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Direct your STORY, ARTICLE and ESSAY submissions
and all inquiries
to Susan Ryan at
editorDIESPAMMERDIEDIE@rooftopsessions.com
Direct your POETRY submissions to Sharon
Richards at
sharonDIESPAMMERDIEDIE@rooftopsessions.com
(These are NOT hyperlinks -- you must copy or type
the address into a new e-mail manually. Of course, remove the
DIESPAMMERDIEDIE part of the e-mail address when you copy or type it into your
e-mail.)
As a privately
run and privately edited 'zine, Rooftop Sessions reserves
the right to accept or
reject submissions at the discretion of the editor.
Submission does NOT guarantee publication.
Fan fiction writers submitting their work to Rooftop
Sessions should abide by the following guidelines for their stories to be
considered for publication. These guidelines are here for a reason -- PLEASE READ
THEM CAREFULLY AND FOLLOW THEM!
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The subject line of any submission e-mail containing an attachment
must CLEARLY STATE the words "ROOFTOP SESSIONS SUBMISSION"
(using those EXACT words) in the subject line or it will automatically go into the trash -- we have received too many
virus-laden documents and cannot take the chance of
receiving infected attachments. Poetry submissions must CLEARLY
STATE the words "ROOFTOP SESSIONS
POETRY SUBMISSION"
(using those EXACT words). We
will not open any document that is not
clearly labeled as per these instructions and will TOSS any unidentifiable
e-mails UNREAD.
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Rooftop Sessions will NOT publish material that is already being posted
elsewhere on the Internet. Please
do not simply send the URL for a story you want to submit or send a story you
are already publishing on your own site – we will NOT
consider any story that is currently on any website other than the archives of a
group (i.e., Yahoo Groups or similar). If you want to submit a story that
is appearing elsewhere, it must be REMOVED from the other site BEFORE
SUBMISSION!
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Plagiarism is a serious offense and a crime! Stealing
another writer's ideas, themes, storylines or dialogue (whether those of
another fanfic author or ANY other author) is absolutely unacceptable, and
should it be discovered that you have done so, even slightly, Rooftop
Sessions will NEVER consider another submission from you under ANY
CIRCUMSTANCES. Be certain that your
stories don't bear too close a resemblance to someone else's before you hit
that 'send' button!
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Stories
must be COMPLETE at the time of submission; in the case of a long one with
several potential installments, the ENTIRE STORY must be submitted for
consideration. DO NOT send one or two chapters with an indication that
there is "more to come." We will not
begin publishing a serialized work if we don't already have every single part of
it, since we cannot be responsible for authors missing issue deadlines if
something is not yet written.
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Please write a proper submission
letter - and please use PLAIN BLACK TYPE on a PLAIN WHITE BACKGROUND!
A submission letter should be a COVER LETTER -- DO NOT put
the cover letter information in your attached document. Otherwise, we
are likely to send it back to you because we don't think you've followed the
instructions. The editors should not have to go looking for the cover
letter information anywhere but in the e-mail note. Put the required
personal information in the body of your e-mail and the story ONLY as the
attachment! Include your FULL NAME or PEN NAME, e-mail address, your
website (if any), and a short (one paragraph) biography of yourself, as well as
a short synopsis of your submission. This is not fanfiction.net or a
Yahoogroup. Stories will NOT be accepted without some kind of FIRST
and LAST name, whether your own or an alias. Any
submission without a cover
letter containing at least this basic information (and in the proper,
readable format mentioned above) will be returned UNREAD to
the sender and will not be considered for publication until it is submitted
properly with ALL the required information.
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Please do not try to come up with
a "clever" or "cute" pen name. Calling
yourself "George Lennon" or "John Starkey" or any other
permutation of a Beatles-related name is not only contrived and lazy, it's
just plain unprofessional. If you cannot do better than that for a pen
name, it doesn't exactly place much hope in the quality of your story -- if
you think you have written a professional-grade story, then you should be
proud to put a professional-sounding name (whether your own or an alias) on
it. (We completely understand that some people do not want their real
names on the internet, particularly if they are underage. Pen names are
fine, just try to come up with something that sounds like a real name!)
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Stories written by more than one
author are acceptable for submission. Please be sure to tell us if you
want to use one created pen name or want the story published under all
authors' names, and include bios and e-mail addresses for each author if you are using separate
names.
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Poetry is acceptable for submission. It is subject to
the same guidelines regarding content (described herein) as short fiction.
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Dramas (e.g., screenplays, plays, etc.) are acceptable as
well. They are also subject to the same guidelines regarding
content as short fiction.
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Essays
and short non-fiction pieces – personal reminiscences, stories about
meeting one or more of the Beatles, etc. -- are also acceptable, and are
subject to the same guidelines as all other submissions.
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Romance is fine, but it is not the only genre we would like
to see. Try something new -- science fiction, fantasy, mystery,
history. You might be surprised at what you come up with!
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Seasonally-themed submissions (e.g., Christmas or Hanukkah,
Valentine's Day, Halloween, Easter or Passover, etc.) must be received within
the month prior to the month containing the holiday to be part of the
correct monty's issue in a timely manner. Generally, the seasonal issues are October (for
Halloween), December (for Christmas and Hanukkah), February (for Valentine's
Day) and March or April (for
Easter and Passover), which means themed submissions for those issues should
be received no later than mid-September, November, January and February or March.
Additionally, while tributes to John and George will certainly be accepted
at any time, if you want them to appear at the time of their birthdays or in
the months of the anniversaries of their deaths, the stories must arrive no
later than within
the month prior to the anniversary.
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Keep in mind the "voice" of the Beatles as
characters. Do your research,
and do not attempt dialect if you cannot do it correctly!
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Please remember that these are real people you are writing
about, many of whom are still living, and be sensitive and cognizant of that
fact. We will NOT accept any story that we feel is
disrespectful or bashes any member of the Beatles, their families or their
associates. (Fictional family
members or associates made up for specific stories are exempt from this
restriction.)
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We will NOT accept "Martin Luther
Lennon" stories, i.e., stories that treat John like a one-dimensional, sainted martyr of
peace and love. Additionally, we will NOT accept any stories relating
the gory details of John's murder in a graphic manner under the guise of
fiction. (Discussing the murder in proper context within a story is
acceptable, however, as is using the murderer's name in proper context,
within reason.)
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We will NOT accept "George at the Pearly
Gates" stories.
Additionally, we will NOT accept stories about George "as he
lays dying."
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We have recently been inundated with stories using the theme
of John and/or George contacting fans from "beyond." While
we will not necessarily reject such stories out of hand, we will only
consider the most exceptional of these pieces at this time. Try other
themes that might be more original.
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We
will NOT accept “crossover” fiction, i.e., fanfics involving the Beatles
and other characters that are copyrighted properties belonging to others,
e.g., Star Trek, Quantum Leap, Harry Potter, etc.
Crossovers involving other "real people" are acceptable for
consideration,
provided they meet all other submission criteria.
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Be sure your stories are coherent. If you're using a science
fiction or fantasy setting, for example, keep the story within the reasonable realm of
possibility without spiraling off into the ridiculous. Consistency and
internal logic are very important.
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We will NOT accept blatant and explicit pornography. If you do write about sexual situations of any ilk, make them
tasteful, not crass. Sensuality
is fine, extremely graphic sexual description full of coarse language is not. It IS possible to write a
hot romantic story and even write about hot sex without using so-called "dirty words!" There's a fairly large
amount of leeway regarding what we would consider to be excessive, but sinking into base anatomical description
using vulgar names for body parts is a definite no-no.
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We will NOT accept slash.
However, stories with homosexual themes about people who were or are
actually gay or incorporating gay fictional characters are acceptable for consideration, provided they adhere
to all other submission guidelines, including those regarding coherence and sexual explicitness.
(FYI -- "slash" does not mean "blood and guts." If
you aren't sure what it is, then you probably don't write it!)
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We will NOT accept extremely graphic, violent and bloody horror stories, though
mild horror and suspense is fine.
This includes stories in which any of the Beatles (or their families or
associates) are physically harmed in
an excessive and gory manner (e.g., "Paul in Pain" stories,
torture stories). Additionally, we will NOT accept "Stalker Stories," particularly in light of
what happened to John and George.
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Strong language is allowed, within reason.
We all know the Beatles were extremely profane at times, but they were also
far more articulate than that. Use profanity judiciously
and in proper context or it will be trimmed. You aren't impressing
anyone by having every other word your characters utter be a foul one, and
in fact it detracts from the story in most instances.
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Unless there is a valid reason for it in the context of the
story (and you can prove that valid reason to the editors), there is absolutely NO excuse for giving your character any name
(first OR last) that belongs in any way to a Beatle himself (e.g., Winston
O'Boogie, Hari Georgeson, Ognir Rrats, Paul Ramon), Beatle parent, sibling, wife, girlfriend, offspring or
associate (unless, of course, you are writing about those specific people in
the context of the story), nor a name that appears in any Beatles song
or film (e.g., Julia, Anna, Michelle, Rita, Lucy, Ahme, Semolina Pilchard). There are plenty of other names in the world, and the use of
"canonical" names without a very good reason is not clever, it is contrived and cliched.
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Also consider whether the name you want to use is itself an
anachronism; if your heroine is supposed to be 20 years old in 1964, find a
list of names that were commonly used in 1944 and name her accordingly -- do not
call her by a glaringly out-of-time appellation (e.g., Kayla, Caitlin, Harmony, Tiffany,
Brittney, etc.) that would be more
appropriate for a girl born in 1985 or later. The same goes for any other names that
are inappropriate to the time and place in which your story is set (unless
your character is a time-traveller or from a different country or planet).
PLEASE do some research!
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Watch out for other historical anachronisms and regional errors.
The world was not always the highly wired and technologically-advanced place it is now,
even 40 short years ago, and when the Beatles themselves were babies,
television hadn't even been around for five years and most working-class
British families certainly did not have one! For
example, a character wouldn't use the Pill before 1960, pull out a cell
phone in 1964, wear a micro-miniskirt before 1968, use a VCR before 1978,
refer to AIDS in 1980, listen to a CD before 1985 or use telephone voicemail
before 1990. There were no home PCs or
iPods in
1964! Similarly, you can't ski to work in Denver, go to a fast-food
drive-through in Midtown Manhattan or go to a modern American-style shopping mall in 1960s
England. If you're not sure something existed at a certain time or place,
look it up and GET IT RIGHT!
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Keep in mind the old Writers' Workshop adage: write
what you know. If you use your own experiences as the basis for your
fictional adventures, you will have a much better story.
Length:
Open. Longer works will be serialized.
Format:
In light of all the recent computer virus scares, we
prefer .RTF files, since they cannot harbor viruses. (You can save
Word documents as .RTF files using the pull down menu when you save
them.) However, .DOC or .TXT attachments are okay, provided you have
scanned them for infection. You can also cut and paste
your story into an e-mail, but it will then be formatted as the editor sees fit,
so if you have special formatting this might not be your best option.
Please
check your documents for viruses BEFORE SUBMISSION. If we receive an
infected document, we will NEVER accept another submission from you under
ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!
Manuscript Preparation:
Sloppy manuscripts turn us off in a big way. No typos, and watch your grammar,
please! Check your spelling! If we
like a story but think it needs grammatical punching up, we'll return it to you
for fixing and look at it again when you're done.
Turnaround Time:
We hope to read your story and accept or reject it as
quickly as possible. Unfortunately,
we can't say as to how long this process will work out to in practice. The
editors have real lives and responsibilities that must sometimes take precedence
over anything else. We will,
however, do our best to acknowledge receipt of your story as soon as we receive it.
If you do not hear from us in some capacity by two weeks
after you send your submission, by all means send us another note.
But whatever you do, do NOT make the follow-up letter nasty and
argumentative! E-mail can be unreliable, and sometimes things get
lost in cyberspace. Don't just assume we're being rude if you don't
hear from us immediately -- your submission could have simply not arrived.
Rejections:
Rejections are an unfortunate fact of life for writers.
Please do
NOT send repeated argumentative and nasty messages demanding to know the reasons why if your story is rejected
with a standard form letter -- if you do, future submissions from you will
NEVER be considered under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. These guidelines are
here for a reason, and the editors will not be
browbeaten into accepting stories that are not up to our standards!
Editing:
Rooftop Sessions reserves the right to lightly edit
accepted works without consulting the author. If the editor feels that a necessary change will
drastically alter the
meaning of something, the change will be submitted to the author for approval.
Rooftop Sessions also reserves the right to re-title works, though we will
discuss options with the author if at all possible.
Terms:
Rooftop Sessions is meant as a showplace for talented
writers. Authors retain copyrights, and we do not take any publication rights,
except as they relate to the temporary display of a story in the e-zine.
Rooftop Sessions takes First Electronic Rights for one month. During that
time, you may not place the story elsewhere on the Internet, although you can
try to place the story in a print venue. Afterwards, your work will be moved
into the Archives, where it will remain until you request its removal, and it
may not be placed elsewhere on the Internet without permission from the Rooftop
Sessions editors as long as it remains in the Archives.
If we decide to publish a book of Rooftop Sessions stories, you will be
asked to sign a release allowing us to include your work in the book, but you
will still retain all copyright to your story.
There
is no guarantee that a book will be published, nor is there a guarantee that
your work will be selected for inclusion in a book even if it appears on the
website – selection is at the discretion of the editor. Stories will remain up at the discretion of the editor after publication
in a bound book. If you are under the age of 18 and your story is selected
for inclusion in a bound book, your parent or guardian will also have to sign
the release form.
Payment:
At this point, nothing but glory. We hope to
become a paying 'zine someday! However, if your work does appear in a Rooftop
Sessions compilation book, you will receive one Contributor's Copy as payment.
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