Submissions Guidelines
So you want to contribute to The Unofficial Cats Don't Dance Fansite? Excellent!  Here's some guidelines.

General Rules Fan Art Specs Fan Fiction Specs Additional Info Where to send & when

Rules of the House:

About Content
As you may have noticed a lot of our fan art is movie themed, but that is NOT a requirement. Themes have ranged from 'gaming' to holidays, to just plain fun. Originality is a wonderful thing too, we prefer for things NOT traced, redrawn or retold from Cats Don't Dance itself. A movie poster parody is just one of the ideas you can use. Artists can also do a favorite scene from films, soundtrack CD covers, or simply the characters in costume. For the more ambitious, a one shot comics short (5 pgs max) would also do nicely. For the writers, song parodies might work, poetry, or a complete short stories. Not that I mind stories done by episodes, it's just been my experience that they rarely get finished. In general, there's not much you can't do as long as it's tasteful.

What qualifies as tasteful 
I shall be blunt as I'd rather it be clear. No nipples, naughty bits, or oversized packages showing. Period. No nudity, extreme violence or sex acts, if it's R, it's out. I'm not really into scanty lingerie images either. It seems silly to mention all this, but part of our goal is to keep the site family friendly. Ultimately, it's in everyone's best interest since there's nothing for parents or W.B. to get freaked over. This standard also applies to writers, please be mindful of characters you are depicting. If there is foul language, we will require that it be edited out. If anyone is still unsure, PLEASE send me a story outline, written description or a pencil rough of what you want to do and we'll talk about it at: catsdontdance@comcast.net

Character requirements
There must be at least 1 CDD main character prominently featured in your work.
This applies to art, fiction, and media. To review, the choices are Danny, Sawyer, Pudge, Woolie, Tillie, Francis, Cranston, T.W., Max, Darla, L.B. Mammoth, Flanigan, and Farley Wink. If you need visual references, you might check HERE  where there are model sheets, production sketches, and even a few maquette photos. If you have self created characters or want to plug in a toon from W.B or another camp (say Disney or Bluth) that's fine too. Consider this your opportunity to be a casting coordinator. :)


Fan Art Specifications

But I don't use Photoshop…
That's okay… you don't have to. Artists are free to use whatever medium they wish, be it pencil, paint or digital. Images don't have to be 'finished' illustrations; sketches are fine too as long as you're getting the point across. I put a lot of merit into idea, humor, and you don't have to use lens flare to do that. :) 

Accepted File Formats
I can take .jpgs, .gifs, .tiffs, .pngs, and even .bmps if necessary. A maximum pixel height of 600 pixels at 72 dpi is our format since this is for web use. The only exceptions to this might be comics if they are done in the traditional page layout, or if I feel an image will suffer significant loss of detail. If you don't have picture editing software and must send a larger file, that is fine as long as it's not over 10 mgs. I should be able to optimize your image to make it more web friendly.
For Flash users, if you have something online we'll be happy to link to it, or if the .swf is 10 mgs or less ask about emailing it first.

Things to include within the image
Required is the WB copyright. I always put something like CDD characters © W.B. on my pictures. If you have a mix of toons, it's probably a good idea to just say characters © W.B., Disney, ...something to that effect. Please note that if you don't do this I shall edit it in myself, doing my best to maintain the quality of your image as it came to me. You can also put in the movie copyright if you are doing a poster parody, but I have a 'blanket' clause to help cover this so it's optional. Just don't copyright the animation house characters to yourself since that's a big no-no!
Including your name or alias on an image is also optional, but since you went to all this work, why not?

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Fan Fiction Specifications

File Formats
Word doc. of docx. files, html and Wordpad (  .rtf ) should be okay. I work on a PC so please don't use any format that is for MAC only or Open Office. Please note on html files, I will edit the background color so it is consistent with the works we have here on the site. To avoid any format issues, just copy and paste your story in an email and that will be fine too. If at all possible PLEASE spell check and proofread your stories. The fiction editor does read through them, but hey, it saves me a step or two.

Credits
The W.B copyright is required here too. If your work is a parody please include the source, as a courtesy  to the creator and as a help to the reader. Please include your name or alias as the author.

Illustration and text considerations?
If you have the inclination, illustrations are cool. However in such cases I recommend that the file format is html, so you have the page layout you want OR just tell me within your story at what point they should be placed and I'll do my best to follow your instuction..  As a guideline, 1-4 small ( 300 pixels high or less) spot illustrations are fine if the full size pics are to be placed on the page. If you have a larger image you'd like to use, I can make a clickable thumbnail for it and place that on the story page instead. The character and content rules apply to illustrations too.
Please do not use specialty type fonts. I stick to only the most commonly used ones like Times New Roman, Ariel, or Verdana at 12 pt. for ease of readability. If you have special type formatting like italics to indicate particular sections of text, yes I will try to adhere to it as much as possible.


Other info to include with your submissions

There are a few things to include in your submissions email that will help us out with the mouse over messages, credits and links. 
1. Your name or alias (optional) spelled exactly as you want it posted. 
2. The email address you want me to use (withheld if you wish)...or as an option, your website URL as long as it is NON ADULT or has such materials on it clearly segregated. I know it's something to moan over, but I have kids too and they deserve some warning. We only add these links with contributions so you can get all those rave reviews of your work. ;) This applies to both artists and writers. If you don't wish to have email or url links, that's okay it's not required. 
3. Writers, we add a brief summary describing your work ( usually 2-3 sentences maximum), but if you wish to write it instead, please include it. This summary will go in the description. box in the fiction list. Do keep it brief, please.
4. Your age if you a minor. I only ask this for my own information, specific ages are not posted anywhere on the site. I get many contributions from young people, and feel there are different considerations when dealing with them.


Submissions Schedule & Where to Send

Send all submissions to:           catsdontdance@comcast.net

Schedule: To be honest, it's hard to round up material for updates. I prefer to gather a lot of material before making  an update vs. posting things piece by piece. Below is the tentative schedule for the remainder of 2009 - 2010..

Submission Deadlines for 2009-2010
Dec 2009  deadline -  Dec. 15th  site updated Dec. 20
April/May 2010  deadline-  aprox April 15th  site update April 20-May 1

If you want to avoid the wait to show your work directly to CDD fandom, I strongly recommend joining our Cats Don't Dance II yahoo group. Group members receive first notification of site updates, and are free to post CDD art and fiction at any time for more immediate feedback and commentary.
Thanks for your interest, see ya in the moovies!
  Still have questions?  catsdontdance@comcast.net
    S.Pleger

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