Grotto Cafe Sublision Guidelines -- please read before submitting a story.

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Grotto Cafe Submission Guidelines

PLEASE NOTE: All authors are to read these submission guidelines prior to submitting work to the site for publication.

Welcome to the Grotto Café! We enjoy the fandoms and the classic television that has entertained us so well in the past. Like most of our readers, we also enjoy fanfiction that reflects the shows we love in a positive way. We encourage you to send us your fanfiction, and we can assure you that all the fanfiction we read will be assessed on a story-by-story basis with the writing quality being the primary factor in whether or not your story is included in our webzine. However, if you are interested in providing us with material that has a better than average chance of being accepted, please read our lists of do’s and don’ts. It’s pretty standard as far as webzines are concerned.

The readers across the net have repeatedly put in a request for the same type of story. They want canon fiction. They can’t follow what they haven’t seen on the show so any story that has a wealth of new characters introduced into it will already have a strike against it.

Fanfiction is an under appreciated art form. It's one of the few places left where writers write for the sheer love of the written word. The only payment they receive is the appreciation of their fellow writers and the kind words of their readers. There are many places on the Internet where you can find large archives of work that represent a variety of skill levels. We are not an archive. Here we wish to represent the best of the fanfiction world.

What will definitely not be accepted at Grotto Cafe:

Mary Sue stories
Pornographic material
Slash
Poor grammar/spelling
Poor composition
Any shows currently in production
Any story where the main character(s) is killed off
Any soap operas or mini-series
Any writers under age 18

Now that we've established what we're not looking for, here's what we are looking for in a story:

A solid plot line is a necessity. Keep it plausible and within the guidelines of the original show. Each fan page has a writer’s sheet so you can see how the creators originally set up the show. You don’t need to hit it totally on the head but try to run it as close as possible.
Crossover stories are acceptable as long as the premise is plausible and both shows are kept intact. This can be a very difficult thing to do.
Due to censorship in the earlier years of television, innuendo or highly suggestive breakaways were often used to give the impression of intimate moments or highly graphic or violent situations. By today’s standards, this can be a difficult thing to write around. Just remember that we would like to keep the rating no higher than an R. So, if you do decide to fill in the blank spots, please keep it tasteful.
Since the readers are more appreciative of canon stories, so are we.
Good writing will always rise to the top.

SUBMITTING YOUR WORK

For ease in posting your story, as well as to give a uniform appearance throughout, we ask that all of our stories be submitted with the following format styles:

Font size no smaller than 12-point, and no larger than 14-point.
Font face should be Helvetica/Arial or Times New Roman.
The only acceptable file formats are either .doc (Microsoft Word Document) or .rtf (Rich Text Format). These are pretty universal in their use. We do prefer .rtf format, however.
Avoid the use of "special characters" in your story. These characters might not translate well when it is converted to HTML, and as a result, will give a less-than-perfect result.

Once a submission is received, we will read your work and make every effort to get a response to you within a week. Since we have an editing board rather than a single editor system, the week is necessary to allow everyone to read the submission. This system was adopted to allow for a greater variety of shows on the site. Each editor has their own area of expertise and has spent many enjoyable hours watching the shows of their choice. The board combined has a greater pool of knowledge about television than any single person could enjoy.

If the work is returned for a rewrite, please do not be offended. It simply means that we feel that you have a good idea there that could be developed more fully. Please note that not all work is accepted here and that rewrites are only requested of material that we feel has promise. We want both the site and you as a writer to shine above the archives and random fan sites that exist by the dozens on the web. Come join us and enjoy the distinction of being one of the best we could find.