Dada Mail The New Indie Bloggers - Total Relaunch

Hi Indies,

You are receiving this because at one time you elected to sign up with Indie Bloggers. As you may or may not know, the site and its guidelines are changing dramatically. This is, in short, to allow for easier posting and to move into some higher standards, as you have all proven yourselves more than capable. :)

There will be no more newsletters, although I would appreciate your staying on the list if you plan to submit to the site even once, as this is the only way I can reach you should something big (like a site relaunch or shut down) happen.

The guidelines are lengthy, but explain the new system in detail. Please review and if you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me. Two of the biggest changes are (a) the submission procedure has completely changed - subbies will send their submission(s) to submissions@indiebloggers.org; and (b) anonymous submissions are now being accepted and are more than welcomed. Further detail on both of these points and more follow.

Thanks to all of you for your continued support in IB. We're almost a year old and we almost didn't make it even this far, but with excellent submissions by all of you, we're going to continue and, hopefully, thrive. I can't launch the site until I get more submissions at submissions@indiebloggers.org, so read below and if you have something excellent and appropriate, I welcome them. In other words, send your best asap!

Thanks again for everything. We almost closed up completely earlier this month, but the new guidelines will hopefully allow me easier management and a better site for you overall.

Best,
Stacy
www.indiebloggers.org

G U I D E L I N E S

F O R

S U B M I S S I O N S .

- - - -

NO ADS NO NEWSLETTERS
NO MEMBERSHIP
NO JOIN FORM
NO LOGIN
NO FEATURED PAGE
NO GENERAL PAGE
NO INTIMIDATION
NO JUDGMENT

NEW RULES:

1. WHERE YOU SUBMIT: Submissions must be made via e-mail, to submissions@indiebloggers.org There will be no more posting through Wordpress.

2. YOUR SUBMISSION: Please paste the entire document into the e-mail message. Do not send attachments – incoming mail with attachments will NOT be opened, so please ensure that your e-mail signature does not contain an image. The reason for this is simple: I have no idea what your attachments may be carrying and who they’ve been sleeping with and I do not want to take the risk.

3. FORMATTING: Please do not format your piece in an unusual way. Do not submit your piece with HTML coding. Do not use colors or special fonts. Do not describe how your piece would be best if formatted in a particular way, because I’m not that smart. Also, I am one person doing this in my spare time. Be gentle. This means, unfortunately, that there is no room for bold, italics and underline. Let your writing speak for itself. Your audience will figure it out.

4. AUTHOR BLOCK / YOUR NAME: Should be included in your submission. Put your name and website, if any, under the title of your piece. Absolutely all submissions must look like this:

My Post Kicks Your Post’s Ass [story title]
By Joey Bagadonuts [author’s name]
www.joeybags.com [website]
joeybags@website.com [e-mail address]

The e-mail address listed should be the one you would like to appear linked to your byline should your submission be published. If you do not want your e-mail address linked to your byline, please indicate as such after entering it in that line of the author block. You must always include a valid e-mail address regardless of whether you want it published, as I need to have a way to contact you should it be necessary.

Anonymous submissions are now being accepted. For anonymous submissions, please indicate “Anonymous” and leave out the other personal information requested. No one sees the submission e-mail except for me and I will keep your information private, should you choose this option. Please note that anonymous submitters are still required to include a valid e-mail address regardless of whether you want it published, as I MUST have a way to contact you should it be necessary. Again, your information will never be shared or sold or disseminated in any way - ever.

5. YOUR SUBJECT LINE IS YOUR TITLE: Your subject line should be your submission title. Period. Whatever you put in this line – no matter if it matches the title in the author block – will be used as the title for your piece. Under no circumstances should you include something like U R GOING TO LOVE THIS! or READ ME, U SHOULD POST THIS! or FREE SOFTWARE! in your subject line. Anything that looks sketchy will be deleted sight unseen. This is a good time to keep in mind the massive amounts of spam floating around, which is the reason your subject line MUST be your title.

6. HOW TO PREPARE YOUR SUBMISSION: The body of your post must be put directly into the e-mail message. This means no Word documents, PDFs or attachments of any kind. If I see a paperclip, it’s gone.

GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSIONS:

The biggest change on the site is that, from here on out, it is all about the writing and we’re taking it more seriously than ever. This site is solely for those who write, write well and/or want to write well and want to learn to improve one’s writing skills. It is NOT about: getting linked, getting traffic, comments, popularity, who is posted, how many times a person is posted or anything else that sucks. If nothing else, I want for IB to be a corner of the internets where we can get away from all the bullshit and fluff and write our asses off. Absolutely ANYONE can submit - bloggers, writers, non-bloggers, non-writers, anonymous submitters and stick figures - but we are working together to raise the bar substantially.

Submissions should be proofread, words should be chosen carefully. Submissions do not have to be in the same form as you posted it to your blog, if you have one and you posted it. Submissions do not have to be or have been posted anywhere else. If revising can be made better, revise before sending. Have confidence in your work. There is NO reason for intimidation. We’re all here to learn from each other. If you’re that scared, submit anonymously. We are your peers, however, so fear is unnecessary!

HOW WE ROLL:

I do not – repeat: DO NOT – judge your pieces based on what I think is “good.” I don’t care about the subject, the author or anything other than whether substantial effort was made and there are no sloppy submissions. Anything that passes the threshold is solid writing. I am not a writer any more than you or him or her over there.

If there is any question whether something should be posted, the submission will be reviewed by a special core panel of writers who have made IB into what it is. I haven’t created this panel yet, so if you are interested, e-mail me.

SUBMISSION CYCLE:

Unfortunately, I do not have time to let you know if your submission is not going to be posted. Please do not e-mail me to inquire whether it will be, if it already has or when. All submissions are held indefinitely and may be posted immediately, within a day, a week, a month or several months. Please be patient. Make IB yours and visit often. Learn from others and, again, be patient.

COMPLAINTS:

Complaints and hate mail should be directed to me, the one person responsible for maintaining this free site for the benefit of people I don’t know, who pays for this site out of her own pocket and who just wants to provide a place where regular people can write and learn from others. The highest level of vitriol should be used, for I am obviously a horrible person who should rot in hell. Direct them to stacy@indiebloggers.org.

GENERAL FEEDBACK, SUGGESTIONS, QUESTIONS, FAN MAIL AND QUERIES AS TO WHERE TO SEND GIFTS: E-mail me at stacy@indiebloggers.org.

DONATIONS: Donations are not only accepted, but encouraged. Donations are put toward the site maintenance only and not, unfortunately, in my pocket.

THE WEEKLY CHALLENGE: G will have his own page within the IB site to do his thing. There will still be writing prompts for those who wish to be challenged and grow as a writer, but the rules of which are as much of a surprise to me as they are you. It is up to him to set forward the terms of his writing prompt offerings and I have no doubt that he will rock the hell out of it as usual. The new format is to offer more of a community for those who accept the challenges and to give G more control over everything related to his prompts and the submissions for same. There will eventually be a special e-mail address for these submissions.

OUR ULTIMATE IB GOAL:

IB standards are raised for many reasons: to grow as writers, to learn from each other, to have pride in our work and also because if we are a site that consistently and only features the best a person can give, the more leeway we have to approach publishers, writing websites and so forth for maximum exposure. I won’t research this right away, but I do want to do what I can to funnel your work into the web paths of those who make a living doing these things.

COPYRIGHTS: You will always retain the copyright to your own material, but in submitting you acknowledge and permit your work to be displayed on the site. I will never use your work for anything else without your direct consent, so fear not.

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