Vision Statement Contributor Guidelines Where to submit
Responding to stories Grammar and research help Publishing schedule

Vision Statement

The Republic of Pemberley is designed and intended to allow members of the Pemberley community to honour Jane Austen, appreciate her genius, and share this with others who feel the same. The Bits of Ivory board is a part of Pemberley whose purpose is exactly the same as the rest of the site.

The stories at Bits of Ivory are intended to present Jane Austen's characters behaving as she wrote them in scenes we might wish she had an opportunity to write herself. We may describe what happens before or after the events in the novels, re-tell parts from the point of view of another character, or elaborate scenes which she, in her wisdom, did not describe in great detail. In this, the guide is Jane Austen's own sense of taste and humanity.

Bits of Ivory (and by extension, Pemberley itself) is not, nor do we ever intend to allow it to become, a writers' forum. We do not have the space for writers of any kind to discuss their own writing process. We have never envisaged BOI to be a teaching tool, or a resource and repository for academic writing available to the public at large. BOI is simply yet another, very Pemberlean, expression of the delights to be found in Jane Austen's genius.

Contributor Guidelines

Submissions to the Republic of Pemberley Bits of Ivory page must adhere to the guidelines contained in this document. Please review them carefully.

• You must be a registered, active member of The Republic of Pemberley. If we haven't seen you on the boards, you will not have your story accepted. If you are new to Pemberley, please visit our Newcomers' orientation page.
  

  NB: Discussion of fan fiction is limited to the Bits of Ivory board. Participation on other boards should be within the topic of each board.

• Your story must be about Austen characters and must present them in a manner faithful to their original conception. "What if" stories are acceptable if the premise is plausible within the world created by Jane Austen. Your synopsis will help us decide whether or not your story meets this criterion.

• Your story must have no profanity, violence or "adult" content.
• Your story must take place within the same historical era as Jane Austen's novels. Characters of your own creation may appear in the story, provided that the primary focus of the story rests on Jane Austen's characters rather than your own.
• Except for the use of Jane Austen characters and other plot elements, your story should be completely original. You may use plot elements from the adaptations, but be sure you do not use excessive amounts of dialog written by the screenwriters. Plagiarism will not be tolerated.
• Your story should be submitted as an e-mail attachment. It must be either a text, also known as "txt" or "plain text" or "ASCII", file or an MS Word document.
• Single space your documument and double space between paragraphs. Do not worry about font size and face as the stories are all posted using the default font for the boards (Verdana).

• Any HTML formatting should already be included in the document. The editors will not re-format your text for you. If you are unfamiliar with how to make things bold or italic you can take a turn through the Barebones HTML Guide.
You may practice your HTML formatting at Pemberley's HTML Practice board. But, do not post entire chapters to this board.
• Identify all chapters with the same story title and number your chapters using Arabic rather than Roman numerals (e.g., Chapter 5 not Chapter V). Even a minor change will cause your chapters to be displayed out of order. Do not break your chapters into sections (e.g., 1a, 1b). Submit only entire chapters.

• Your document should have spelling, punctuation and grammar checked and corrected. The editors will not correct your document for you.
• If your story contains more than one chapter, you must submit a synopsis of the full story with the first chapter. See an example
. It is not necessary to submit the synopis a second time unless there has been a significant change in the direction of your story. You should also submit the short description that will appear on the index page when your story is archived. This may be submitted at any time before you complete the story, but must be submitted by the time you send your last chapter.
• Acknowledgements should be placed before the story and author's notes at the end unless they are required to set up the story. In keeping with standard publishing practices, the Review Board may edit the author's notes.

  Treat your story as you would a submission to a magazine. Do not include extra "chat" about the story or your plans for it. If you need to ask for suggestions about what to do next, you are not ready to post the story.

  Copyright on all stories is held by the author unless otherwise noted.

Once your submission is ready and you are sure it meets the guidelines, you may submit it by e-mail to manager -at- pemberley.com. When we receive it, it will undergo editorial review to determine whether or not it is a story that we feel will enhance RoP's commitment to and enjoyment of Jane Austen. If it meets all these standards, it will be posted to the Bits of Ivory Board. The timeframe for editorial review and posting will depend upon the rate of story submissions and the availablity of the reviewers. We cannot be any more precise than that at this time. Note on your submission whether or not you would like to have your e-mail address included on your posted story. E-mail addresses will not be published unless we are instructed to do so.

If your story contains multiple chapters, submit each subsequent chapter following the same guidelines.

Your submission may meet all the guideline requirements and still not be posted at BoI. The final decision in terms of acceptable content and quality lies with the BoI Editorial Review Board.

If your story is not accepted for publication on the new Bits of Ivory board, you may re-submit after revision. Re-submissions will go to the end of the queue.

Responding to Stories

Responses to stories on Bits of Ivory should be posted to the board directly under the story to which you are responding. Responses should be directed to the authors and should be about the work under which it appears. Authors want to know how you feel about their story, what you like about the story and the writing. Do not use story responses to carry on a conversation about other topics or stories.

Grammar and Research Help

We know that many people are writing for the first time in years, so perhaps a grammar reference page might be of help to some of you:

Jack Lynch's Guide to Grammar and Style Strunk's Elements of Style

If you have a grammar checking device in your text editor, you should be using it. It can often lead to a more comprehensible story.

Here are some of the most common grammatical errors:

Spelling/misspelling/typos:

Running a spelling check on your story should bring to light the most obvious ones. However, spell check will miss those words that are mistyped but are still words --word/work, word/ward, not/hot, etc. Be on the lookout for these.

Missing words:

(AKA, Doing the Bingley Thing): Leaving out words is very common and often hard for an author to spot. The brain will often fill in the missing word because it knows what is supposed to be there. Try reading your story aloud. It is an easy way to find those missing words.

Possessives vs. Plurals:

Possession is often indicated in English by adding 's or ' (for plural possessives) at the end of the noun to indicate the possessor.

Darcy's house is Pemberley. (Possessive--the house belongs to a singular Darcy).

The Darcys' house is Pemberley. (Plural possessive--the house belongs to all Darcys).

The Darcys of Pemberley (plural--there are two or more members of the Darcy family).

Authors are welcome to search the L&T archives, which are full of interesting trivia, and to read the Jane Austen Information Page.

If you have any further questions or are unsure whether your story fits into the guidelines, please feel free to contact the board host, Carolyn or to manager -at- pemberley.com.

Sample Submission

Title: The Pleasure of Your Company A P&P story, combination book/P&P2 Description: The evening Elizabeth and the Gardiners enjoyed at Pemberley.

Synopsis: This story will tell the entire story of the evening the Gardiners and Elizabeth spend at Pemberley from the Gardiners' point of view. Each chapter will give Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner's impression of a different event. There will be approximately 5 chapters(arrival, pre-dinner, post-dinner conversation, goodbyes). In each of these chapters the focus will be on how the Gardiners perceive the interaction between Darcy and Elizabeth. Georgiana and the Bingleys will be present, but will have minimal interaction.

Chapter 1

As the carriage neared Pemberley, Mrs. Gardiner reflected on how delighted she had been to receive the invitation for dinner. Indeed, after experiencing Darcy's earlier kindness to her small party, she very much wanted to further the acquaintance. Mr. Darcy appeared to be a fine, handsome, young gentleman who showed an interest in her niece that was most intriguing. Tonight was certain to be an illuminating evening, she thought, casting a sly glance in Elizabeth's direction....

Please post my e-mail address.

Publishing Schedule

Bits of Ivory is published on the 15th and 30th of every month.

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last updated July 22, 2003