Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction
Email: popularfiction@gmail.com
Guidelines
Only
entries conforming to the guidelines below can be accepted for editing and possible
publication; those not conforming will be immediately returned, with our
apologies, for preliminary revision.
Thank you.
General advice:
Write a clear,
concise, lively entry, free of jargon and theoretical posturing. This is
an unpretentious guide to bestsellers, aimed at readers who like the works and
want to know more about them. Your focus should remain on what makes the
books interesting to those readers (we are not interested in entries which have
an overtly theoretical bent, nor in those which perform an aesthetic critique
of the works).
Before you begin
to write your entry, be sure to read the sample entries very closely, paying
attention to both their style, substance, and formatting. Citations should be made parenthetically; no
footnotes are allowed.
And
– needless to
say (I hope!), entry authors are not allowed to borrow material from any source
without attribution. This includes wikipedia sources
and other online content. All sources should be properly credited with parenthetical
citations and inclusion in the entry’s bibliography. It is extremely important that this is done
honestly and meticulously.
Finally – mind
the word count!
For author
entries, be sure to:
1) provide a biographical summary, noting the relevance
of the author’s life, where applicable, to his or her work
2) identify the author’s major works, and, if
appropriate, his or her minor ones
3) assess the most significant qualities of the
author’s works, reflecting on the themes and characters most important to
them
4) note the relation of the author, where
relevant, to his or her influences, as well as to other authors working similar
territory
For text
entries, be sure to:
1) provide a plot
summary (if possible, without spoiling any surprise endings!)
2) reflect on the prominent features of the work
itself, describing its major themes and characters
3) suggest the relationship of the individual
work to others in the author’s oeuvre, as well as to the works of other authors
4) note
other relevant information about the work itself, such as its adaptation to
film
For American Readers:
For Canadian Readers: