From reviews to press releases and fiction, we encourage you to submit your content to our site in order to gain exposure and publicity for whatever it is you’re working on. In the spirit of Flames Rising, our submission guidelines were created to clear up any misunderstandings and protect our authors and artists.
All copyrights belong to their respective authors. Everything else is protected under the Flames Rising © 2003-2009.
Fiction Submission Guidelines
At this time, we are not seeking submissions for original fiction. We are, however, happy to host excerpts from published works with permission. We do promote authors from a variety of backgrounds ranging from self-published writers to best-selling novelists. Though we are not a publisher ourselves, we do reserve the right to refuse an excerpt if we feel it is not a good fit for our website. Our editorial preference is to promote works that emphasize strong characterization and plot as opposed to unnecessary gore and sexual violence.
Article Submission Guidelines
Articles and essays fall within the scope of content submitted as a longer work than a blog post, and potentially “longer-lasting.” If you have an article lying around that you would like published related to horror and dark fantasy, feel free to use our Contact Us page. We reserve the right to reject any article based on its quality or content according to our editorial guidelines. We prefer that articles be submitted in plain text with no HTML code at the time of submission, unless you have your article published online. This makes it much easier for us to read and review.
If you would like to pitch an article to us, please feel free to use the Contact form with a brief synopsis (one or two paragraphs) of what you’d like to write.
Publishing Rights for Articles
We gladly give full rights to our authors and post an article only with their express permission. We will ask for proof of “author’s approval” if you submit an article that is not your own. If an author comes to us and states that we had posted an article that wasn’t theirs, you assume full responsibility if you submitted a work that you did not create as you are in violation of copyright laws.
Payment
At this time, we do not offer monetary payment to authors for the ability to publish their work.
Review Submission Guidelines
Quality and Content
We offer reviews for books, movies, comics, and much, much more within the horror and dark fantasy genre. If your review is about a tear-jerking romance novel or a Saturday morning cartoon for three-year olds, your content probably does not fit our site. We reserve the right to deny any review submission based on its quality and whether or not it fits the theme of our site.
In terms of quality, although we realize there are some movies which you really can’t stand, please refrain from using swear words and other language that would render it unreadable. We strive to reach a public audience in order to help our authors, artists and other professionals within the industry build their fanbase. Please, keep that in mind when you’re submitting content.
We invite you to read our articles about “how to review” specific media types. If you would like add an article for reviewing comics and graphic novels, music or some other media type, feel free to reach us via our Contact Us form.
How to Review Horror Movies
How to Review Fiction Short Stories & Novels
How to Review Roleplaying Game (RPG) Books
Word Count: range from as little as 500 words to 4,000, depending upon the type of review. Music reviews tend to be shorter; RPG reviews tend to be longer. Reviews of fiction, movies, and anime fall somewhere in the middle.
Editing, Grammar, and Voice: Typically, we only edit reviews for basic spelling and grammar and do not alter your written content. At times, we will add links to the review that shows where readers can find the product (or site) online. We don’t care if you say that a movie “sucks,” but a good review will say why it “sucks.” We accept reviews written from first person point-of-view as well as third. We do prefer, however, that you don’t swear or use offensive language and will let you know if your review is not suitable for our site. If you would like to have someone edit your review or help you write it, we do have people on hand that can help you with your work.
The Scare Factor: The horror and dark fantasy genres are what Flames Rising is all about. When you write a review for our site, we’d love to read in your review if goosebumps crawled up your arm as you read your book or you couldn’t sleep that night after playing your game. Whether or not the movie you watched was just plain dumb, or the CD you listened to failed to creep you out, we want to read in your review what kind of scare factor you feel your game, movie, anime, manga, or CD has.
Coughing Up the Dough: People read reviews for a million different reasons. One reason is because people are interesting in buying the product and want to know if they should. We’d love to know if you feel the product you’re reviewing was worth the price you paid. If not? Tell us why it wasn’t worth it. Something that isn’t too interesting to you may be the next best thing in someone else’s mind, and vice versa.
Game or Film or Both?: In the entertainment industry, a lot of times there are products which start out as a movie, then turn into a game or comic. If you’re reviewing a cross-over product, we’d like to know just how close it is to the original. If it’s not, does it improve on the original idea? Or is it just some cheap knock-off? Either way, we’d love to hear what you think.
Tabletop, Console and Other Games: Writing reviews of games can be a chore; these are usually the longest reviews because there is a lot of ground to cover. Game reviews can range from first person commentary to an analytical in-depth analysis. Comments should cover the quality of the physical product, including the writing and artwork, the playability of the game, and comments on the play session, and if you’ve played it personally.
Trying to figure out whether or not a game is playable can be a headache; we suggest taking the game apart by commenting on what works and what doesn’t. i.e. Do the mechanics make sense for the game? Do the graphics and music enhance your video gaming experience? What did you like? How does this compare to other games in the genre? However you decide to approach your review, the trick is to “show” more than “tell.”
If you haven’t played the game but are writing the review based on your impressions, be sure to mention that in your comments. If you have a personal, vested interest in the game (i.e. as an artist, freelance, or publisher), we prefer that you mention your involvement in a brief bio at the end of your review with a link to your company site.
Fiction, Manga and Comic Books: When you write a review of print material, one good thing to keep in mind is that every writer has a different style. One of the most important points of picking up a book is whether or not it entertains you. Your review will touch on why you enjoyed (or disliked) what you’ve read by covering the language, themes, characters, and basic plot. You should avoid reciting the plot point-by-point; we want to get a feel for what the book is a bout and read what you felt about it. Manga and comic books are a bit different; the entertainment value is in how well the story is written and whether or not the art fits the story. When reviewing the artwork, keep in mind that smaller publishers tend to have a smaller budget for their production budget than bigger companies. Sometimes it can’t hurt to take a look at the artist’s work elsewhere, to see if that copy is a true representation of the artist’s work.
Film and Anime: Writing reviews of your favorite horror flick or anime can be a lot of fun because there is so much to talk about, and quite a bit of variety out there. Casting, soundtrack, costuming, technique, basic plot, and special effects are just a few of the things to talk about. You don’t have to be a film expert to write these reviews; however, we do suggest that you watch your subject more than once. The first time, you’ll get a feel for the entertainment value and its scare factor. The second time, you’ll be able to think critically and see what worked and what didn’t.
One of the more popular movie-making techniques are sequels and remakes. While it’s certainly not a requirement to see the original work the film or anime is based on, it helps if you comment on what your experiences are with the subject matter. A common question to answer might be, “Do you need to experience the original to understand this work?” Another one might be, “Did this remake improve on the original?”
Music and Soundtracks: When you’re listening to your favorite tunes do you want to jump up and down? Writing music reviews require a little bit of music know-how and a lot of creativity. Music reviews tend to be shorter because it’s challenging to describe sound. We suggest you don’t focus your review solely on the composition. Instead, tell us about how you feel when you’re listening to that uber-goth CD. We’d like to know what attracted you to buying the CD in the first place; was the cover attractive? Did you listen to a snippet online or hear the band at a concert?
Another popular cross-over for music and soundtracks is to utilize them for a specific event like scaring your friends at the local haunted house, playing background music at your werewolf game, or blasting your speakers while you take out that uber-boss. We’d like to know what you think your favorite CD is appropriate for, this helps our readers make a quick and easy decision whether or not this is music that might be good for them.
Publishing Rights for Reviews
Any copyrightable works, products, or other information (collectively, the “Work Product”) developed in whole or in part by the Reviewer and submitted to Flames Rising as a proposed Review, Article, Story, or Essay intended for Internet publication on the Flames Rising web site shall, upon submission, become and remain the joint property of Flames Rising and the Reviewer.
Regardless of Rights granted to Flames Rising, the Reviewer shall retain copyright over the Work Product and is free to resell or reuse the Work Product elsewhere in electronic, print and other media so long as such terms do not remove the rights granted in the original submission to Flames Rising.
Payment and Reviewer Rewards
At this time, we do not offer monetary payment to our reviewers for the ability to publish their work. We would like to note that we do “award” our regular reviewers, by providing them with review materials after they have submitted work to us on a regular and consistent basis. Typically, we approach our reviewers with this gesture after they have submitted at least two or more reviews, and request that they review the material we’ve given them within a calendar month. In the world of online media, timeliness is everything.
News Submission Guidelines
We encourage you to submit news that you would like covered on our site through our Contact Us page.
We will assume, when you submit your news, that you are prepared to syndicate your content. We reserve the right not to publish news that we feel does not fit within the scope of our site. In order to fit within our technical and content parameters, we sometimes edit or enhance press releases to be more interesting to our readers. If you absolutely do not want your news altered in any way, please indicate that when you submit your content and, if we post your release, we will respect your wishes.
