Currently Swead Entertainment is accepting applications for membership.

The Structure of Swead Entertainment

The structure of Swead Entertainment is like that of a bull's-eye target: a small ring at the center, with bigger-and-bigger rings spreading out around it. There is no rank system: every individual is equally important. The chain-of-command is minimal: it is only as complex as it needs to be to make sure Swead Entertainment remains orderly and coherent. Primarily, the structure of Swead Entertainment exists to keep everything running smoothly, and to make sure that everyone knows what is going on at each point in time and can see their options laid out before them.

The outermost ring is called "the ring of visitors". A visitor is an individual who has registered with Swead Entertainment, allowing them to log into the website, to customize how the website is presented to them, and to attach comments to stories. A visitor may attach only two comments to each story--one to be viewed by anyone, and one to be viewed only by the author of the story--but comments may be modified at any time by the visitors who attached them. (Authors may not attach comments to their own stories.) A comment is one of three types--praise, commentary/criticism, and disparagement (flaming)--and before they become available for viewing, they are checked to make sure they have been placed in the proper categories, and that they are at least somewhat thoughtful and reasoned.

The next ring is called "the ring of applicants". An applicant is a visitor who has decided to become a member of Swead Entertainment, to add their stories to the body of fanfiction that Swead Entertainment exists to promote and protect. A visitor becomes an applicant by submitting an application form, and remains an applicant until they become a member or they withdraw the application. Applicants gain the ability to submit a story to be accepted, and it is the acceptance of a story which makes an applicant into a member. There is no stigma attached to a story being rejected--the applicant may simply submit another story--and anyone who attempts to create any sort of ill-will toward rejected stories or toward their authors is violating the spirit of Swead Entertainment.

The next ring is called "the ring of members". A member is an applicant who has submitted a story which has been accepted. As simple as that, making members the main body of Swead Entertainment. A member remains a member forever, so long as that member does not violate the terms-of-service agreement they agreed to when they became an applicant.

The next ring is called "the ring of author circles". An author circle is a group of members brought together by something they share: style of writing, geographical location, story genre, or whatever the members feel is important. Author circles may overlap: members may be part of however many they are interested in. Author circles provide nothing more elaborate than a way to share ideas, thoughts, techniques, or what-have-you with people of the same mind. No author circle is less or more important than any other; they exist for the sole purpose of being a service to the members. New author circles are created whenever a need or desire for one arises, and members may enter and leave any of them as they will.

The innermost ring is called "the ring of pre-readers". Pre-readers are available to help anyone who wants to submit a story for acceptance into Swead Entertainment's body of stories; however, they will not provide ideas, and they will remain impartial to all authors at all times, no matter if the author is a pre-teen submitting their first-ever story or has gray hair and is published in twenty nations. Pre-readers are the focus point for the acceptance and rejection of stories, acting as a reviewing board and a judging panel in one. There is no routine promotion from member to pre-reader: rather, if a position for a new pre-reader becomes available, it will be announced, and members will be welcome to apply for as long as is necessary to fill the position.

Story Acceptance Process

The process of getting a story accepted is complex, but hopefully rewarding. First-off, the author works with the story until it is in "preliminary draft" form; the preliminary draft is submitted to the pre-readers. (If the author is a pre-reader, the author is excluded from the ring of pre-readers for decisions about their story. Also, pre-readers are prohibited from joining in collaborative works with applicants, members, or pre-readers.) At this stage, the pre-readers are concerned with mechanics and making the story comfortably-readable to the general audience. (For example, the story must be of sufficient length to be called a short story at the least.) If the pre-readers have any concerns, they will comment on the story and return it to the author; this process repeats as long as the pre-readers have suggestions and the author is willing to act on them. At this point, the story is in "final draft" form. The pre-readers decide whether to accept or reject the final draft; a final draft will not be rejected based simply on the pre-readers' opinions--the author's style-of-writing will be preserved--but some things, like misspelled words and critical grammatical mistakes, must be altered before the final draft will be accepted.

The final draft is submitted to the members, and each member is given an opportunity to comment on the story. (If the author is a member, the author is excluded from the ring of members for reviewing their story. If the work is collaborative, any authors who are members are so excluded.) The pre-readers take all members' comments--collected individually--and compile them, assess them, and send that assessment to the author. Now, another session of commenting and returning takes place like before, but this time, the criteria have to do with style and subject-matter. (For example, the story must follow the canon of its parent series(es) enough to be identified as fanfiction without question.) Once again, once the pre-readers have no more concerns or the author decides to make no more changes to the story, it is in "polished draft" form. The pre-readers decide whether to accept or reject the polished draft; like before, a polished draft will not be rejected based simply on the pre-readers' opinions--the author's intent and creative vision will be preserved--but some things, like deliberate plagiarism and pornographic content, must be altered before the polished draft will be accepted.

Applicants may contact pre-readers at any time for help with their stories, as is stated above; members may contact pre-readers or their author circles for the same reason. Members are not to be contacted randomly unless they know each other well, by applicants or by members: members must be kept ignorant of an applicant's story until they are asked to review it, to maintain impartiality; and author circles assure members of a way to communicate not randomly, but with people who share their interests and their abilities. In all other ways, the process for accepting or rejecting a story is the same for an applicant as it is for a member and as it is for a pre-reader: when a story is submitted, the applicant, the member, or the pre-reader are all known simply as the author.

Swead Entertainment is engaged in the struggle to balance freedom of expression with quality of expression. We are not here to censor; we are not here to pass judgement. We are here with a vision of what good fanfiction is, and we want to be a place where people can come and know they will find that good fanfiction...where they can come, and even if they don't find the series they want, or the writing style they enjoy, they will still find themselves saying, "That was a good story."

Membership Benefits

As a member, you are given access to certain features that SE visitors do not have:

• Web space for a homepage at www.sweadentertainment.org/~yourmembername We are currently working on guidelines for this service; but we will allow requests at any time under the agreement that you will follow the guidelines when they are finalized.
• A forwarding e-mail address like yourmembername@sweadentertainment.org. This e-mail address will forward to your current e-mail address. This is not restricted.
• Reviewer membership when the review system becomes active.
• Participation in Author Circles when the Author Circle system becomes active.

The Application Process

Membership will not be ensured when an application is submitted. When an application is received, it will be considered "prospective." Prospective members will be required to submit a story along with their application. The story will be subjected to our story acceptance process outlined above. The applicant becomes a member when the story is accepted and posted on the archive.

There are certain basic guidelines that you must follow when submitting a fanfic along with your application.

The basic guidelines are as follows:

• No stories rated NC-17 are allowed
• Good English grammar and mechanics are a must. Your English proficiency does not have to be superb. All we ask is that you spell-check and edit your work before submitting it.
• Paragraphs must be properly indented.
• The title, author, series, and MPAA rating must appear at the top of the story.
• Please only submit TXT or HTML files. Make sure that TXT files are at the most 79 characters in width. No fancy HTML layout (like coloring or images) is allowed.

Please note that certain book authors or series producers do not like fanfiction based on their works. These fanfics will not be accepted under any circumstance by Swead Entertainment due to legal issues. Any story already existing on our database when an authors wishes come to our attention also falls under this condition.

Application

So here's how to apply. We may temporarily stop accepting membership applications if we get swamped so please make sure you are serious about becoming a member.

Send an e-mail to apply@sweadentertainment.org with the subject of "Membership Application"

Include the following information in the body of the message. Please put an asterisk by any information that you would like us to keep confidential in the future when our member database becomes automated:

• Name
• Pen Name
• E-Mail address
• Homepage Location
• Age
• Birthday
• Location
• Any special comments you would like to make. Input is always appreciated.