1: In Most Cases You Do Not Have To Do The HTML Work. Now, if you want to submit huge poem, yes, I will ask you to do the HTML work. But usually, because they are short and break off at the end of each line, I can convert them to HTML fairly easily. How do you know if your poem is short enough? If it's under four pages long.
2: Poetry May Not Be Sent As An Attachment It's a personal fetish of mine. I really don't like attachments, but I'll take them with stories because sometimes that's the best way for people to send. However, since poetry in general is short, I'm going to make it a rule that you can't send it as an attachment. Cut and paste it into the body of an e-mail message.
3: Please make sure when you send it to me, it's exactly how you want it to look. For example, don't send me:
As one long line of text. Send it instead like this:
Roses are red
Crocus' are yellow
Grandpa's teeth
Fell into the jello
4: One Poem Per E-mail I don't want to get an email with ten differnt poems in it that I have to separate myself. Send each poem in a separate e-mail. If you want to "link" the e-mails by subject line (such as Poem 1/5) that would be appreciated, but send each one in a separate letter.
5: Let me know at the top of the letter what name you want to be listed under. I know, you've heard me say it before, but I'm not a mind reader. Please make sure you tell me what name you want to be listed under in the poetry section. I am not going to play the game of "Hi, got your poem, but what name do you go under?" I don't have the time.
6: No Unfinished Poetry. I am not going to play the game of, "Well I wrote two more lines today..." This is poetry, it's not a story. Very few people want to get a poem bit by bit. However, if you have a series of poems, that's different. You can submit them at different times.
For example, you have a series of poems called "Gambit's Love Sonets to Rogue." You can send two one day, one another day, etc. etc. Just make sure each poem is finished before you send it.
7: No Parodys, Filksongs, etc. I don't want to see any "poetry" that isn't original. In other words, I don't want to get song lyrics where the word "Babe" was replaced by "Rogue" or anything at the top that says, "This can be sung to the tune of." Nor do I want to see someone elses poetry slightly rewriten to apply to the X-Men. It has to be completely original.
8: It Must Be About The X-Characters. I don't want poetry about Scully or Mulder. I don't want poetry about Battle of the Planets, Sailor Moon, Luke Skywalker, Superman, etc. etc. I don't even want to see crossover poetry, like "Iceman's Ode To Sailor Moon." However, if you want to write poetry about original characters, appearing in fanfiction that is on this site, that is fine. For example, if you wanted to write a poem about Sikudhani McCoy, that is fine.
9: Give Your Poem A Title And Let Me Know What It Is. I don't care if you want to call it "Untitled" or "Untitled Poem." Just call it something. If you do want to call it Untitled though, you might want to call it Untitled One, in case you end up writing more untitled poetry.
10: Send All Poetry To midnight The older darqstar addresses are no longer accepting submissions.
Do I Have To Write A Teaser? No. I'm not going to do "teasers" for poetry. Authors will be listed on one page, with links leading to a separate page listing their name, email address, and the poems they have written.
Will New Poetry Be Listed In The Newpage? Yes, under the author's name. However, I am not going to list it by title, it will be listed like this:
Three Poems -- By Bob Smith
I Want To Write A Series Of Poems That Interconnect. Should I tell you? Absolutely. For example, you want to write a series of poems about Cyclops. You should give the series a name, like "The Fearless Leader," then give each poem in the series a title, such as "The Early Years," or even "Poem One." This way, I know that I should list them together on your index page under one title.
How Long Will It Take For My Poetry To Go Up On Shifting Sands? I will do my best to get it up as soon as possible. However, stories will always take top priority. If you submitted a poem three days ago, followed all the rules correctly, and still don't see it is up, you can write and ask me about it. Chances will be that I never got it, so you'll probably want to send the poem again.
Will Poetry Be Listed Anywhere Else? No. All poetry will be listed under Poetry. It will not be listed in the fanfiction library, nor on series pages. If you write a poem about Subreality Cafe, it will be listed in Poetry, not in the Subreality Cafe series. Why? Simply because I don't have the time to list it a bunch of different places. That's why I am giving it its own section.
I Have A Question That Isn't Answered Here. What Should I Do? The best thing to do would be to write and ask..