Okay. You have a story. You want it to be on this archive, but you either can't grasp the concept of HTML or you just don't want to. Well, there is a chance and this is it.
You can send "raw" work to me. This is work that has no HTML done on it. I'm not going to promise it will go up or not, because I'm going to have to convert it to HTML.
This is how it will work. You send me your story. If/when I get some extra time, or if one of my "real life" helpers has some time, we'll read, or at least skim them, and if we like it, we'll convert it to HTML I'll post it to this site.
This will work completely on the basis of how much free time and/or ambition any of us have and if there is any backlog of HTML formatted stories. Therefore, we make no promises that your work will go up on this archive. If you want to make absolutely sure your work is archived here, you'll have to follow the guaranteed submission guidelines. This is more for people who would like to see their work on this archive, but not to the point where they want to do the HTML work.
Okay, here it goes:
1: Finished Stories Only.
No works in progress, please. Since this will be done on a "as we can" basis, I don't want to end up getting involved with any unfinished stories, because at any moment the amount of free time we have could disappear. I don't care how long it is, as long as it says, "The End," "Finished," or something to indicate the story is completed.
2: No attachments. You have to send the story in the body of one or more e-mail letters.
Sorry folks, but one of my biggest problems is getting people to understand what text is. No matter how much I've explained, people persistantly send me stories with extentions of .DOC, .WPS, or some other format that isn't text or HTML So, for this, I'm making it simple on myself. No attachments at all. All stories must be sent in the body of an e-mail message. Anything sent as an attachment will simply be deleted.
3: Each section, part, or chapter must be sent in a separate letter.
I will not separate sections manually. If your story has six parts, you should send me six different e-mails, each one containing one different part.
4: Send it with a "teaser" or it will most likely go up without one
A "teaser" is a few line summary of the story that will go in the "library," where the story is listed. If you send the story without a teaser, it will most likely go up without one. I'm not very good at writing teasers.
5: Send all work to midnight
Yes, all submissions must be sent to midnight@shifting-sands.la.ca.us. Neither of the old darqstar addresses are accepting submissions.
6: Let me know what name and e-mail address you want to be listed under and the title of the story.
Yes, I know this one sounds almost silly. Why would anyone forget to give out that infomation? Well, I get a lot of people who do. If I get a story without a title, or an author's name, I will delete it. As far as e-mail address goes, I will use the e-mail address that the story came from, unless the writer tells me otherwise.
7: Anything sent to me becomes the property of Shifting Sands.
Here's a sticky one. I hope I explain it correctly. Techically, any story written belongs to the writer and he/she may do with it whatever they wish. However, if you send it to me and ask me to do the HTML work required to archive the story, then you are implicitly giving me permission to archive it. I'm not going to deal with a situation where I do all the work and post the story, only to have the writer write me and say, "I changed my mind. Take it down." or "I rewrote it." So be careful when you send me something. Make sure you really want to see it go up before you send it. If you send something and notice it isn't up and change your mind, notify me ASAP. I can just delete it. If I've already gone to the trouble to HTML it and put it up, I'm not going to take it down or change it.
Of course, there are extreme circumstances and I will respect a politely submitted request to reconsider. However, "When I sent it, I was all jazzed up on sugar and caffeen, and now that it's three weeks later, I re-read it and found a lot of mistakes." doesn't cut it with me. No one, especially me, is holding a gun to your head saying, "Send it now or die!" You can wait as long as you need to. Your own over-eagerness is not my problem, nor will I make it my problem.
8: I will write you if/when the story goes up.
If you decide to submit this way, you are taking chances that I will not even put your work up. If I do decide to post your story here, I will write you when I post it and let you know. I don't want to get any letters asking, "When are you going to post it? Did you read it yet? C'mon, I sent it a month/week/day/hour ago!" If I get such a letter, it will be deleted. So will the story that was sent.
Maybe I'd better explain something here. The reason why I'm doing this is because there do come odd moments where I find I actually have spare time to work on this archive. Also, I have a couple real life friends who agreed to do some HTML work for me, if they have the time. Since this "extra time" is unpredicatable, we can't promise anything. We just thought it might be an interesting idea to allow people who might otherwise not get their work here, a chance.
What I'm ultimately hoping for is a fair number of raw stories that I can pick and choose from at my leasure. No pressure from anyone to get it up. If I start getting letters from someone saying, "Hey, I sent this to you, when you gonna post it, huh?" that's putting pressure on me. Remember though, this is for "raw" submissions only. If you want to do the HTML work and follow the rules for Guarenteed Submissions, then you'll know beyond any doubt that your work will be up on this site, most likely within three days.
9: Nothing above a PG-13 rating
My normal ruling for this entire archive is "Nothing above an R" However, for this, I'm going to be a little stricter. The few R rated stories I have on this archive, I've tried to make sure are marked very clearly. (Warnings in the disclaimer, warnings before the actual sections, etc. etc.) I don't want to have to go to all that trouble for submissions where I am doing all the "prep" work myself. If your story is PG or PG-13, please make a note in the disclaimer. If you're unsure if your story is rated R or PG-13, here is "my" guideline. Anything below the belt is rated R. (sexually) This means language too. In other words, don't have characters using any of "those" words that begin with C or P. Anything with exessive violence might also be considered rated R, particularly if the scenes are described rather graphically. ("He stood there, veins in his teeth, the taste of blood on his lips, staring around at the bodies of the innocent school children he had killed earlier....")
10: Sequels, Series, etc. are at risk.
Just because I did find the time to put up the first story you wrote, doesn't mean I will automatically archive the sequel, or any stories that you put in the "series." If you want to make absolutely sure your sequel goes up, you have to follow the guarenteed submission guidelines and do some of the HTML.
I think this pretty much covers it. If you have a question that isn't answered here, write me I will do my best to answer it.