This is a brief introduction to posting to alt.sex.stories and related groups for authors. There is an active "subculture," in Ole Joe's term, of writers, collectors, and associated people on a.s.s; we welcome you. Here are some hints on how to have your story read and yourself respected in this totally unrespectable area.
Most of these hints deal with making a choice.
Choose a pen name.
In order to keep both of these distinctive, you might want to look at the lists:
You certainly may use your own name, all we mean by "choosing a pen name" is having a distinctive name on your stories. This gives people who have enjoyed one of your stories a means to find others.
Legally, by posting on Usenet, you permit only such copying as is necessary for Usenet propagation. Even if this is your intent, you should state that intent. The reasons and some sample copyright notices are here:
Word processors have private codes for things like "soft returns" and "smart quotes." Usenet travels over all sorts of circuits to all sorts of machines which interpret these codes differently. So you need to have your story translated from the word processor's private codes to Usenet-general ASCII.
If your word processor allows various fonts, choose a non- proportional one. What *YOU* see is not what *YOUR READER* gets.
We have descriptions of how to do that for a few particular word processors, and what to look for in general.
Make sure that your left margins are 0 and that your right margins are somewhere between 60 and 75 characters. 80 characters is the standard screen width, but somewhat smaller amounts can make various machines act peculiarly.
Posting should *NOT* be done by MIME or by "attachment." If the posting software tries to do that, you should "cut and paste." (Some people would suggest that you also should get some better--and that does not mean newer--software.)
"
Much Ado About Nothing
by William Shakespeare
bard@avon.com
"
works. Whatever you say in your disclaimers, some people will snip them. Many authors also place title, pen name, and e-mail address right at the end of the story. The more paranoid, or more experienced, put a slab in the middle of the story.
In any case, you should mark the end of your story distinctly. "The End" or (in the case of multi-part posts) "Continued in part ___" works.
Many people read this guide, and a good review sends people looking for the story (or others by the same author). Even a *bad* review can draw readers, for that matter. If you intend the sort of story which Celeste and her guest reviewers appreciate, the responses can tell you where you succeeded and where you missed.
On the other hand, many authors complain that the standards by which these reviews judge their stories have nothing to do with their intention. *Most* subgenre stories are judged on the basis of whether they appeal to non-fans (so a story where the hero binds his victim for six paragraphs and then screws her for one will be judged unsexy). Grammar, spelling, and punctuation are uniformly required.
Celeste's latest FAQ is here:
If you do want Celeste to review your story, sending her a copy is wise. That can be done at the moment of posting or a day or two ahead. Send only a *fully* proof-read copy. You can also add <*> towards the end of the subject line of your post.
If you don't want anyone to review your story, saying so in the headers of the story works.
Another active reviewer is Lady Cyrrh. Sending her a story sometimes works. She avoids "vanilla" stories and tends to emphasize bondage and non-consent. Her reviews are titled "The Annex Review" and her web-page is here:
Your subject line is more than your title. http://www.asstr.org/~ASSFAQs/sslfaq.html
The consideration is that you want the most important information as far left (after {ASS}) as possible because various newsreaders have various lengths for the subject line. Dejanews is exceptionally short.
Some of us use a short form of long titles in the subject line, "He Doesn't" for "He Doesn't Love Her Like I Do." This not only makes the rest of the subject line readable on more newsreaders, it gives readers a suggestion for their file names of the story.
This is a newsgroup which cuts out the spam and (to a slight extent) reformats unreadable copy. Posting requires a valid e-mail address (although you may currently munge it).
If you wish to do so, you can e-mail the story to:
story-submit@asstr.org
You can also "post" the story to alt.sex.stories.moderated. If you do so, a properly configured newsreader will do the mailing for you. HOWEVER, it is actually e-mailed, and won't turn up on your newsreader for several hours, perhaps 24 or more. So don't panic and repost the piece because it hasn't appeared.
The software there crossposts to alt.sex.stories. *AS OF THIS WRITING* you cannot crosspost to any other newsgroup. So if you want your story to also appear elsewhere, post it to those newsgroups as a separate action. The software also adds {ASSM} on the front of your subject line, so don't put this or {ASS} on any subject line that is sent to ASSM.
ASSM will honor "X-No-Archive: Yes" headers. Getting that header on your story is (as of this writing) your job. Otherwise ASSM will archive your story among all those which it has posted.These are located at: http://assm.asstr.org.
For the FAQ on the moderated group: - = - - = - - = - - = - - = - - = - - = -
Generally authors are discouraged from reposting their stories
more than once every two months (and few authors repost anywhere
near that often). If you are writing one chapter a week, you
need not repost all the previous chapters every time you post.
When you *finish* the story, however, reposting the whole
thing is fair practice. So is reposting stories or segments
which are truncated or otherwise messed up in the posting
process.
It is wise to check on dejanews, http://www.dejanews.com
to see whether your story is archived there before assuming that
it hasn't propagated. (Of course, if you mark your story "X-No-
Archive: Yes," then that search will never yield results.)
11) Once a story has appeared on other newservers, the
Internet has done its job. If it then disappears from your
screen, your ISP took it off *their* newsspool (or your software
has merely marked it read). Complain to your ISP if you must,
but not to ASSM (or us).
If you post with a valid, unmunged, e-mail address, you are
quite likely to get fan letters. You will probably also receive
Unsolicited Bulk E-mail. Fewer fans are willing to go through
the process of unmunging your address. The other place for
comments is in alt.sex.stories.d. You should subscribe; it is
relatively low volume and high signal-to-noise.
Plenty of people make comments in ASS itself. It is
considered rude of an author, however, to ask people to comment
in that newsgroup. Ask them to commene in ASSD, setting follow-
ups to ASSD if you can, and read ASS for the comments there.
Please, however, don't post *stories* there.
More related FAQs are available at:
10) Reposting your story.
12) Getting feedback
(Discussion of these and other issues is ongoing in
alt.sex.stories.d. We invite you to join us.)