Welcome to the inauspicous launch of ScorchedInk.com, online home of Scorched Ink Magazine - a bi-annual publication published in June and December of each year.

The website's still in progress and things are going to be a shambles around here for a bit while things get sorted out, but we'll eventually get everything up and running. If you have any questions or inquiries about submissions, send 'em to editor@scorchedink.com.

Due to a surprising amount of interest shown in the past 24 hours, we're going to try to scramble together an inaugural issue in time for a December 15th launch! With stories from authors like Lyndsey D'Arcangelo, Eirene, and more, the first issue of Scorched Ink will contain over 40 (magazine-size, naturally) pages of quality short fiction.

Submissions are currently open until the final deadline of November 10th, 2007. All submissions must be received on or before that date to give the editors time to review and prepare the manuscript for publication. Please review the submission guidelines before sending your story in, and mail it to editor@scorchedink.com.

Check back often for future updates, notes from the editors, writing tips, etc. If you'd like to meet other writers, why not check out our Community Forum?

There's now a sample of the standard author contract linked from the question regarding contracts in the FAQ, should any prospective authors be curious. It should cover everything important in simple terms, involving what rights Scorched Ink does and does not have as a publisher, and most importantly involving what rights you would retain as an author. If you have any questions or concerns about the contract, feel free to ask; just shoot an e-mail to editor@scorchedink.com. The contract is still a work-in-progress, so it may be updated in the next few days after looking up some legalese references--but the current version covers the most important things. We'll repost the finalized version before anything is sent out to authors who've already submitted and been accepted.

So in reworking the contract, it was decided that it would be easier to implement a fixed pay scale now rather than later, in the event that any retroactive payments might become necessary. A new sample contract image has replaced the old one in the FAQ, and the FAQ itself has been updated to reflect answers to questions regarding payment for authors. We may still end up tweaking the contract a little here and there, but it's been expanded to cover several more things (and include just a little legalese, though we tried to keep it to a minimum).