I was reading on the website: Shadowrun, that they call for proposals, so how does someone get to get notified about this stuff.

Just wondering, I would doubt that I would be ever considered. However I would still like to at least try once. So I would love information and I know a few of you guys are in the know so please help me out.

I'm not entirely sure what you're asking. If you want to submit a proposal, you submit one following the instructions given in the submission guidelines, and Rob will get in touch with you in due time.

The submission guidelines talk about proposals, which is what everyone sends first to Rob when they have an idea for a product or know of a product they want to work on.

Typically, if Rob likes your proposal, even if he doesn't use it, he'll keep you appraised of future projects that require writers and ask you to submit proposals for them.

What's the question? That's exactly what you should submit to Rob.

Okay I know that is what is suppose to be proposed, and that's the way that it is to be presented.

I got confused by the:

[Quote]
Well, the site pretty much says that from time to time, calls for submissions are held.
"Do not begin to write until we ask you to."

And it seems to discourage random submissions.
"Never send us an unsolicited, complete or partially complete manuscript. The manuscript will be returned to you regardless of the legal permission or disclaimers you provide with it."
[Quote\]

Which I thought meant don't give unless we say. And I don't want to annoy someone that I potential want to be on the good side of.

All sourcebooks are done by multiple people so if the proposal would be accepted how does the sections splitting part generally work? Does FanPro ask its Free Lancers for help or what?

So what you guys are telling me is I can make a proposal, but not a submission?

Most of the EuroSB was only distributed to members of the project.

I see. Thanks for the heads up.

So put the submission manuscript in a file, encrypted, with Cascading Scramble IC and Databombs.

a lot of editing ... but it should be done "soon", any day now :)
atleast that is the last i heard .... lets just hope we recognize it when it is done.

The main reason that FanPro (or any publishing company and most TV networks and studios) don't want your manuscript isn't some caring and nurturing attitude about unduely wasting your time, it falls down to two things. 1) You write your full manuscript and send in your proposal. They accept it, and for your first draft you send in your already-completed manuscript. However, you haven't shown you can meet a deadline. You could've spent the last four years on that manuscript and when they want a second draft, you only have two months to write it in. So basically, you're screwed because you can't write that fast.

Here's the big number two reason, and basically THE reason why: LEGAL ISSUES. When you submit an unsolicited manuscript (that's any manuscript you weren't hired to write), you're basically sending them your intellectual property with no legal guarantees for them. Let's say you send in your manuscript and they read it. It just so happens that your proposal was very similar to Running Wild for example. Now FanPro is in a legal bind because if they release their Running Wild, you can sue them for plagerism. They have no way to prove they had this project in the works before you submitted it unless they announced it (which FanPro probably has about 20 or so projects in line waiting for their turn to get approved that we know nothing about because they may never see the light of day). Unless they state clearly that unsolicited manuscripts are discarded without being read (as FanPro states in their submission guidelines), they have no legal way to protect themselves because it's basically your word against theirs, you'll probably have proof you sent your script to them (if you were smart and sent it registered mail or at least return receipt, which you should always do when submitting proposals BTW to make sure they got it). FanPro will most likely win said lawsuit, but it will cost them loads in legal fees they could've simply avoided by not accepting unsolicited manuscripts.

Basically, if you want to get published, here are the rules. BE PROFESSIONAL! Don't geek out in your proposal too much. Let them know you like the product and are knowledgable about it, but don't go off saying how much you love Harlequin and have sexual fantasies about Nadja Daviar. This also covers things like calling or emailing Rob every four days asking if he's read your proposal yet. WRITE WELL! If you can't string two words together, no matter how good your idea is, you won't sell it. And for god's sake SPELLCHECK!! I'm not kidding about this! Nothing screams "unprofessional" more than misspellings, since it's incredibly easy in this day and age to avoid those errors. Oh, and don't do stuff like "u" for "you" or "could of" instead of "could've".

The Abstruse One

95% of the EuroSB development was carried out on a restricted Yahoogroup, to which only the actual contributors/writers had access. We did originally discuss a lot of stuff on Dumpshock (and Deep Resonance before it) but as soon as it became clear that we were going for a submission rather than a netbook everything was pulled into the group. Not that the original discussions would have help much. I still get a shock at some of the differences between our original pitch and the final thing.

Regarding the submission process: I've recently been asked about this by a number of people. The EuroSB route is atypical in that we put together a huge collective submission, but other than that we followed the guidelines on the official site. We sent in proposals (as outlined in the guidelines) for the various countries and I added a cover letter proposing the actual "SoE" book. Rob told us he was interested but all that he'd guarantee was that we'd get to pitch when the project came up in the Development schedule - on even ground with the regular freelancers. A whole year later Rob asked for our proposals (which in a couple of cases no longer bore any resemblance to the originals) as well as proposals from any freelancers who were interested. Most EuroSbers made it into the final project but Pistons, Steve Kenson, Jon Szeto, Gurth and Rob himself also contributed.

What I can tell you is that submitting a full manuscript/draft (rather than what the guidelines tell you to) is a serious mistake for a number of reasons. All you need is for the Developer to say, "well I like all the ideas but I'd prefer it if you used another Voice for the piece" and you have to rewrite the whole thing from scratch.

Adam took care of most of the answering. You could also submit an adventure, following the structure set out in books like Missions, Survival of the Fittest or Corporate Punishment (for example). That's one of the best ways to show that you can do lengthier pieces (adventures tend to run from 13,000-18,000 words, whereas pieces for SoNA and SoE ran from 7,000-12,000), that you can organize your work logically (and there's a structure in place to help you, even), and that you can write.