ROW C Rules

Attitude: No egos. 

Participation: The group thrives on mutual participation. To get, you must give. You must attend a minimum of 2 events (workshops, Feedback Sessions, etc.) before getting the opportunity to host your own Feedback Session. If you would like to host an additional Feedback Session, you must attend at least 1 additional Feedback Session in between. Attendance means you have at least read the work being reviewed.

Membership: The price for membership in ROW C is $25 per year. You may attend 1 event as a guest prior to obtaining membership. The guest event can count towards the 2 events required to host a feedback session.

Cost: If you are submitting work for a Feedback Session, the fee is a base of $20, plus $1 for every 1,000 words. A novel of 80,000 words, therefore, costs $100 to submit. A short story of 5,000 words costs $25. This fee is separate from membership. Costs go to operation only and are not for profit.

Genre: Most genres are open. However, your work must be accessible to a general audience and may not be overly obscene, arcane, technical, or academic, and may not be spuriously avant-garde ("Bip glooped the gronk and borgly wricked") or drivel ("All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy"). A committee may be assigned to evaluate edge cases.

Submissions: Works must be submitted in PDF format only. You may submit work in multiple phases (e.g. a few chapters at a time), but each phase counts as a separate Feedback Session with the renewed base fee. Poetry and collections of very short stories may be combined up to 5,000 words without additional fee. You can submit work for consideration here, but note that works submitted by non-members or those who do not meet the criteria will not be considered.

Limitations: A maximum of 8 people can participate in a Feedback Session. A maximum of 15 can participate in workshops and other collaborative events. If more than this number of people wish to participate, the exercises will be split. (There will be no additional cost for the member whose work is being reviewed.)

• Your first Feedback Session has a word count limit of 25,000 words. This can take any form -- chapters of your book, a short story, a novella, etc. Exceptions can be made within reason (e.g. a novella coming in at 25,500 words.)

• Feedback sessions are limited to two hours.

Locale: The Route One Corridor consists of the communities in Prince George's County, Maryland, in the fifteen-mile stretch between Washington, D.C. and Laurel. Participating towns include Mount Rainier, Brentwood, Bladensburg, Hyattsville, Edmonston, Riverdale Park, University Park, College Park, Beltsville, Greenbelt, Ammendale, and Laurel. If you live outside this area and want to travel to us, you can sign up, but we ain't coming to you.

Conduct: Members are required to treat each other with respect at all times. Demeaning, threatening, rude, aggressive, or harassing behavior is not tolerated. Dominating the conversation, talking over others, or interrupting repeatedly is not tolerated. Harsh criticism ("This chapter was convoluted and opaque") and brutal honesty ("I don't think this is publishable") do not violate the code of conduct. A facilitator is selected for each event; the facilitator has final say in managing the conduct of other members. Members can be expelled for repeated violations of these rules, the exact procedure of which shall be determined by the ROW C organizers at the time of the violation.

Equality of Access: You may request that certain people participate or not participate in your Feedback Session, but all members are eligible to attend any session as of right, subject to limitations on conduct.