CONTRIBUTORS' GUIDELINE

PROTOCULTURE is always looking for contributions for its magazine PROTOCULTURE ADDICTS. Note that PROTOCULTURE reserves the right to edit the submitted article to fit graphic and content restraints. Please note that articles submitted for publication should not contain libelous, defamatory, profane and/or hateful material of any sort.

TYPE OF CONTRIBUTION:

PROTOCULTURE ADDICTS is dedicated to Japanese animation and manga first and foremost. Articles on other aspects of animation, Japanese animation, manga and culture are also sought. Note that the magazine is covering not only the "soft" anime titles (i.e. comedy, soap, drama, etc.) but also the "action" and mecha-related anime (the kind of anime material that MECHA PRESS was covering). Articles submitted for publication should be of the following types, by order of priority:

Spotlights & Features:

In-depth articles on an anime or manga title; character guide and synopsis of animation episode series, OVA and films not available in English; character and episode guide for bigger untranslated TV series or for very interesting and recent translated anime series; long review and summary of animation and manga series and/or films (can be old title, available or not). Articles can range between 2 and 6 pages (longer if we decide to break the article over several issues).

Anime Stories:

Review and general summary (short character profiles, background story) of animation series, OVAs and films that are not translated in English and/or available in North America (1 or 2 pages).

Reviews:

Description (general summary of the story for anime or manga title) and general impression of the reviewed products (you honestly judge the quality, give the bad AND good aspects, do you like it or not, do you recommend it or not, etc.) according to our suggested criteria. We have several regular or periodic review columns: Anime (recent titles only, around 150 words), Book (anime-related subject, Japanese culture, language), CD (anime soundtrack or Japanese Pop music), CD-ROM (anime-related game, utility), Game (anime related RPG, video, arcade), Goods (any anime-related products: toys, figures, etc.), Manga, Models (mecha & ships model kits, or any other anime-related models manga. Reviews can range from around 150 words to a full page.

Anime & Manga World

General article on Japanese culture and language (1 to 4 pages), opinion letter (1 page), convention review (1 page), interview with anime/manga industry people (1 to 2 pages), or articles on any anime-related subject (1 to 2 pages, exceptionally more).

REVIEW CRITERIA

Anime

For the reviews we rate the anime according to five criteria: Designs (originality, proportions, attractiveness of characters, mecha & backgrounds designs), Animation (smoothness, crispness, details of animation), Soundtrack (quality & originality of the soundtrack, how the music & lyrics support to storytelling), Story (interest, depth, consistency, plausibility, dialogs, editing), and Translation (adaptation accuracy, timing, voice acting, subtitles). A sixth criteria is the Overall (overall impression & feeling of the product, could also be the average of all the previous ratings) which should summarize in one rating the overall quality of the title.

To help you evaluate a criteria, you can first take the sub-criteria (in parenthesis) and rate them: Good, Average, or Bad. The criteria are rated from 0 to 5 points (with half point if desired): 0: Pathetic; 1: Poor; 2: Average; 3: Good; 4: Excellent; 5: Outstanding. You can also use 1.5 and 4.5, but it simply means that 1.5 is in-between poor and fair, or that 4.5 is more than excellent. Ratings of 0 and 5 should be rare.

The review itself should be a justification of the ratings: why the story is Excellent, why the animation is Average, etc. Usually, the sub-criteria are a great help at this stage to precise and detail the rating: the story is Excellent because it has a great depth, good dialogs, and it is believable. The animation is Average because it lacks crispness or details. No need to tell the story (readers can refer to the "New Release" section in previous issue for that); you can just give an idea of what it is about in a few words.

Long reviews (PA's Pick) your be 150 to 200 words (ideally 175), and regular reviews should be 100 to 150 words (ideally 125).

At the end of the review, you must include the following information: Releasing company, Catalog number, type of animation (dubbed, subtitled, Hybrid), duration (in minutes), price and screen rating (G: General; PG: violence and/or nudity; 18+: adult situation and/or sexual content).

Manga

For the manga, we proceed the same way than with anime, but we use a single rating expression the overall quality (however you can use as guide the following criteria: Designs (originality, proportions, attractiveness); Art (Originality, quality, details); Inking or Coloring (quality, look, rendering of the art); Story (interest, depth, consistence, believability, translation); Storytelling (fluidity, rendering of the story, dialogs)). The review should be kept short (100 to 175 words; ideally around 150). At the end, you must include the following information: Publisher, Artist/writer, B&W or Color, number of pages, how many part in the series, price, ISBN number.

TECHNICAL NOTES

The best way to know what kind of article and how we usually present them is to look to previous issues of the magazine. Make sure you have read at least three or four issues before submitting anything. You will have a better idea of what we are looking for.

The individual page average word count is 600 to 800 words. News items, sidebars, relevant facts or information, on submitted articles are also accepted and should be no longer than 150 or 250 words each.

All received material is considered and we try to publish within a year time all the interesting, well-written articles. Reviews and articles will be used either in the magazine, special eBook issues or on the web page. Be sure to include with your submission your name, complete address, phone number and (if available) e-mail address, so we could contact you quickly if we want you to do some re-writing on your submission.

With your article you must absolutely provide the following essential information (if they are available to you):

• The airing dates in case of TV shows or the release date in case of movies and OVAs.
• The copyright notices for all the titles you are talking about in your article.
• Your ratings of the show (which will summarize your review).
• Production information (the staff and cast of the show, i.e. director, designer, voice actors, etc.).
• Your Sources or References (books, magazine articles you have consulted to write your article). You can also add a list of suggested reading (or Web sites) that your recommend to complete the article.
• Related products available (DVDs, VHS, Books, manga, web page, etc.). References and related products could be included together in a sidebar titled "Mediagraphy."
• Images to illustrate the article (very important). If you have any artwork that you thing might be interesting to publish with the article, include the best quality photocopy available to you (or at least give us page references in magazines like NEWTYPE, B-CLUB, ANIMEDIA, ANIMAGE, ANIME V in order for us to be able to find the illustrations). Of course, the best is to scan the illustrations and e-mail them to us (at least 300 dpi, minimum width of 2 inches, in a Jpeg or Tiff file format).

Those are general guidelines. If you become a regular contributor, you will receive more detailed ones.

When submitting an article by mail, please forward a hard copy of your manuscript, typed, double spaced. If you can, please include the electronic versions of the manuscript (on a CD), ASCII text format (preferably RTF or MS Word format), either IBM or MAC (preferably Mac). If you want to be answered, please also include a Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope (with International Reply Coupon for the stamp if you are in USA or oversea). Submissions should be sent to:

Preferably, submissions should be sent by e-mail: editor@protoculture.ca.

If you contact us by mail or e-mail, please be patient. Since we have a very small staff, and are very busy, it might take a while before we answer you contribution proposition. However, if you still have not received an answer after a month, contact us again. We might have forget or your letter/e-mail might have been lost. Thank you.

PAYMENT

All contributors will receive proper credits in the magazine and a free copy of the issue where their articles is published.

Unfortunately, right now our budget doesn't allow us to pay for contributions. We will still gladly publish any interesting article, but we will accept them on a voluntary basis only. Sorry! We will do our best to resume paying for article (even a small fee) as soon as possible.

RIGHTS

Protoculture reserves itself the right to ask for corrections, to edit articles, or to refuse any articles.

Protoculture keeps the right to re-use the article (in the magazine, book compilation, or in electronic version like web page or e-book) as many time they wish after the first publication and without any extra fee. Therefore the author give up all claim on reproduction fee of his article in the form published by Protoculture. However, the author keep the ownership of his/her rights on its piece and is able to dispose of it as he/her wish after publication.

Contributors must provide Protoculture a letter (or a e-mail) specifying that they have read and agreed upon all terms above (payment and rights). This letter will constitute a publishing agreement between Protoculture and the contributor.

If you have any questions, suggestions and comments, please get in touch. It will be a pleasure to hear from you.