How to contribute/ fiction V/FT

[Worldtree]

Finally got time to read thru this and share thoughts and feedback.

Overall, I think this looks good, with only a few points of discussion or suggested tweaks coming to mind. Please see below...

Orion's Arm is interested in your voice!

We are looking for long-form fiction, snapshots/vignettes, nonfictional articles, and art submissions for Orion's Arm. Guidelines are as set forth below:

FICTION:

The Orion's Arm Universe Project seeks literate, strongly plotted science fiction stories set at any time within the span of the Orion’s Arm universe. Successful submissions will have original ideas, strong characterization, fidelity to the OA Canon, and appeal to the sense of wonder. Stories should be clear and understandable. Longer submissions may be considered for serialization. Authors are welcome to publish their work outside of the Orion's Arm project with proper attribution. Please contact us directly, or via the Orion's Arm forum or Discord (Note - Maybe set these up as hyperlinks as well?) to inquire about attribution guidelines.

Due to time or other constraints, many contributors may instead prefer to write vignettes or single scenes which can be published as short OA fiction, or be added to Encyclopedia articles as snapshots or "historical primary source quotes" to expand the "ground level view" of the OA universe. 

The Orion's Arm Universe Project also encourages non-traditional forms of storytelling. Virtually any format, including (but not limited to) comics/manga, animations, hypertext, poetry, or music will be considered. Please bear in mind that technical dazzle is fun… but story is essential.


GENERAL POLICIES:

All submissions, regardless of genre, are subject to the following editorial policies:

Format: Submissions will be accepted via the OA Forum, specifically through the Creative Writing sub-forum, or via email. Email submissions should be sent to OAoperations@gmail.com; with “Fiction Submissions” in the header, and with the article itself as an attachment in DOC or RTF format. Please include a brief bio and credits, if any, in the body of your email, and avoid the use of unusual fonts. Queries are welcome.
Most writers find it very helpful to brainstorm and test out ideas in the forums or on Discord before submitting any story drafts, and we also strongly recommend this pathway for making sure stories follow OA canon.  

 In the event that we publish another book, additional guidelines will be provided for potentially submitted stories.

submissions should include title, author’s full name, address, contact information, and word count at the top of the story. 

We could include wording to the effect that if/when we publish another book additional guidelines will be provided without getting specific.

Not entirely sure what 'general evergreen guidelines' would be off the top of my head other than word count and contact information (email being the big one). But something we can discuss.

Also, I'd suggest adding a header to separate out the part about comic/manga/animation/etc. from written submission just to make the space between them a bit clearer. Also, it looks like the guidelines for written fiction might differ from those for these other formats. So we might want separate guidelines in each section.

If we can create a set of 'universal' (and reasonably 'evergreen') guidelines across the board, perhaps put that info after this entire section (but before the copyright section) and focus the parts about literature and other formats on things like discussion in the forum and such?

Comic, manga, and animation submissions should be complete and web-ready upon final submission- though we strongly encourage discussion of any rough drafts of plot or sketches in the forum beforehand. Where applicable, such final submissions should NOT rely upon browser-specific tags or plugins; content in the OAUP is meant to be read on a variety of browsers, including current versions of Chrome and Microsoft Edge, older versions of those browsers (Internet Explorer, etc), Mozilla, Opera, Safari and others.
Audio files and video files should be submitted on the OA forum or via email (see the instructions above) in the body of the email. Submit files in standard MP3 or MP4 format, or with a link to YouTube/ Vimeo.

Is IE still considered a going browser or should we remove it entirely? I ask because my work is in the throws of IE going away and my sense is that Edge or other things have replaced IE in the Windows universe. Thoughts?
I say mention any common browsers, so keep IE

Our goal is to respond within five to eight weeks after receiving a submission. Depending on numerous variables, however, it may take longer. Please give us ample time before inquiring about a submission’s status. All submissions, whether fiction or nonfiction, are subject to spelling and grammar editing as well as to review for content. The Orion's Arm Universe Project retains the right to act as any other publication and decline submissions for either artistic or technical reasons. Please specify if you use British, Australian, American, or other varieties of English, to help avoid spelling errors. 

Do we want to say anything in here about our use of English in British, Australian, and American flavors?

Copyright and renumeration:

Material published by the Orions Arm Universe Project is published by permission of the authors. Fiction which has appeared in other venues can be considered for the OAUP, if it can be adapted to fit OA canon, in accordance with the rights of the author and all prior publishers. Any fiction published in OA can be removed upon request of the owner/author, at which time electronic rights revert to the owner/author.

All Encyclopaedia Galactica articles based on the Orion’s Arm canon are published in accordance with the Terms and Conditions of the OA project. In the event that negotiations for commercial rights to an author’s work occur after publication, the Board of Directors of the Orion’s Arm Universe Project is the point of contact for permission to use Orion’s Arm material for commercial purposes.

Save as set forth above, all other rights are retained by the author.

Link to stories by Author https://www.orionsarm.com/xcms.php?r=oa-...=by-author
Link to voices future tense issues https://www.orionsarm.com/page/516

Link to writing help https://www.orionsarm.com/xcms.php?r=oa-links
<eventually> maybe a Link to writer's FAQ about questions like "achailects dominate OA and angelnets stop 99% of modern problems how do i write about anything??"

Back to How to Contribute[/size]

Re the links at the end - Generally agreed, although I'd suggest posting two separate links to the Worldbuilding and Fiction Writing Help pages of links instead of the wider Links and Extras page, just to make them a bit more direct to find. There's also no reason we couldn't also have a link to the Links and Extras page if we want.

Agreed very much with the idea of eventually creating a Writer's FAQ page.

Hope this helps,

Todd