Submission Guidelines

Submission Guidelines for All Sections of The Masque

All sections of the website must be registered for separately.

By submitting a creative work to The Masque, you agree to the following:

1. You are over 18 years of age.
2. You are the sole creator and owner of your submitted work or have labeled and cited anything used from other sources in quotesor as a parody/fanfiction/fanart.
3. You give The Masque the right to publish your work as received.

 

The Limits of Good Taste

The Masque is now and always has been a place for tasteful, beautiful artwork celebrating love, sexuality and acceptance for the human body and different lifestyles. With those guidelines in mind, please feel free to post your photos and artwork. We try to have “art” rather than blatant, tasteless “porn”. The site owner has few limits and is open minded but will remove anything deemed inappropriate or “yucky”.

To submit a written work, log in to your account on the front page of the website. You will be directed to your Member Account control panel. Click “Add a New Story”.

 

Adding a photo to the Story Archive

For User Profiles:

•        Log in to your account.
•        On the User control panel, click Manage Images
•        Upload a new image. Please do not use someone else’s copyrighted image or a “public domain” image.
•        Copy (Ctrl-C) the text under “HTML code to use image in story” and between the Quotation marks. (Example: stories/5/images/filename.jpg )
•        Go back to your user control panel and click Edit Bio
•        Confirm that the information is still correct as sometimes the information defaults when revisited.
•        Near the bottom of the page, in the box next to Image, paste (Ctrl-V) in the file path that you copied on the other page.
•        Click Submit.

For illustrated stories:

•        Log in to your account.
•        On the User control panel, click Manage Images
•        Upload a new image. Please do not use someone else’s copyrighted image or a “public domain” image.
•        Copy the text under “HTML code to use image in story” and copy (Ctrl-C) something that looks like this: < img src="stories/5/images/filenamet.jpg" >
•        Paste (ctrl V) that into the body of your story, wherever you want the picture to go.
•        Label the story as “illustrated” in the summary.

 

Written Work

Editing/Beta Reading

Please have your story edited/beta read before submitting it. Proper spelling and punctuation make it easier for everyone to read and most computers come with spell checkers. If your computer does not have one, spell checkers are available online for free at http://www.spellcheck.net/. The Masque will no longer be editing stories for authors. I don’t have that much time anymore. I’m sorry. There are many people who do enjoy the editing process if editing your own work is difficult.

Correct grammar and spelling are expected of all stories submitted to this site. The site administrator is not a “grammar Nazi”. However, the site owner reserves the right to request corrections in submissions with a multitude of grammar and/or spelling errors. If such a request is ignored, the story will be deleted.

Language

Visitors to The Masque are adults; therefore, the language of all submissions must be suitable for adults to read. Stories using Netspeak, or (except in dialogue) colloquial language will be rejected.

Multiple Chapters and Chapter Length

There is a chapter size limit on submissions of 15,000 words to allow the system to work more efficiently.

The minimum chapter length is 100 words for a drabble/microfiction. There is no limit or minimum for poetry. Please archive drabbles and microfiction as chapters of a single story, even if they are unrelated.

Stories with multiple chapters should be archived as such and NEVER as separate stories. Upload the first chapter of your story, then go to Manage Stories in your account to add additional chapters. If you have trouble with this, please contact the site administrator or ask a friend to help you.

Ratings

A rating for your story is required. The Masque reserves the right to edit submission details as necessary. The ratings are as follows:

C – Conservative: No offensive material.
P – Provocative: Uses moderately adult language; may suggests violence or adult situations, without detailed descriptions.
R – Risqué: Includes some graphic violence, and/or some detailed sexual encounters.
W – Wanton: Includes explicit violence, sex or deviant sexual behavior.

Content Advisories/Warnings

If a piece is placed in the archive correctly, very few warnings are needed. Please add them as you wish. Non-consensual sex/rape is the only required warnings and must be posted on any story with rape as an event or a theme.

Non-Consensual Situations

Non-consensual sex, rape or violence must be properly labeled as such. The editor reserves the right to refuse any work. This is for the protection of the readers of The Masque who may be traumatized by such a story.

FanFiction

All fanfiction must have a disclaimer before the story begins or in the Story Notes.

Sample Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended and no funds have been acquired for this work.

In the summary of the story or poem, please include the fandom.

A number of authors have requested that fans refrain from writing fan fiction based on their work,  therefore submissions will not be accepted based on the works of P.N. Elrod, Raymond Feist, Terry Goodkind, Laurell K. Hamilton, Anne McCaffrey, Robin McKinley, Irene Radford, Anne Rice, and Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb.

As much as possible, spoiler warnings are expected on all stories. For categories with serialized content, such as series of books or television series, spoilers are mandatory for the current season and/or most recent part. An appropriate spoiler warning to place in your summary would be: Spoilers for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Please do not label like this: Spoilers for the one where Spock dies.

Categories

Stories must be submitted to the proper category . There are several categories for written work on The Masque, based on the architecture of a Venetian palazzo. Each “room” has a different general theme of stories and poetry. Only one sub-category should be selected per story. No main categories should be selected. Any misplaced work will be quietly moved.

•         Main Categories – a detailed list may be found here
•         The Bedroom: all non-BDSM heterosexual stories and poetry
•         The Salon: gay and lesbian, non-BDSM, stories and poetry
•         The Library: a collection of “other stuff”, inc. paranormal, threesomes, solo.
•         The Attic: Collection of BDSM and D/s oriented writing.
•         The Conservatory: Fanfiction. All fanfiction must have a disclaimer.
•         The Kitchens: Recipes for food and drink

 Please do not submit work to the “Story Orgy” category in the Library section. That section is reserved for the Story Orgy round robin weekly event in the Ballroom. If you have any questions about where to put your story, please contact us.

Underage characters

Sexual involvement of underage characters is not permitted under any circumstances in any creative work. This means that all characters involved in sexual activity, witnessing sexual activity or treated in a sexual way must be at least eighteen (18) years old. Any story with underage characters will be returned. Any work with any character under the age of eighteen (18) in inappropriate situations will be removed. This is non-negotiable. Any writer with underage characters may have his or her IP logged and submitted to the appropriate authorities.

Author's Notes

Notes belong before or after the story. Author's notes are not to be placed in the story content area.

Links and URLs

Active links are not allowed within a submitted work unless it provided reference material directly related to the story. Links used as footnotes should only be placed in the End Notes of a story. Any other URLs should be listed on the Author Information page.

 

Writing Help

For help and tips with story writing ideas, styles and grammar, the editor has provided several sources:

Hints for Writing and Proofreading By C. Editor
Poison Pen's Guide for Amateur Writers of Erotica (v 1.0) by Andrew Nellis
How to Write Sex Stories Good by Michael K. Smith
Online Writing Lab, by Purdue University

For poetry help, you may wish to visit:

Rhyming Dictionary and Thesaurus
Poetic Metamorphosis: Revising Your Work by Kathy Hoek

Kitchen submissions:

We would love to see what the dish or drink actually looks like when it’s finished. Feel free to upload a photo as described above.

 

The Gallery

Upon registering, you must agree that you are eighteen (18) years old or more. You also agree that any subject of any photograph is eighteen years of age or more and that you have the right to publicly post the photograph or artwork, being either artist, model or photographer. Any subject will be over eighteen; any photograph where consent or age are dubious may be removed at the site owner’s discretion.

You also understand that The Masque may require proof of such ownership or age verification and may be asked to sign a release. The release form, available below, contains a short statement for the model, stating that he or she knows the picture will be published or posted on the Internet and that the model will not be paid for the photograph. Proof that the model has given sole ownership of the work to the photographer, with an accompanying similar release, is required if the contribution is from the photographer, not the model. These meet US Federal Code 2257, stating that all models of a sexual nature must be 18 years old. All identification will remain private and no information will ever be shared. This does not apply to regular member profile photos. The form may be found here for cut and pasting.

Consent

The Masque does not condone or accept "voyeur" photos or any photo where the consent of the model is not clear.

Image Ownership

Please only send original pictures, not pictures taken from other sites. You must own the right to post the piece that you are posting.

Captions

You are welcome to caption your drawing or photo any way you like, though the Masque does try to remain tasteful at all times. If you would like help captioning your photo, please feel free to contact the site owner.

The Forum

The Masque provides a Bulletin Board System, called The Forum. Please feel free to join in or start a new thread on the BBS. Flames or insults are not allowed on the Forum BBS and will be removed.

The thread entitled “Three Chicks Tell You What to Do: Common sense advice from three bloody-minded, practical, loving women” is an advice column maintained by The Masque. To submit a question on any topic, send an email to advice@themasque.net. Your name and email address will be kept confidential. Questions will be posted on the thread with the advice given by the Three Chicks, then the thread will be opened for public comment. As with any informal advice, the responses are only the opinions of Three Chicks and not the opinions of professional counselors, psychiatrists, sex workers, home decorators, gardeners or contractors, etc. Should the opinions given, not work to the writers satisfaction or even to his detriment, The Masque, owner of The Masque.net, the Three Chicks, and anyone who knows or remotely knows each or any of the Three Chicks shall not be held legally, morally, or financially responsible.

 

Copyrights

Everything at The Masque is copyrighted. Creative works are copyrighted in the name of the author or artist automatically under this protection clause, unless otherwise requested. For more information on copyright, please visit:

Copyright Information from Library of Congress's Copyright Office
What is Copyright?
10 Big Myths about Copyright

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