Submission Guidelines For the Deadman Newsletter

We are open to submissions

Submissions for 1st issue will close on September 19, 2003

Dead Man Ink - a dark fantasy and vampiric horror publication published to supplement and support the Deadman Productions Live Action Role-playing game. This is to be a monthly publication.

Open to fiction submissions.
Open to artwork submissions.
Open to poetry submissions.
Open to review submissions.

Send all submissions via email to ink@ruined.net. Use a blank line between paragraphs. You may send any of these as attachments but please, remember to zip them first.

All submissions must have a title. Yes, even artwork. Make the title short -- four words or less that gives a general idea of what the person will be looking at.

You have the option of having your e-mail address posted with your work or remaining anonymous, but an active e-mail address, with which we can contact you, must be sent with the submission. This is done so that we can contact you in the event that problems arise regarding your work.

Each submission must have a "Name of Author" attached, whether it be your real name, a nickname, a handle, or some other type of pseudonym. We ask that you try to keep pseudonyms unique. Submissions sent to us by "Caine" or "Malkav" will not be accepted.

Artwork and Photography may be accompanied by captions (a poem, short story, or other explanation of what the picture is about). Submit the caption with the artwork -- do not send us two different e-mails.

If you would like certain customization in the way of font for your piece, make a note of it in the e-mail containing your submission.

All text submissions must be in a Microsoft Word format we can view. Use the spell-check and grammar tools. We reserve the right to correct spelling and grammar errors in submissions. If these corrections are minor, we will simply change them and publish the work. If these changes are major or require a great deal of restructuring, the edited copy will be sent to you for approval before the submission is published. If we have to slog our way through more than three typos, we are going to return your submission unread.

Previously published material will be accepted provided you have the right to re-publish that material. By submitting a story, artwork, poetry or a review for publication, the remitter hereby states that he / she is in fact the legal owner of said story and has full rights to distribute that story in our publication and on the Deadman Productions website. By submitting a story to Dead Man Ink the remitter hereby indemnifies, protects, and holds harmless the owners and operators of this site from any legal actions that may result from improper posting, plagiarism, or copyright violations.

By submitting your work, you explicitly grant authority for Dead Man Ink to first North American rights, print and electronic. We have the rights to publish your submissions for one year and then archive it until the end of that year to publish once more as a compilation. All rights revert to writer after publication.

We reserve the right to refuse any submission. While we are highly unlikely to refuse submissions on a whim, in the end what is published and what is not lies solely at our discretion.

All Dead Man Ink issues will be offered in PDF format.

Guidelines for fiction submissions

We are looking for atmospheric, well-written stories. The emphasis is on dark fantasy rather than horror. Vampires may be either protagonists or villains, but in either case characters should be well developed. We want to see original ideas and story concepts, not rehashes. We like stories that take the traditional concept of the vampire into new territory, or offer a new perspective. We like elegantly crafted, poetic prose with a Gothic feel, but remember: stories need well-developed characters and plot no matter how lovely the writing style may be.

We are interested in the idea of the Vampire, the predator on the edge of your conscious, the darkness within that wants...something, the idea of loss, of theft, of disappointment, of romance, of hatred and emotion. We want macabre, sinister and enthralling. We want explorations of worldwide myths. We want STORIES in which the protagonist happens to be a vampire and that's part of it but not all. We want to be surprised, we want to fall off our chair laughing, and we want to chuckle quietly at the black humor.

In short, originality is the key. We want something different.

We do NOT want to see any more stories about posers or wanna-be's; Dracula (historical or Stoker's); Buffy the Vampire Slayer, vampire monks/priests; or Jesus Christ, Santa Claus, or the Easter Bunny as vampires.

Fiction should be from 500 to 750 words and we are very open to serial stories (Chapter one this issue, and Chapter 2 next issue, etc.) We are not interested in gore, hardcore violence or darker works such as psycho-killer tales. It's been done to death elsewhere. No extensive changes will be made to your work without your prior notification and approval.

Guidelines for artwork submissions

We are looking for digital artwork, scanned drawings, paintings, and/or photography.

Concepts we'd like to see:
Art with detailed backdrops, facial expressions and/or interesting perspectives.
Well-drawn and composed pieces that depict specific actions or moods set in the World of Darkness.

We do NOT want to see clichés such as:
The Cool biker guy or chick posing with a cool cigarette, wearing cool shades and looking really cool.
Plagiarized portraits of famous personalities.
No Buffy, Lestat, Vampirella or Dracula, etc. please.

All artwork may be accompanied by captions (a poem, short story/ explanation of what the picture is about). Feel free to include any additional material that you feel is important.

1. Include the title of the artwork.
2. Submit the caption with the artwork! Do NOT send us two different e-mails!!!
3. Size of every picture MUST be under 100kb.
4. Please don't send more than three images per email.
5. All graphics must include the artist's signature or other defining mark.

Art is to be submitted as an attachment, with information contained in the body of the email to which the picture is attached.

Guidelines for poetry submissions

Looking for poetry with a mood of dark fantasy, up to 20 lines in length. As a rule, the less horrific and the more explicitly vampiric a poem is, the more likely it is to be accepted. All excellent poetry will be considered.

Please include the title of the work, your real or pen name which ever you prefer to use, e-mail address, previous publications and website URL, if both are applicable.

Guidelines for review submissions

Reviews should be from 150 to 200 words. We are currently not accepting any other reviews other than Books and Film.

Book reviews

We seek thoughtful, insightful and well-written reviews of worthy dark fantasy and vampiric horror books. Our credo is that we publish "reviews which reveal the strengths and weaknesses of good books." We tend not to publish negative reviews, though we do publish reviews that examine with precision the unsuccessful elements of worthwhile books.

On the other hand, we do not publish reviews that are simply gushes of unexamined praise even of the best books; we want thoughtful reviews. We are not interested in reviewing every book published -- nor even the majority of books published; please query us beforehand if you are interested in reviewing a specific title.

Reviews need not be limited solely to one book; we encourage reviewers to compare books with similar themes and to place individual works in context within an author's work and/or within the context of the field of speculative fiction as a whole.

We edit reviews frequently and will request revisions if needed. No extensive changes will be made to your work without your prior notification and approval.

Film Reviews

We are not looking for reviews that are simple summaries of the plot or action. We want reviews that tell what the movie is about, NOT just what happens. A subtle, but distinct difference. Think about some of the conflicts and issues the characters faced. Is there a theme at the heart of it all? Does it offer a lesson or caution? Does it deal with issues that have relevancy today? Does it take a moral stance? Ask yourself these and other questions as you write the review.

No spoilers please! Although we want you talk about issues and conflicts the movie deals with, don't give away the story. Hard to do, we know, but if we feel a review gives away too much of the movie, we won't publish it.

Tell whether or not you liked the movie and make a recommendation. Even though we want you to take a stance on whether or not YOU liked it, we still want you to consider other people who might like it even if you didn't. You might want to say things like "Although it wasn't quite my cup of tea, the special effects were great and would appeal to fans who enjoy that aspect of film."

Part of taking a stance is offering an overall rating. I'd like you to include a numerical rating of 0 (worst) to 10 (best) along with your review. This rating will be converted to stars: a 10 equals 5 stars, a 9 equals 4.5 stars, etc. Justify your rating. If you think the movie is one star, great, but explain WHY you think it's one star. We want to hear your reason. And if it's good, we want to hear that reason too.

So, here's your opportunity to be creative and shine. Get those submissions out to us - we're anxious to see them.