Subscribe to the SWG Email Newsletter

When we reintroduced our newsletter a little over a week ago, we unfortunately hadn’t gotten subscriptions up and running yet for nonmembers. We’re excited to announce that absolutely anyone can now subscribe to the SWG newsletter. You can subscribe to the newsletter here or use the subscription box at the bottom of the sidebar on our website.

What wonderful and fabulous things can you expect with your subscription? Every Saturday, you will have the latest news and updates from the SWG and other fandom groups and events delivered right to your email inbox. You will receive a list of all of the fanworks added or updated that week on our archive. And you will be the first to get to read that week’s article or column!

Remember, too, that we are looking for contributors to our newsletter. Whether you want to write a column, an article, or collaborate with our newsletter team, check out our contributors’ page for more information.

Two Updates: SWG LiveJournal and Updated Site Etiquette/ToS

LiveJournal
The SWG’s LiveJournal is no longer being considered an official social media platform for purposes of sharing announcements about the SWG. The LJ community is not closing, and we welcome LJ users to continue posting Silmarillion-related fanworks, discussions, and announcements there. However, LJ users should not rely on the silwritersguild LJ community for news about the SWG. There is more about our LiveJournal here.

Site Etiquette and Terms of Service
We have updated our Site Etiquette and Terms of Service to reflect that the only use of our site and social media should be for not-for-profit purposes. Here is the addition:

For legal reasons, the SWG must remain strictly not-for-profit. Do not use the SWG or its social media to request or offer commissions for money. If a fanwork was commissioned, do not mention that commission. Links in your profile, the fanworks you share, or on posts to SWG social media should not point to sites where you will make a profit, such as Kofi, Patreon, GoFundMe, Venmo, and similar sites. Violations of the above will be immediately taken down.

The entire Site Etiquette and ToS can be found here.

As always, if you have any questions, you can contact the moderators or comment on this post, and one of us will get back to you.

(Posted by @dawnfelagund)

The SWG Newsletter Returns!

The SWG newsletter will be returning this week, with the first new edition coming out on Saturday, March 5. It is now a weekly email newsletter, rounding up SWG news, announcements from other fandom groups, and new and updated fanworks for the week. We’re also hoping to offer more original content, including the return of the Character of the Month with a biography on Ossë this week, and art to go with it. No more busy-week worrying what you’ve missed!

At the moment, unfortunately, you have to be a member of the site to subscribe. (The module we’re using is being a huge pain in the neck. We’ve got it fully working on the test site but not the real thing yet.) We hope that changes very soon, maybe even before the first newsletter drops on Saturday! We’re working on it and will post the good news here as soon as nonmembers can subscribe.

But if you do have an SWG account, you can subscribe here.

We’re also looking for contributors. Check out this page for more about writing for the newsletter.

We are so excited to announce that Silmarillion-based artwork and other visual fanworks can now be posted on the Silmarillion Writers’ Guild! If you are an artist, we welcome you to archive your Silmarillion art with us. The SWG enjoys almost seventeen years of history as a supportive and welcoming space for writers of Tolkien-based fanfiction, and we look forward in the year to come to welcoming more creators of all types of fanwork into our community.

Our site news has full details on the new art section–check it out!

(Posted by Dawn)

Site Downtime on Saturday, Feb. 12

On Saturday, February 12, 2022, we will be doing work on the Silmarillion Writers’ Guild archive that requires us to take the site offline for a while. We will take the site down at about 14:00/2PM. Please make sure all fanworks- or comments-in-progress are posted or saved before that time. We will hopefully be up and running again shortly thereafter!

Brief Site Downtime Tonight (12 January) at 8:00 PM EST

ETA:The site is back up!

I will be putting the site into maintenance mode tonight at 8:00 PM EST. It will be unavailable for about a half-hour while I do some minor updates/fixes that really shouldn’t be undertaken while the site is being actively used. You should make sure that any comments or fanworks in-progress are saved on the site before 8 PM. (Remember that unchecking the “Publish” box will save the fanwork without posting it if it’s not ready for primetime!)

I will edit this post as soon as the site is back up.

(Posted by @dawnfelagund)