LOOKING FOR A FEW GOOD WRITERS [Author: myschyf]
This page has three sections:
Guidelines for everyone to follow
Guidelines for those writers wishing to join LumStaff
Guidelines for guest rant submissions
At some point next week we will hopefully have this into an HTML page with links and stuff. Until then please bear with us.
Guidelines for Everyone
Arguing with me or having been in a flamefest with me (or any of the other writers) in the past does not necessarily disqualify you. Eldin flamed me on a regular basis in the past and I’m the one who hired him. Arc and GBob didn’t agree with Hedron at all (and still don’t most of the time) but no one is suggesting that he not write for the site. He brings a valuable perspective and one that the rest of us are unable to provide.
With that said, don’t try to copy Lum’s style. Or my style. Or Arc’s style. Or anyone’s style. We value diversity. Create your own style.
Grammar is good. Spelling is good. Well-written pieces are good. As a matter of fact, those things are just as important as the actual content. Keep that in mind. We are not editors. We will not fix your spelling, your grammar or improve on what you say with a couple of exceptions. We MIGHT, if we like the article enough, send it back to you and say we liked it except for this one part and suggest something alternative. If we like an article and it has a few errors we might correct them while we are posting it. HOWEVER, if its chock full of errors, grammatical and otherwise, it will not be posted or probably even read.
Until we get a link working send submissions to both myschyf@lumthemad.net and arcadian@lumthemad.net. Submissions not sent to the both of us will be summarily discarded so those of you that think that because you don’t like me you don’t have to deal with me, get over it. Submissions will be forwarded to the Lumstaff mailstring and everyone on Lumstaff will get a vote on what to do with it.
Submissions should be EMAILED. DO NOT USE OUR OUR FORUM PRIVATE MESSAGE FUNCTION TO SUBMIT ARTICLES. NOT EVER. NOT EVEN TO SEE IF ITS OK TO DO IT. Email submissions. Do not fax them. FTP is not ok. A link to an HTML page is not ok (except if applying for a writing position on staff and then only in addition to emailed submissions — see that section below).
All submissions become the joint property of the site and the author(s). By submitting something to us you agree to allow us to publish it. If you can’t handle that don’t submit.
All positions on LumStaff are unpaid. If you are invited to join us as a result of our being impressed with your writing you will not be paid unless some millionaire drops a large bundle of money on the site so we can pay people.
There are no word count or page limitations. There are no format requirements but I suggest Word or Notepad because if you create your submission in a program we don’t have we won’t be able to read it. We really don’t give a shit what you think of Word and/or Notepad. Submit it in a format we can read it in or it will be deleted. We are not willing to install new software just to read your submission.
DO NOT MAKE UP NEWS UNLESS IT IS SATIRE. I cannot stress how important this is. If the company didn’t say it and you can’t point to a link where you got the information then its not news and as far as we are concerned you made it up. Making up news and not being able to back it up is a sure way to have us disregard anything you write in the future.
Racist, homophobic and other hate-filled spewing is not appreciated and will be deleted. Submissions of this type is probably a good way to get on our spam lists.
Guidelines for writers wishing to join LumStaff
State you are applying for a job in your cover letter and which game you want to cover. Your cover letter should include some links to other sites you write for or at least some boards you rant regularly on.
Submit two full-length articles on the game you wish to cover. This could be pieces you wrote in the past, pieces you had published on the web or elsewhere, or pieces you wrote for the purposes of this submission.
While there are no word count or page count rules, we post here some friendly advice. Two paragraphs of 12 point type do not a full-length rant make and if you want a job here it ought to be longer than that. However, we the members of LumStaff are busy people, else we would not be advertising for writers. This means we don’t have time to read the next great American novel. Use some common sense when submitting.
Guidelines for Guest Rant Submissions
Very few things are written in stone. Here are some things to keep in mind.
Content should be MMOG related but it doesn’t necessarily have to be. Arc has posted about his hat, his father, and Cal Ripkin. I posted about a July Fourth that was especially meaningful. However we already work here so if your content is not MMOG related it better be especially moving or something. Writing about non-MMOG games is fine and those types of articles have as good a chance as MMOG-related pieces for being published. I will not answer any questions about what you should write. If you want to write about something then do so. The worst thing that could happen is that we won’t publish it. I promise that we will not write and ridicule you for your submissions.
Know that because people think similarily about MMOGs, you may submit something and it might be rejected, and then an idea might appear in an article here. This is not to say that we would take your ideas (if you don’t think we are more ethical than that you have no business submitting something to us in the first place) but to warn you that similar ideas occur to different people at the same time. If you can’t handle that don’t submit.
All submissions are donations to the site. We do not pay for submissions. You will not receive monetary (or any other type of) compensation in any way, shape or form. Virtual compensation, in the form of ego, pride, vanity or something like that, is your own deal and we expect you to take care of it accordingly.
Submitting does not guarantee you a reply. If we do not reply or don’t post your submission, that’s probably a good indication that we didn’t like what we saw. Sorry. We aren’t going to like every piece that is submitted to us. If you can’t handle that we suggest you start your own website and post your stuff there accordingly.
We make no guarantees that we will publish what you submit. Submitting articles does not guarantee you an invitation to join the staff.
Please remember that we are swimming in uncharted waters here. We are likely to make rules up and set things in stone as they need to be. Also remember that no one on LumStaff likes to make or follow rules or set things in stone. If you make us need to do such things we might get annoyed. Us being annoyed makes us less likely to like your submission. In other words… use some common sense people.