Writer Information

 

Below, you'll find further information on what we're looking for in a commitment to writing for Gamegrene. If you have any unanswered questions, don't hesitate to email us or use our contact form. Writers retain all copyright, but Gamegrene reserves exclusive electronic publishing rights - this right is non-transferable without express written permission (see "Writer's Rights" for more information).

Who Are We Looking For?

We're looking for dedicated writers that can guarantee material every other week (two articles per month). This is important to us - we want to establish a definite publishing schedule so that people can depend on new content on a regular basis.

If you're not able to meet an "every other week" schedule, let's talk about what you can. If you can beat deadlines, we'll like you better than if you can't. If you just want to send random articles at random times, then that's fine as well, but we prefer regular submissions.

What Are We Looking For?

Gamegrene has a pretty steady and vocal audience of paper RPG readers, but that doesn't mean that's the only thing we're looking for. Ultimately, we want articles of fringe gaming - all the stuff you wouldn't normally see on the "other" gaming sites. We want articles that truly equate to our byline: "for the gamer who's sick of the typical".

The following is good:

  • Rants or opinions about mainstream games.
  • Add-ons, modules, scenarios, etc. for the fringe.
  • Reviews of games people don't know to play.
  • Online gaming of any, and all, kinds.
  • Small time publishers. Shine the spotlight.
  • Linux gaming. It's here and no one cares.
  • Open source and/or plugin building.
  • Developer diaries, stories, interviews, etc.
  • Alternative takes on GMing, character creation, etc.
  • Twists to standard roleplaying elements.
  • Surprise us with something inventive.

Word length we're flexible on, but articles are averaging 800 to 2000 words. Initial attempts should be submitted in plain text, Microsoft Word, rich text file, or anything else that can quickly be saved as ASCII. HTML is only appreciated if you don't use a WYSIWIG (like FrontPage or Dreamweaver). Once you hop on board as a regular writer, we'll show you how to submit articles through our normal document workflow. Your pieces will be edited for grammar and spelling; usually, we'll let you confirm huge edits before the piece goes live.

Writer's Rights

Gamegrene requests exclusive electronic rights with the following exceptions: articles you've submitted may be simultaneously posted in full on your own website if you so choose (all we ask in return is a link back to Gamegrene, which benefits you as much as us.) Only snippets or blurbs from your article are allowed when it concerns posting to mailing lists, USENET posts, chat rooms, news sites, other online magazines, etc... basically, we don't want you reposting the same article elsewhere.

In the unlikely circumstance that Gamegrene disappears or publicly announces its demise, any published articles revert to your full and total control one year after the disappearance or the announcement. Unpublished articles revert to your control within 60 days.

In the event that a print serial publication is interested in your story, well, congratulations are in order. We ask only that articles remain exclusive to Gamegrene for 60 days, after which time you may republish in print to your heart's desire. We also ask that any articles appearing in print contain "Originally published by Gamegrene.com" somewhere. This benefits both you and us.

Finally, anything we discuss with you concerning internal Gamegrene information, such as publishing schedules, future article desires, etc., should be confidential. You know how it is.

Payment

At the present Gamegrene does not pay our writers, though we have in the past.

Style Guide (Writers):

  • Each article should have a one paragraph summary.
  • If you mention product, find a purchase link at Amazon or RPGShop.com.
  • If you mention your previous articles, include links for them.
  • You can use HTML, but <br> and <p> aren't necessary.
  • Ellipses are just "...", not ". . ." or other craziness.
  • Acceptable D&D abbreviations: D&D 1E, AD&D 1E, AD&D 2E, D&D 4E, d20.
  • We prefer "GM" to "Game Master", "GameMaster", "Dungeon Master", etc.
  • It's "Wizards of the Coast", "Wizards", or "WotC".
  • "Call of Cthulhu", not "Call Of Cthulhu".

Style Guide (Editors):

  • Summaries should never have any HTML in them.
  • Use HTML headers (<h#>) over <big>, <strong>, etc.
  • If Amazon or RPGShop.com links are included, normalize them to our ID.
  • Anything that looks like a list should use <ol> or <ul>.
  • If a category has children, only choose the children, never the parent.

Yeah, yeah. Now What?

We want to know the following:

  1. Will you commit to an article every other week?
  2. If not, what can you commit to?
  3. When will we see the first article?
  4. How did you hear of Gamegrene.com?
  5. What started you into gaming? Whaddya play now?

Respond to info@gamegrene.com or use our contact form. Thanks!