Every day I get the pleasure of going through maybe 20 to 30 separate nominated works for Fan Words; maybe every day I also publish on average about 2 or 3 tops. This isn't necessarily because our submission standards are extremely high, but because a lot of times people are nominating works which shouldn't be nominated. That said, if you're clicking that 'Nominate For Publication' check box for your posts and haven't been seeing anything come of it, here are a list of possible reasons why that is.
Did you post a Fan Word or a Blog?
The majority of nominations that get turned down are journals, image posts, and other personal blogs that were probably never meant to be submitted to "Fan Words" to begin with; this is basically a misunderstanding of the 'Nominate For Publication' check box at the bottom of the "Add Post" page. If you are just doing your normal blogging, do not check off that box; I promise, your post will still show up in your World even if you do not.
If it was fiction, did you post a whole story or just a chapter?
Site policy is that we only publish complete, self-contained stories and fiction. If you submit a story to Fan Words chapter by chapter, we will not publish it. Instead, use the "BREAK" tag as explained on the posting page to turn your work into a multi-page post.
If your chapters are coming out as quickly as you're writing them, then by all means post them by-chapter on your own World. Once you've completed the story, I recommend you then put them all (no matter how large or long) into a single post with BREAK tags splitting it up.
I'll also say that I am willing to make a compromise for large stories: I will publish Volumes or Sequels of fiction for people; think in terms of how "The Lord of the Rings" is in fact 3 books, but each book is its own self-contained story arc of a larger work. By that same token, multiple one-shots without marks of being "chapters" of the same work can still be published so long that the piece can stand alone on its own.
Do you have spelling, punctuation or grammatical errors?
Word processors have spelling and grammar checks. Mozilla Firefox has a built in spell-checker. You're supposed to be at least 13 years old when you join this site. Spelling should not be an issue at this point in life, but alas, many many works get declined on basis of spelling, punctuation or grammar. Now obviously no one's perfect and I wouldn't expect that of anyone; as such, I'm very willing to clean up all the little mistakes that slip past writers once I'm looking at them. However, if I'm seeing just way too many run-on sentences, spelling errors, words not upper-cased at the start of sentences - stuff that everyone should be practicing by well into grade 7 - then the works will not be published.
Is it personal poetry?
Our Fan Words would be flooded if we published personal poetry. There is just no way we could keep up with that. As such, we do not publish personal poetry; we may publish some poetry inspired by anime or manga, but even that is fairly rare.
Is your work formatted correctly?
Remember that when you copy and paste your processed words into the posting box, tabs/indentation does not follow through and will not show up in the final web post. Instead, rely on a full line space between paragraphs to format your work. Again, if it's fairly easy I can break those up if I can. Otherwise, no matter how well-written a work may be, if it's not spaced correctly then we can't use it.
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If anyone is starting to feel a little overwhelmed with our site policies, or would like help with their written work such as looking them over for grammar and the like, theOtaku.com actually has an excellent list of beta-readers made up of site member volunteers who would be more than willing to help people with their written works.
That said, this should cover the big questions about Fan Words. If there are any more, feel free to ask in the comments below and I can add additions to the FAQ as they come.
Life: 05/01/08 | Posted By: SomeGuy | 6 comments | theOtaku.com