chuq@sun.uucp (Chuq Von Rospach) (12/18/85)
A while back I announced the start of a new magazine on the net called
Otherworlds. The magazine is now called OtherRealms due to name conflicts.
Since I thought it might be interesting to the world to see what kind of
background gets laid in putting together something like this, I'm posting the
writers guide to sf-lovers. The first issue of Otherrealms should be out in
middle to late january, and is being distributed by mailing list. If you want
to be on that list (or you asked to be on the list and haven't gotten a copy
of the writers guide in your mailbox) drop a note to
"..!sun!plaid!fanzine-request" and I'll put you on.
chuq
---
Writing for OtherRealms
A Guide for Prospective Authors
Chuq Von Rospach
Copyright 1985 by Chuq Von Rospach, All Rights Reserved
Version 1.0, December 16, 1985
What is OtherRealms?
OtherRealms is an experiment in melding traditional magazine publishing with
the speed and convenience of electronic networking available today. Please
note the name change from OtherWorlds was to remove a conflict with a similarly
named group in the B. Dalton bookstore chain.
OtherRealms is a Science Fiction and Fantasy fanzine for the non-fan. Many SF
fanzines have a tendency towards turning into magazines about fandom. I hope
to avoid this with OtherRealms and emphasize what brought us all together in
the first place -- the literature and movies of the SF and Fantasy.
OtherRealms is scheduled to be published every four weeks [editors note: the
first issue is due to be shipped in mid to late January]. It will consist of
10-25,000 words of material per issue [this may change based on how the first
few issues go, and how much material gets submitted]. The magazine will be
split into the following sections:
Table of Contents
Masthead
Editorial [titled: Through Plaid Colored Glasses]
Words [books reviews]
Visions [movie/TV reviews]
Letters
Readers Surveys
All of these sections will be edited by me with the exception of Visions.
Visions will be edited by a Video Contributing Editor to be named later.
"Table of Contents" and the "Masthead" are administrivia. I may well do away
with the TOC later depending on how things work out.
The editorial is the space where the editor can say whatever the editor wants
to, since it is his magazine. The editor reserves the right to make a fool out
of himself in the editorial page.
Reviews
Book and media reviews should be submitted one per work reviewed. Take as
many words as you need to review the work, but don't take any more. In
general, reviews should be between 400-1200 words, but there aren't any hard
limits. Please include the following information on a book review: title,
author, publisher, price, and number of pages). For media reviews: Title,
studio/network, date shown (for television). Include stars, authors, and
whatever else as neccessary. The final paragraph should summarize the review
and tell the reader whether or not to read/view the work (with a quickie on
any qualifications). A scale of one to five (with zero reserved for truly
rotten things and 5 for 'classics') should be used if you're going to use a
rating scale.
Letters
I hope to turn the letter column into a strong medium of communication between
the authors (and the editor) and the readership without having it disintegrate
into the bickering so familiar in sf-lovers. By removing the real-time aspect
of the reply and by trying to limit the letters to literate and interesting
ones, we can try to build a dialogue instead of an argument. Normally, I will
try to print a response to a letter by an authors. Letters about recent issues
are preferred, and if a topic is interesting enough to keep it going, I'll
leave it in the letter column indefinitely.
Readers Surveys
Every issue I plan on surveying the readers on what they liked about an issue,
what they didn't like about an issue, and what they'd like to see in future
issues. This should be similar to the traditional "Analytical Laboratory" from
Analog. Hopefully this will give me the feedback I need to tailor the magazine
towards the interests of the readers.
Also, I'm going to let people give me pico-reviews [name, author, publisher,
rating 1-5] of things they've read in the last few weeks. I'll compile these
and print them as part of the readers survey to give people a chance to see
what people are reading and what they think about them if we don't have the
space for a full review. Think of it as a group mind review. I may also do
the same for films, depending on interest.
Other Sections
I expect that other kinds of material will be published in OtherRealms as it
becomes available. The sections above will be in every issue. These sections
are just as valid for submissions, but won't have material or space for
regular articles.
First Cuts
Parting Shots
Authors
Fiction
Articles
Fandom
Conventions
Awards
First Cuts
This is a special book review section, specifically for that first book an
author publishes. One of my hopes with OtherRealms is to help publicize the
lesser known authors and to bring them some recognition. Remember, for every
"Neuromancer" there are dozens of other first books almost as good languishing
on the top shelf somewhere. Help me find them, help me show them to the world.
Parting Shots
Parting shots is a guest editorial spot. The same goes for it that goes for my
editorial. I put the following limitations on it: no libelous or slanderous
material. It must be of publishable quality, and I must feel that it is a
topic that the readership ought to hear about (not neccessarily want to read,
however). I don't require that I agree with it, I would actually prefer the
Parting Shots to be home for the Devil's Advocate, just to keep me honest.
Authors
If you are interested in doing an article on a group of works by a single
author, an interview with an author, or a biography of an author, it should be
in the Authors section. A discussion of the "New Sun" books by Gene Wolfe, for
instance, would go here. So would a biography (think of Analog's Biolog) of
David Brin or an interview with Greg Bear. Anything that has to do in depth
with an author that isn't a review is prime material. Please ask me about this
before you write it, and try to keep it no longer than 2500-3000 words. I
really prefer works on the newer and lesser known authors. We don't need
another biography on Isaac Asimov, for goodness sake.
Fiction
OtherRealms will publish fiction as I find appropriate material. Word length
is open, but ask me before you submit. I'll deal with this on a case by case
basis as if comes up.
Articles
Anything on Science Fiction or Fantasy that doesn't belong elsewhere goes in
the Articles section. This is one of the ways an editor covers his tail, since
it is impossible to think of everything ahead of time. For example, if you
write an article on religious Science Fiction, it would go here.
Fandom
I'm interested in reviews of other fanzines (maybe an occasional review of
this magazine, although that probably will go in the lettercol) and also
discussions of events in fandom. Don't try to reach the hardcore fan. The idea
is to give people an idea of what fandom is all about so that they can decide
if they want to get more involved. Explain fandom to non-fans, but don't preach.
Conventions
Convention reports for major (regional or larger) conventions. Again, the
idea is to inform the non-fan (and non-convention goer) what a convention is,
what it is about, and help them decide if they want to go to the next one. It
is also to let the world know whether to flock to a given con or avoid it...
OtherRealms simply doesn't have the space right now for upcoming con listings.
If you want that information, it is available on ARPAnet for people with that
kind of access. If not, track down Locus magazine (recommended for serious SF
types anyway...)
Awards
As you hear of awards being awarded, let me know and I'll include them here.
I'll definitely publish Hugo's and Nebula's, but any other awards depend on
whether or not I hear about them.
Nasty Details
Now for the nasty details. First, the editor reserves the right to reject any
submission or to edit it as neccessary for publication. In general, my
preference is for authors to rewrite on request, since I don't want to (1)
take the time to rewrite unless I have to and (2) I don't want the author to
take the credit for my hack job. There is no guaranteed publication in
OtherRealms, and the decision of the editor is final. If you don't like that,
post it to sf-lovers or start your own magazine.
My feelings on this subject are as follows: if it is good, I publish it. If it
has potential, I try to help the author find the way to make it good. If it
has neither, I turn it down. Depending on space limitations, it may not be
published immediately, but I hope that all good stuff will see the light of
day. Unlike sf-lovers, I only want to see stuff in OtherRealms worth reading.
Making sure that happens is my job.
Aside from my job, my hope is that OtherRealms will (1) make me a better
writer; (2) make other people better writers; and (3) make me a good editor by
teaching me how to make other people better writers. There is also (4), which
is publishing a good magazine, but if I succeed in 1-3, it should follow
naturally. This is an interative and interactive process. I can't understate
my interest in feedback through the surveys, the letter column, and just
generally letting me know what is going on.
Format
OtherRealms will be shipped as a shar (shell archive) file(s) that will
generate a file that can be read by the Berkeley Mail or compatible mailers
(this is the same format as /usr/spool/mail uses, and will be very easy to
build a reader for if you don't already have one). Each item will be a
separate message, with the authors name as the return address (you will
probably need to fix it to work on your system) and the article title in the
Subject line. This is the most general purpose format I can come up with. I
specifically did not use the 'standard' digest format in use by many of the
ARPA mailing lists because many people don't have access to software that
would allow it to be broken up into composite articles and I did not want to
force people to read parts of the magazine they aren't interested in simply
because they come first.
Mailing Addresses
By default, an authors net address will be included on any article or letter
published. If you wish your address to be kept anonymous, let me know and
I'll make arrangements to have it shipped to me and forwarded.
Copyright
OtherRealms will be copyrighted. Initially the copyright will be in my name,
eventually I'll shift that to Plaidworks (my holding place for various things)
as soon as I'm sure of some of the legalities of copyright. If you wish your
work to be copyrighted separately, please let me know and include a copyright
notice in the header of your work (as in "copyright 1985 by herb king"). I am
requesting First Serial rights for publication in OtherRealms, which means that
this is the first magazine where the article sees the light of day. Beyond
that, you own it if you copy right it, or I'll assign rights back to you upon
request if you don't copyright it. Please note that you are welcome to copy
OtherRealms to BBS's and to other networks as you wish; copy it for groups and
friends; and generally pass it around for non-commercial use with two
restrictions (1) keep the copyright notices intact, and (2) please keep it
together or make sure that there is a reference to where it came from (as in
"Book review from OtherRealms, Vol. 1 #1, Copyright 1985 by Chuq Von Rospach).
This stuff is NOT in the public domain, and my requests are to keep it from
falling into the public domain because at some point in the future someone may
want to sell it and you wouldn't want to be the one to screw that up, would
you? Worse, you wouldn't want to be the one screwed.
Submissions
All submissions, queries, letters, comments, and survey responses should be
made to "..!sun!plaid!fanzine". All mailing list administrivia should be made
to "..!sun!plaid!fanzine-request". As this thing gets going, I'll be getting a
P.O. Box and will then accept stuff on Macintosh format disks as well. No
cartoons or poetry will be considered. Poetry will be giggled at quietly and
returned without comment, and cartoons look silly on a CRT screen.
Please include SASE with all submissions. I take no responsibility for
returning anything I don't get thanks to the wonders of the network mailers,
for returning anything without a legal address or an SASE.
Future
If OtherRealms works, I'll consider shifting it to a mod.fanzine style
newsgroup to make administrivia easier. I'll also consider splitting the
current mailing list into two groups -- readers and authors -- if there are
enough people out there who only want to read the magazine and don't want
stuff like writers guides (whatcha think, folks?). But remember, the magazine
is only as good as the people that write for it. If everyone is a reader,
there is nothing to read.
If this works out, I hope to eventually move OtherRealms to a real paper and
laser printer type of magazine. There will always be an electronic version for
the network (as long as I'm on the net) but there is simply a lot you CAN'T do
working on a line printer and an 80x24 screen. As OtherRealms matures, I hope
to see the professionalism of the layout mature as well, and that is difficult
to do electronically.
--
:From catacombs of Castle Tarot: Chuq Von Rospach
sun!chuq@decwrl.DEC.COM {hplabs,ihnp4,nsc,pyramid}!sun!chuq
Power ennobles. Absolute power ennobles absolutely.ivanlan@ccvaxa.UUCP (12/22/85)
/* Written 6:19 pm Dec 17, 1985 by chuq@sun.uucp in ccvaxa:net.sf-lovers */ /* ---------- "OtherRealms writers guide" ---------- */ > What is OtherRealms? >OtherRealms is an experiment ... Please note the name change >from OtherWorlds was to remove a conflict with a similarly >named group in the B. Dalton bookstore chain. otherworlds is the newsletter put out by walden's, not dalton's, for its sf "club." --ivan vanlaningham