GUIDELINES FOR ART SUBMISSIONS
(note: this is a mirror of http://bb-shousetsu.livejournal.com/54374.html)

When SSBB started allowing standalone art back in April, one of the ideas behind the change was to give artists who supported the project a chance to to contribute without having to be tapped by a writer. Through the years, there have been many wonderful -- both in skill and in personality -- artists who have wanted to be a part of issues but haven't had the opportunity, and allowing art submissions without demanding that those submissions be coordinated illustrations opens up opportunities for participation. The response has been excellent, and the submissions have been delightful!

In short: we love you, artists, never change.

As this has gone on, however, it's become increasingly clear that vague guidelines have led to a number of miscommunications and awkward situations, and we editors have been left in the often-unenviable position of having to be jerks about things. Part of the problem is that, honestly, we're not artists, and some of the things artists have assumed would be okay relate to possibilities we never considered. The vision of what constitutes a 'standalone image' has obviously changed -- which is fantastic, because creativity is awesome, but policies surrounding art have needed to be clarified for quite some time. Thus, we've worked out a series of rules and guidelines that address both concerns that have come up and situations we foresee happening.

Keep in mind that while these policies aren't precisely being submitted for negotiation, neither are they written in stone, so please feel free to voice concerns/ask for clarification/suggest changes.

1. 'First publication' rights apply to art in the same way they apply to text submissions: images should appear first in the SSBB issue to which they belong, after which time they can be posted in public journals, communities, etc. If art is to be shared with others before the street date of the issue (for critique/archival purposes), the place where it is shared should be locked/protected until the issue goes live. Warmup/concept sketches are fine to share publically before the issue goes live, but not the image itself. This does not apply for illustrations, though illustrators are encouraged to hold off sharing until the issue goes live.

2. Each contributor may submit one 'solo' piece per issue (either a story or a piece of standalone art); in addition, each contributor may submit one 'collaboration' piece (a co-written story or a co-created piece of art). Artists may illustrate as many stories as they want; illustrations don't count as collaborations for the purposes of this rule.

2a. Single submissions that incorporate multiple individual images (e.g., From Start to Finish) are permitted; however, these submissions should be kept to fewer than six individual images, and should be submitted all at once. Exceptions to this rule will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

3. Images (both standalone and illustrations) should be submitted in either .jpg, .gif, or .png format. In order to make sure that images are visible to everyone, the upper size limit should be about 800x800 pixels. If the image is larger than this, it should come with a scaled-down version of itself (not a partial thumbnail) equal to or smaller than 800x800, which will be included in the post as a link to the full image; if the image is too large and does not come with a scaled-down version, one will be created (but then the editor who's completely incompetent with graphics programs might be the one resizing it, and you probably don't want that, so might as well do it yourself).

3a. All images for a submission will be put into a single lj entry and will load at once, so for the sake of folk with slower connections, the total size of all images in a post, when combined, should be less than 2M. As above, if your image is larger than this, either it should come with a scaled-down version of itself, or it will be scaled for you.

4. Manga doesn't count as 'standalone art', and multi-page, paneled comics with dialogue are not permitted in regular issues. There are several reasons for this decision, but the main ones are these: one, while there are many anthologies and venues available for original comic work, there are far fewer webzines for writers to get audiences for their original short stories, which is the primary reason bb_shousetsu was created in the first place; and two, editing and managing comic submissions is a complicated business, and not one we're prepared to do for each issue. A good rule of thumb is: a standalone submission should have no dialogue.

4a. Short sequential art pieces with small amounts of text interspersed with images (e.g., 25 Lives) are permitted.

4b. If you are going to have text in your art submission, and that text is a complete sentence or longer, that raw text must be submitted to us by the regular writer deadline, so that we can edit for spelling, punctuation, and clarity in the same way we would for a written submission. If we receive an image with text and that text was not submitted to us by the writer deadline, it will go in the next issue.

5. Because there is much less editing to be done on them, the standing deadline for art submissions will be the calendar day before the issue's street date. A heads-up to let us know to expect something (whether in email or comment to a post) is nice, but never necessary.

6. We will be uploading all images to the shousetsubangbang.com server by default. If you'd rather have an image hosted off your own server, please provide us with a URL -- though we'll still be uploading those images to the server, to prevent problems we've had in the past where images have disappeared and their owners have been uncontactable. If you have a reason to object to this, please let us know and we'll work something out.

7. All art submissions will be tagged in the 'illus:[name]' format. If you'd like to be credited with a pseudonym that isn't your lj name, please let us know.

8. Content ratings for art do not have to be the R/NC-17 mandated for text submissions; the image must contain either m/m or implied m/m content, but can still be worksafe. That being said, bb_shousetsu has always been and continues to be a smutty little project, and while pornographic content is not required for standalone art submissions, it is most definitely encouraged.

8a. No depictions of sexual activity involving underage participants will be permitted. As anyone who lived through The Great Strikethrough should remember, there is a very clear double standard for literary and artistic depictions of underage sexual activity, and art is held much more closely to this standard than text is. This isn't a personal judgment; this is an ass-covering.

9. Because the point of SSBB is originality, fanart is absolutely not permitted, and if a piece is shown to be straight-up fanart, it will be taken down. Clever reimaginings of characters in the public domain, new interpretations of traditional figures, and the thin veil of plausible deniability laid over historical individuals -- these are all acceptable. Straight-up, obvious drawings of other people's characters are not. (Drawing your own original characters from another project is acceptable, but not really in the spirit of the exercise, now, is it?)

10. (added December 2010) Images should be not be saved in CMYK color palettes, as if for printing; this prevents them from loading in some browsers. Instead, save them in black-and-white/greyscale/RGB as appropriate.