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[jellybean1326]

Hiya, I'm very new to this whole site. I'm part way through writing a fairly lengthy story and have been trying to find a site that I like the layout, policies etc. of to post it on, and yours is by FAR the most superior. The only problem is that you're not open for new submissions and there's nothing around suggesting whether you might be any time in the near future...

I don't know if this is the right place to be asking this question... but will I be able to try submitting it any time in the next couple of months?

On a more introductionary note: Hi, I'm a medical student from england, and I've been a rather HUGE fan of harry potter since I read the first book when I was 8. My other interests include singing, violining, cooking and drinking lots of french wine with my parents and boyfriend

x

[Sherylyn]

Hello and welcome!!

We're having submissions for our anniversary contest next week, of course, but the "regular/general" submissions that you're asking about are still a bit in the future. We would *like* to have them much more often, but it takes a LOT of time/work to get through them all and deal with everything when we do have them, and we just don't have the ability to do that as often as we'd like.

We are planning to have submissions before too long -- probably around the 1st part of November, but we just don't typically announce that on the main pages, etc., until the time gets closer and we're able to figure out the exact dates. We *try* to have submissions every 2-3 months, but it's been longer than that this time because of all the demands of Real Life.

I'm glad you like and enjoy PS! If you have any other questions or anything, feel free to ask anytime!!

~Sherry/Sherylyn

[jellybean1326]

cheers, I understand that it must take a lot of effort to process everything.

when you are an established author on PS do you get to submit new stories at any time, or do you have to wait for one of the submission period type things...?

[jellybean1326]

oooh, and I just thought of another question. If the ship I'm writing about isn't listed in the submission guidelines, is it still ok? It's listed as canon on the hp lexicon as of an interview with JKR (it's Hannah abbott/ Neville)

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[Astarte]

I know Sherry is very busy at the moment, so hopefully none of the current admins mind my answering (I am one of the site's founders but due to the demands of my very small children and my own poor health, I've not been an admin for quite some time).

Once you have a piece accepted through a regular submission period, you are assigned a beta (editor) and then any new work you create goes to them instead of waiting for a submission period, even if it's an entirely new story. The betas are very well aware of what the requirements for being posted on the site are, and so if it's too out of bounds they will tell you so and suggest posting it elsewhere (I'm so out of the loop I don't know where to suggest, but I know that at least one of the admins is a big Neville fan so she might have somewhere to direct you if Neville/Hannah isn't accepted as a primary focus pairing on the site at this time - I'm not part of that decision making process anymore/currently so I can't answer that for you).

If you'd like, if your story isn't exceptionally long, I'd be happy to take a "pre-beta" look at it for you. You can send it to me directly at Astarte (at) phoenixsong.net, or send me a PM with a link if you've got it online elsewhere. I primarily use Google Docs for my own writing these days, so if you'd like to share it with me through there that would be fine (but I use a different email account with that, which I'm not going to post publicly, so those arrangements would have to be made via email or PM). If I'm back to being actively on the beta team when submissions open again (which is a possibility but not a definite thing, my health is still pretty delicate so I'm avoiding long-term commitments right now) then it's possible that I would then become your official beta if current policy allows. A word of caution, I haven't physically read the books for a while (my children try to tear them, so I've switched to listening to them much more frequently) so I may miss spelling errors. I'm planning to reread the print version soon anyway tho (my eldest is starting preschool TOMORROW! I'll have a few hours a day without needing to tend to both children's needs! Yippie!). Obviously you're not going to need much brit-picking so we would likely be a good fit (I'm American, as are all the Founders of this site but that is not true of all the admins and betas and such, we've got a very international crew now from what I can tell).


Hope that answered some of your questions and welcome to the Song!


Astarte

[Magnolia_Mama]

(I'm so out of the loop I don't know where to suggest, but I know that at least one of the admins is a big Neville fan so she might have somewhere to direct you if Neville/Hannah isn't accepted as a primary focus pairing on the site at this time - I'm not part of that decision making process anymore/currently so I can't answer that for you).

The admins are letting me post my Rose/Scorpius fic here, so I can't imagine why Neville/Hannah wouldn't be allowed, especially since they're at least part of "interview canon."

Mags

[Astarte]

Mags, you're a very established presence on this site. The rules may be a little more flexible for you than for a first-time author, I'm not trying to make any assumptions. I'm of the mind that I'd allow it (contingent on other factors, particularly quality), but I'm not one of the decision makers now.


Astarte

[Daily Prophet Reporting]

oooh, and I just thought of another question. If the ship I'm writing about isn't listed in the submission guidelines, is it still ok? It's listed as canon on the hp lexicon as of an interview with JKR (it's Hannah abbott/ Neville)

x

Neville/Hannah is definitely an acceptable pairing. I don't think JKR had made that revelation at the time we set up our Post-DH pairings list, but it's obviously canon now. And, either way, it would fit under the all other non-contradicting exception at the end. So you should be fine ship-wise when submissions role around.

-KC

[jellybean1326]

thanks, I guess I'll just have to wait and see

and sorry to bug everyone with yet another question - if I end up finishing it before the next submission session, should I send it all in one big lump, or do it gradually chapter by chapter, or a few at a time or... what?

[Sherylyn]

We probably need to add Neville/Hannah, just to make that clear, but as KC said, it's "covered" by the "anything else not contradicted" aspect, if nothing else (not that that makes it much clearer, in some ways!).

For the submissions period, just send in the 1st two chapters when you submit -- we likely won't need to see the whole thing. If it's accepted and sent on to a beta, then you and the beta can work out the schedule of how much gets posted when, etc.

Hope that helps!

[jellybean1326]

thank you so much, that was indeed very helpful!