Submission guidelines
This is kind of 'from one editor to another' :) and is a desperate plea. Have any of you ever found a way of encouraging (or even forcing LOL) writers to read the damn submission guidelines before they submit? Forbidden Fruit is being inundated with wildly unsuitable material from writers who have quite clearly never read the guidelines (and in some case, quite probably never read the magazine). We've had het, we've had heavy kink, we've even had paedophilia, and as for following the file type guidelines or the formatting guidelines or the current theme... *sigh* So, is there a magic formula? Or is this just something we have to grin and put up with?

Re: Submission guidelines
Heya, from my perspective/experience, there is none. The internet makes is just too simple to submit everything you've ever written, even if you're an 8year old dyslexic Martian (that is what some of the stuff reads like that I've read). what you can do, is put something really strange into the submission guidelines, like \"draw a pink elefant on the top page, upper corner\". No pink elefant - no reading of the submisson guidelines. A small jury I've been part of used this, apparently with some success. I'm pretty sure it can be adapted to the Internet in some way. Alternatively, have somebody who just opens the stuff, reads the first page, and the last page, and delete/destroys it if it doesn't fit. A serious writer will take some time to at least try and look professional. :) Not sure this helps.

Actually yes, thanks, it does. :) I'm sure we could come up with some code that tribbers would have to put in the subject line of their submission - and we could change it for each issue so writers would have to read the guidelines again each time. Which they need to do anyway, really, since we have deadlines and themes in there fr the forthcoming issue. Thanks for the suggestion. It might not be elephants but it could defnitely work. :D

You're welcome. :) I still need to read through what you guys are doing, reading a whole forum in a few days is a bit daunting on top of the insane amounts of writing that I'm doing. But I don't want to veer off topic. :)

Heh. I kinda like the elephant idea.

LOL Me too. It might be a tad difficult in practical terms, though. ;)

Yaoi Studios puts a code word about half way through the submissions guidelines. With the OBTW if you don't have the word (and its some weird Japanese word) in your subject line we're not going to read this.

We could pick a Welsh word, Tav. *grins*

Sure could... or even some form of the theme in the subject line. Or a different kind of fruit each time, or... hm. We could have some fun with this. :) Btw, James, what's obtw? Not come across that one before.

oh by the way Hmm. I would do it that 'cute-ly' just ask for the subject line to be formatted a certain way and delet those that don't.

I think you may lose some decent authors if you have an \"oh, by the way\" lost in your submission guidelines. If the manuscript is formatted correctly, that should be enough of a clue that they were serious about submitting. Just formatting something the right way can be a bitch for computer inept writers who are using programs that are user friendly, but said writer really doesn't have a clue about page setup, para setup, etc. Learning to do that can involved any number of headaches for older folks (who come in mind first). Just putting an \"oh, by the way\" wouldn't be enough. You'd have to have a \"You must read all the submission guidelines carefully before each submission, because they change monthly\" at the top of your sub page, just to give a warning.

Yes, true, but because we use text documents the 'turkeys' are quite often formatted 'correctly' by default and it's not until we start reading that we find the stories are unsuitable. (And how. :roll: ) The code reference wouldn't need to be buried in the guidelines, it could be clearly set out in the sidebar along with the theme and deadline information. And I would exempt our regular contributors anyway, or inform them of the code beforehand. ;) But that one good writer? Should really have read the guidelines the same as everyone else.

If it's only text files, and the la-*test*-('") code is clear to see, it shouldn't be a problem. I was wondering, do you ever get people querying your site when you destroy a bad manuscript unread, asking what happened to their sub? That would be as annoying as having the bad manuscript to begin with.

I'm too nice. In spite of what it says on there I've never yet deleted unread. But I think I'm going to have to start because it's just wasting too much of mine and Liz's time ploughing through stuff that's completely unsuitable.... :(