) and have need to either request you have another beta or, in the event that multiple tries do not prove sufficient, edit your story ourselves. We are not *trying* to be hard-asses about this, but if every canonical term is spelled incorrectly/not capitalised without indication of conscious style choice, the grammar is atrocious, etc. we will be. The number one thing that can sink a good fic in a fest is poor SPAG/usage, and we want every fic in the exchange to have a minimum readability level. The more betas/good betas you employ, by the way, the less likely we are to take issue with your fic. So produce clean, coherent copy the first time around, please. (this is what happens when one of your mods is a canon/editing guru, sorry :P)
5. Every story must use our uniform header, which is below. You cannot name your beta by name in your author's notes. You may refer to them by initial or without names, but too many people use the same beta readers and mentioning them is a giveaway to your identity. So don't do it.
Author:
Recipient:
Title:
Pairing(s): Harry/Draco (they should all include H/D obvs, but put any others, including implied pairings)
Summary:
Rating:
Disclaimer: All Harry Potter characters herein are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No copyright infringement is intended.
Warning(s):
Word Count:
Author's Notes:
6. You must include ALL HTML FORMATTING in your story. If we find while proof-reading that you have not, we will send it back to you for formatting. HTML formatting to use include any italics (< i > & < /i>), bolding (< b > & < /b>), underlining (< u > & < /u>), block quotes (for letters, etc: < blockquote > & < /blockquote>), etc. (without spaces, obvs.)
For your reference, once again, our email is: hdhols@gmail.com. Email us if you have any issues/questions, etc. We really do like hearing from you.
Comment here with any questions, etc. pertaining to the submission guidelines.