| Summer 2004 | Non-fiction Guidelines |

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       Vacancy will be publishing various forms of non-fiction, all strictly in audio format. See below for each category open to unsolicited submissions to consider submitting your contribution.
       Music Reviews: We intend for this to be the bread & butter of Vacancy's non-fiction offerings. We want reviews of music. Preferably current, relatively new releases, but overlooked/underappreciated older offerings will also be considered. There is no strict word limit on music reviews until we hit a stride. While brief 200 word reviews are something of the industry standard for the major magazines, we'd like to see greater indepth offerings, upwards of 1000 words or more. As with all content on Vacancy, music reviews will be published in audio. Using sound editing software, Vacancy will also be splicing into your review samples from the CD being reviewed. If we cannot retrieve MP3s to use for this purpose on our own, we will need either MP3 samples from the reviewer or a copy of the CD burned and sent to Vacancy to be dissected. Reviews of popular music are accepted, but we'd prefer to see reviews of the bands/albums deserving of more attention than they're receiving. All genres, classifications of music are accepted, from Scandinavian death metal to Dutch folk.
       Other Reviews: Vacancy will also on occasion publish book, magazine, and movie reviews. Movie reviews should be as current as possible if major motion pictures. Reviews of independent films can be older, preferably no more than five years old and readily available on DVD. For book and magazine reviews, we'd prefer reviews of small/independent press titles, not the latest Dan Brown novel. All movie, book, or magazine reviews should range between 500 and 1500 words. For movie reviews, if sound clips can be provided to splice into the review, that'd be brilliant, but not required.
       Interviews: Vacancy seeks to publish interviews where it can have recordings of both the questions from the interviewer and answers from the interviewee to then splice together for one audio offering on the website. As such, interviews with Stephen King or other major public figures aren't going to do us a lot of good. If you intend to send a review to Vacancy for publication, it's best to make sure in advance the interviewee is willing to contribute his answers as an audio recording, or else we won't be able to publish it. Or, if you've approached someone about doing an interview to later be published in audio and they express interest, feel free to query with the interview subject to see if we'd be interested. As with all other forms of submissions, all interviews should first be sent to us in text. Audio recordings will be acquired later if accepted.
       Essays/Articles/Creative Non-fiction: We are also open to essays, articles, and creative non-fiction. Preferably on topics to do with literature, poetry, music, or film. Political opinion essays or aimless rants are of no interest. We would also be interested, however, in interesting narratives concerning foreign locales, science, or history. All essays/articles should be sent first as text submissions. Query first if they tally over 4000 words.
       Payment for all reviews will be a flat $5. Payment for essays or articles will be 1/4 cent per word (min. $5). For interviews, payment is a flat $10, except in the case of interviews with higher profile subjects who agree to audio treatments, in which case query. Payment will be issued upon successful completion and retrieval of an audio recording. For now, only e-mail submissions are accepted and should be sent as plain text in the body of an e-mail. Be sure to provide a snail mail address (we encourage contributors from outside North America to add variety to the dialects available in Vacancy.) E-mail to: vacancy@blindside.net, attn: Jon Hodges.