Authorship guidelines

As an author for the Rathe Times, your role is critical.  You create the content that will make the site profitable, whether that’s directly creating Pro Series content or convincing fans of the value the site offers with your free content.  As such, standard articles (the ones available to the public free of charge) are expected to be of the same quality as Pro articles.  They are representative of the standard of quality a person can expect of the Rathe Times.

To fill the role, you must fit the following criteria:

1. Be enthusiastic and passionate about the content you're writing. No one likes reading half-assed content.
2. Be skilled with the pen (or pencil) (or laptop! - Ed). This means you have a understanding of how to write quality content, and are willing to flex your English muscle.
3. Be able to meet content deadlines. Our schedules are strictly planned around availability of content, shifts in meta, recent news and other events outside of our control. Hence, being able to deliver on time is important.
4. Remain in contact with us! We need to be able to reach you, so if you take a break from Discord or uninstall Facebook, please let us know of another way to keep in touch!

If you feel you meet these criteria well, then why not reach out to us and get in touch with Kirk Bushell or Alex Truell?

The following guidelines should be kept in mind when creating content for the Rathe Times:

1. Articles should be written using proper grammar, spelling, and sentence structure, with a focus on readability and interest.  That said, the Rathe Times does have an editor who will do final proofing of articles submitted and make adjustments where necessary.  Please do not make his job too difficult!
2. Articles will be formatted to fit the website, so don’t spend too much time on formatting, aside from giving an idea of how you conceptualize the final article to look.  If you have specific images and links you intend to include, please provide those.
3. Exception: The editor takes a hands off approach to Fan Fiction, and expects authors of such works to be adequately skilled as writers to present a polished final work.  The Rathe Times will ensure it meets a minimum standard of quality, as it represents the site to a limited degree, but please submit what you believe to be a work of storytelling fit for print.
4. Please utilize FaB DB for card images and decklists.  Again, the final formatting of the article will be done by the editor, but any planning you do assists the editor in their role.
5. When first referring to a game element, such as a card title or a keyword, please utilize the full name of that element for clear identification.  If you intend to use an acronym later on in the article, identify that acronym when first using the term.  Example: “Ranger decks utilizing Three of a Kind (3oaK) will want to include copious amounts of Reload, or they may find 3oaK has locked them out of further actions.”
6. It is acceptable to use mild and occasional instances of crude language for emphasis.  Please do not abuse this freedom.  Flesh and Blood TCG is rated 16+, and we aim to remain consistent with that tone.
7. The owner and the editor of Rathe Times retain the right to edit, amend, and refuse articles for any reason.  This is not subject to review.

Whether an article is Standard or Pro is determined by the owner and/or editor, though generally this will be discussed with the writer prior to completion/submission of their work. In general, articles should be understood to be Standard unless specifically commissioned for the Pro Series. Authors are welcome to propose content for the Pro Series, but are not entitled to that designation simply because they intended it as such.

There are three tiers of compensation:

1. Standard Articles: $40
2. Pro Series Articles: $75
3. Opinion & News Articles: $20
   We see these as less valuable than other content, but there is negotiating room here depending on the size of the article, the quality of the content.etc.

Articles are not due compensation until they are published. Due to the scheduling needs of the Rathe Times, an article may be submitted at one time and published much later, or not at all. The owner and the editor of the Rathe Times determine publishing schedules.

From a strategic angle, the purpose of a Standard article is to drive traffic to the site.  The purpose of a Pro article is to generate revenue and add value to paid subscriptions to the Rathe Times.

Pro articles will have the following attributes:

1. They are expertly written, requiring minimal work from the editor to get them to that point.
2. They offer valuable information and insights gained from extensive research.
3. They are timely and engaging, dealing with current meta trends and topics, OR
4. They are timeless and high skilled, teaching mastery of difficult strategies or core mechanics.

Some of these things you may be able to present at the outset, such as the qualifications you have for writing about such a subject (tournament performance, extensive playtesting).  Most, however, will be shown through the writing and the content.  The article should make its own case for its value.

Although we're trying to be as open and accommodating as possible to all content submitted, there are still some strict rules and reservations we have around that content, such as:

1. All content must be honest and written with integrity. We cannot stress this enough. Plagiarised work, dishonest reviews, cheap stabs - this simply will not be allowed and will put an immediate ban on you and your account, not only on the Rathe Times but also our discord. This is your only warning. Keep it light, keep it honest!
2. Sponsored content will not be supported (as this may clash with The Rathe Times' own sponsored content, advertisement partners.etc.). This does not include link backs to our authors' own blogs, YouTube channels.etc. In fact, we are highly supportive of this, as can be seen through our community spotlight pieces. You must however, get the clear from our Editor before including this in your content.
3. Once an article is submitted to the Rathe Times, Rathe Times reserves the right to ownership over that article content, conceding the rights to that content if it is not published within 4 weeks of submission. Additionally, once a piece of content is submitted to the Rathe Times, that content cannot be published on other platforms without incurring a penalty (most likely article removal and potentially removal of author privileges on the Rathe Times). Finally, any submitted content may be promoted or shared by the authors, but may not be repurposed in any way, or in any format until after 2 weeks of the publish date of that content.
4. We reserve the right to cancel an article submission in progress at any point.
5. We reserve the right to remove content from the website once it's been published.