This page contains Anthro’s editorial guidelines, and thank you for browsing it! We figure you wouldn’t be here unless you were at least thinking about submitting something to Anthro, which is always a nice thing. But before you get started, we'd like to make sure that we’re all on the same page regarding what sort of material Anthro is or isn’t looking for. So check out said guidelines, and if you’re okay with Anthro’s policies, click on over to the release form so we can make it official.
We look forward to seeing what you’ll submit to the zine!
First and foremost, Anthro wants so-called ‘furry’ material—that is, stuff which involves anthropomorphic (i.e., ‘possessing human characteristics’) animals. Many of the people who enjoy this sort of thing have their own particular notion of what is or isn’t furry, and these notions include, among (many) others:
Anthro’s position is an inclusive one: As far as we’re concerned, furry is broad enough to cover everything on this list—and a number of things which aren’t!
Secondly, Anthro is not interested in pornography. If furry porn is what floats your boat, enjoy as much of it as you like—but you’ll have to enjoy it elsewhere, because you won’t find any here.
So you want to write a story for Anthro? Great! Just a few points you may want to keep in mind while you’re typing merrily away. Don’t worry if you think your story falls short in some way; submit it so we can help you whip that sucker into shape!
| 1. | ‘Story’ and ‘pointless anecdote’ are not synonymous. Somewhere along the way, something significant simply must happen in your narrative. What do we mean by ‘something significant’? Well, that depends on the setting and characters. You might think that “Pat got out of bed” is fairly trivial, and in most cases you’d be right to think so—but what if Pat happens to be a quadriplegic invalid? In that case, Pat’s getting out of that bed would be very significant! |
| 2. | The reader has to know that whatever-it-is is significant. You don’t want the reader asking himself “so what?” after he’s finished your story, right? So make sure you’ve written your story in such a way that the important stuff is clearly important. Naturally, this is easier when the important stuff is closer to ‘President Pat declared war’ than to ‘Pat ate dinner’—but no matter what the important stuff is, it’s your job as the author to ensure that the reader Gets It. |
| 3. | Keep typing until you reach the end of the story. If you spend time building up to a climax, you’re promising to give the reader a satisfactory conclusion, so make sure you deliver on that promise. Don’t disappoint the reader! When they finish your narrative, you want them to be thinking “Wow, that was a great story!”, not “I wasted 45 minutes reading that!? Geez, what a ripoff!” |
| 4. | Be consistent. To contradict yourself—for instance, suppose one character’s hair color changes from black to red for no discernable reason—is to commit the literary equivalent of tripping over your own feet. The reader’s Willing Suspension of Disbelief is a wonderful thing, but if your narrative keeps on tripping over itself, you’re going to lose that Willing Suspension of Disbelief. |
| 5. | Yes, Virginia, it really is a good idea to proofread your story. Put it this way: If you don’t think your manuscript is worth even the minimal time and trouble it takes you to click on ‘spell check’, how can you expect anyone else to think your manuscript is worth the rather greater time and trouble it takes them to read the thing? |
| 6. |
Make sure your furry characters have a reason to be furry; make each one of them more than a human being who really needs a shave. Show us an anthropomorphic rabbit whose every reflex and thought and response and action is 100% indistinguishable from a normal human, and we’ll show you a character who should be a normal human, because he simply has no business being an anthropomorphic rabbit! |
To repeat (because it bears repeating): Don’t let any perceived weaknesses get in the way of your submitting a story to Anthro. Remember—rejecting stories for Anthro is our job, not yours!
Anthro wants stories in either RTF, HTML, or ASCII (plain text) format. We do not want .DOC files; if you’re a Word user, save your manuscript as either RTF, or ‘Web page, filtered’, or plain text.
Once it’s in an acceptable file format, send your story as an e-mail attachment to cubist@aol.com.
Anthro does not have any specific ‘house style’. We don’t care if your major artistic influence is Preston Blair, Neal Adams, Picasso, or Ansel Adams; likewise, we are serenely unconcerned if an image is color or black & white; drawn with Newton pastels, Koh-i-noor inks, or an Intuous drawing tablet; serious or silly in overall ‘tone’; in sum, all we care about is that your work is good! Beyond that, we’ve got different needs for different kinds of graphics, like so:
Cover images: The cover image is the first thing Anthro’s readers will see. A cover artist has wide latitude in subject matter and treatment, since the cover image is generally not tied to any specific story or concept. Go wild! Anthro needs one of these per issue; it’ll show up on screen with a resolution in the neighborhood of 400x600. Note: As a matter separate and distinct from using an image as a cover, we’d also like to sell posters of Anthro’s covers. If you’d prefer that your image not be made into a poster, we will of course honor your wishes, but please check out the details before you make a decision, okay? In any case, if you’ve got an idea for a cover image, get in touch and let’s see what we can do!
Illustrations for stories: We need a minimum of one illustration per story; if you’ve got a spiffy idea for a second (or third, or fourth…), so much the better! All illustrations should be appropriate to the story they’re accompanying. For instance, a tenebrous tale of Lovecraftian horror should not be saddled with shiny-happy-fluffy Disney-influenced pictures. Likewise, sterile, ‘high tech’ images would be a rather poor match for a pastoral, elegiac celebration of the glories of Nature. Story illustrations will appear on the website at a resolution of 220x300 or thereabouts. By logistic necessity, we’ll usually invite artists to do illustrations for whichever stories we’ve got at any given time, as opposed to having artists submit their work in advance of need; if you do submit something out of the blue, we’ll either treat it as a cover image or else thank you for letting us have a look at your portfolio. In any case, please let us know if you would like to be part of the Anthro team!
Webcomics: A continuing story told in graphical form, that is. Most webcomics have an N-per-week publication schedule; this pretty much forbids their creators from putting more than 3 or 4 panels into any given installment. But any creator who takes advantage of Anthro’s bimonthly frequency, can work with a distinctly more expansive canvas! If this sounds attractive to you, write and let’s see what we can work up together!
Galleries: Anthro will be happy to provide server space for you to display a collection of your finest work. Of course there are plenty of online venues where artists can display any images they please; why, then should you consider an Anthro gallery? Bluntly: Anthro is selective. We will discriminate on the basis of quality. If you’re serious about your art, we want to hear from you.
None of the above: If you’ve got a nifty idea for something graphics-related which isn’t covered here, get in touch and we’ll see what we can do about it!
Send graphics as an e-mail attachment, to the editor. We’ll take graphic images in any file format that Graphic Convertor or Photoshop knows what to do with. These formats include, but are not limited to, BMP, GIF, EPS, JPEG, PICT, PNG, PSD, and TIFF. All graphics will be converted to either GIF or JPEG, whichever one the image looks best in, before we upload them to the Anthro website.
In addition to fiction, Anthro is interested in fact articles on furry topics. Here are a few specific examples of the sort of thing we’re looking for:
The above list is meant to be representative, not exhaustive; if you’ve got an idea for an article that isn’t on said list, we’ll be happy to see it. Especially if your idea falls under the category of ‘none of the above’, talk to us and let’s see if it’ll work for Anthro!
Anthro would like to keep its readers informed on current events within the furry community. This means hard data, including (but not limited to):
We’ll do our best, but really, no one person can keep on top of everything. So by all means, please keep us informed about goings-on in the furry community!
“Other” is a catch-all category for anything not mentioned earlier. This includes, but is not limited to:
Send any and all such files to the editor, as e-mail attachments.
|
 |
General