Hello! I’m M, I am one of the Overall Admins of the site and I’m also the Overall Admin in charge the Books Department, which now primarily falls under the title “Elrond’s Library”. In addition to various components of the EL section I also oversee eCards, themes, the Newsletter, banners and parts of the humour section. In this article I will attempt to give you some easy guidelines for creating items for these sections to submit to me for approval and addition to our great site.

1- eCards : It is recommend that you use a good graphics program such as Photoshop or Fireworks and that you understand how to use it on a basic level. The following are the rules for submission. Please note I generally accept most eCards as long as they fit these guidelines and aren’t offensive in anyway. I don’t judge eCards based upon creativity, design or humour as long as they can be read clearly and don’t go over our size limits.

-Vertical Cards should be no more then: 300wX350h pixels (user text will sit either right or left of the image)
-Horizontal Cards should be no more then: 450wx400h pixels (user text will site below)
-No advertising, sexual content or profanity
-Every eCard should contain either in a single line or two “Middle Earth Greetings brought to you by www.councilofelrond.com” should be at the bottom or in a corner and in a font/color that is legible over the image.
-I reserve the right to refuse any eCard or ask for it to be edited.
-Please submit in JPG’s optimized for the web to reduce file size but preserve quality
email to [email protected]
-Please create thumbnails of each card that are no more then 120 pixels wide (make sure to constrain proportions so that the height matches with the new width)
-When emailing me always include your screen name, what type of card it is i.e. Thanksgiving, Friendship etc and whether it is meant to be vertical or horizontal.

2-Middle Earth/ Literary/Art Articles These three should follow nearly the same guidelines. the Middle Earth section is generally for biographies of all the various characters of the works of Tolkien. Literary Articles are non-fiction articles such as reviews or literary criticism of Tolkien’s works the same for Art Articles which are primarily about the various artists who have worked on Tolkien inspired art over the years.

-These do require a bit of work and I’m very particular about them so be prepared to get a lot of editing instructions from me.
-First, if you haven’t already, please read as many of the articles in the ME section as possible to see how they are written. (for Lit & Art please see any items that are listed in Elrond’s Libary)
-Second, pick a character where you feel a lot of information can be found in the books. I prefer that your main source be the actual books written by Tolkien as in the Silmarillion, The Trilogy and then if needed the Unfinished Tales, Lost Tales and H.O.M.E. series. You can use online resources but do not use these as your primary source. Many of these sites borrow articles or information from other sites and they are not always as accurate as they should be. So if you find a piece about the character you are writing about on another site please check their information against the books first before using it.
You will need to reference, at the end of your article, all resources ie books, web-sites and other resources. Plagiarism is deeply frowned upon and you will eventually be caught.
-Third, Language: It is very easy to become caught up the language tolkien uses in his writing however we want to present our articles in an easy to read manner assuming that the person who will read it may not have read much of Tolkien’s work before. We want to keep it well written but simple. It’s also important to explain any unusual names, where places are located in the larger geography, and possible relationships between characters. For instance if you are writing about a character who may have fought Easterlings you’ll have to briefly explain who Easterlings are. If the person lived in Gondolin you’ll have to explain that is the hidden city located in the mountains of Beleriand and if the character is related to another well known character you’ll have to denote it i.e. Isildur, brother of Anarion and Eldest son of Elendil who escaped from Numeneor and founded the kingdoms of Anor and Gondor.
-Hopefully that all makes sense. And if you have questions please don’t be afraid to ask.
-I prefer that these items are emailed to me at [email protected] to make it easier for me to edit and please include your screen name when emailing me anything so I know who it is and can award proper credit.

3-Translations At the moment I am accepting translations in any language for anything that appears in the Middle Earth section except “Breif History of the Elves”. Please contact me with the language you wish to translate items into before doing any translations. I have several people working in a few langauges and I don’t want anyone to overlap. Once I’ve approved you for translating pick the item you wish to translate and send it to me in email either as a Word .doc or regular email please try to keep the formatting of the original article and make sure to include your screen name, the english title of what has been translated and what language it is in, in every email. [email protected].
Please remember that since I don’t speak or read whatever language you are translating into I cannot edit your work and I am trusting you to do an accurate translation keeping as true to the original as possible

4-Weaponry If you would like to write an article on Weaponry this should only be about weapons used in the works of Tolkien and based upon information found in the books. Use the guidelines for writing Middle Earth/Lit/Art articles and remember to cite all sources, include your screen name, and attach any images of the weaponry used in your article. Please do not submit articles about items that are for sale such as reproduction swords or other merchandise.

5-Poems & Songs These should only be items published in Tolkiens works. Please make sure you have accurately copied them from the books, online sources may have misprints. Each one should include:
-Which book it is from
-What chapter it can be found in
-Who wrote and/or sung or recited the poem/song (character not Tolkien).
-What are the circumstances surrounding the event? i.e. Frodo is with Pippin, Merry and Sam in the Prancing Pony and begins to sing this song…
-Please contact me before submitting poems as people send me tons at a time and I don’t always have time to put them up right away. It may appear that a poem is not up but in reality I have it in my files. Send me a list of poems/songs you would like to contribute for approval.

As always if you have any questions about any of these guidelines or sections please don’t hesitate to contact me.

~M

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