Mission Statement
Checkmated is a Ron and Hermione archive that welcomes other R/Hr friendly ships and Gen stories. Our goal is to host quality fiction of varied subject and style that meets a certain level of grammar and craftsmanship. Through reviews and our forums, we hope to foster discussion of the Harry Potter world and the fanfiction it inspires in a friendly, supportive environment.

Disclaimer
Checkmated is run by a staff of volunteers who love the Harry Potter Universe, writing, and of course, Ron and Hermione. Stories submitted for approval are reviewed by members of the Witches’ Council and Head Girls and Boys. We view the varied backgrounds and tastes of our staff as an asset and try to get several opinions before rejecting or accepting a story. Please know that we make every effort to be fair and to prevent personal preferences from interfering with approval. It is impossible, however, to remove all aspects of subjectivity from the approval process, and we reserve the right to make subjective decisions about submissions. We do our best to accept stories that offer something interesting or new to the archive. Sometimes, a story doesn’t interest our staff, or we’ve simply seen the idea too many times before. We reserve the right to say, “We’re not interested.”

Shipping:
This is a Ron/Hermione shipping site. Other ships are acceptable, including Slash pairings, but only if R/Hr is not contradicted (as discussed below, teacher/student pairings and incest pairings are NOT acceptable). It is acceptable for Ron and Hermione to start out with other people as long as they are together in the end. It is NOT acceptable for them to be together at some point in the fic and then end up with other people. It is also NOT acceptable for another person to be included in their relationship, as in Trio fics.

Submitted stories which violate our shipping policy will be rejected and may not be resubmitted. If a multi-chaptered story is found to violate our shipping policy after it has been accepted, all chapters of the story will be deleted from the site.

Canon:
Stories submitted to the archive must take prior canon into consideration. Characters which we are familiar with through JKR's writing should not act out of character for no discernable reason. AU stories must have a reason for creating an alternative universe.

Stories that are in the same universe as a story published at Checkmated prior to HBP may be allowed, but sequels, outtakes and the like are not guaranteed acceptance, although we will judge them on a case by case basis.

Canon compliancy itself will be evaluated on a case by case basis. The approval team may take into consideration whether or not the story could happen based on the storyline, as opposed to whether it would happen. That is to say, your story does not necessarily have to be what we as an admin team believe JKR would write next, but it should be evident from your own writing that the scenario you are writing about could grow from canon. Clearly this will be based somewhat on the talent of the author, but should also come from an acknowledgement of the books on which the fiction is based.

Examples: If an author chooses to pair Ginny with Draco after HBP, the fact that Harry and Ginny were together, and broke up in 6th year, should be considered when developing characterizations and plot.

Stories that have Dumbledore alive are considered AU, and will most likely not be approved. On the other hand, stories that explore the result of a different decision, such as Voldemort choosing to go after Neville rather than Harry, might be an interesting addition to the archive if well written.

Ratings:
Checkmated hosts stories with ratings from G to NC-17. (Please see our Ratings Guidelines for more specific information about ratings categories.) If you are writing an R or NC-17 story, please try to make your characters of legal age (18 years).

All NC-17 rated stories will be located in "The Bedchamber" page, where readers must request permission to access the stories.

The Council may change a rating on any story at any time, if deemed necessary.

Beta Service:
All stories published at Checkmated have gone through the Beta Process. This means they have been looked at by an official Checkmated Prefect who has applied to join our staff. We expect all authors to go through this process, regardless of whether or not a story has been published at other sites. It is our belief that every author can benefit from the review of their work, whether to clarify confusing plot points or to catch one more typo.

Beta Service is free, and is given to you as a favor to help authors better their writing. Any author determined to be abusing this service will be given a warning.

Beta service is provided after approval. A beta does not assign his- or herself to a story until it has met a minimum standard of quality and been approved. Visit the Beta Buddies Thread in the forums if you need assistance finding a pre-beta to help you get your story ready for submission.

Please see our Beta Guidelines and Author Guidelines to see more specific information regarding our expectations of authors and betas.

Unacceptable Content:
Song Fics: A song fic is defined as a story that uses the lyrics of an already existing song as a part of the dialogue of a story or where chunks of lyrics are inserted between sections of narrative. Lyrics in the background, as JKR used in Half-Blood Prince, might be accepted, but this decision is left entirely up to the Council, will depend upon the amount of borrowed material, and is admittedly subjective. Pertinent exerpts of song lyrics may still be posted at the beginning or end of a story to provide context, but correct credit must be given, and the lyrics will not be included in the 1000 minimum word count.

Inappropriate Content:
Checkmated does not accept submissions that deal with incest, professor/student relationships (unless student is of legal age, i.e. 18 years old), necrophilia or bestiality. Fics declined due to this content cannot be resubmitted.

Content Requiring Warnings in the Summary:
Stories dealing with extreme violence, non-cons and extreme sexual fetishes are subject to Council approval, and may not be approved if deemed inappropriate. Fics declined due to such content cannot be resubmitted. If a proper warning is not included, and the fic is approved, the Council or Beta assigned will edit the summary to reflect the necessary warning.

Story Standards:

• Spelling: Any story that has more than 10 spelling mistakes for every thousand words will be declined. Spelling mistakes may include a major character's name, a House name, any other important HP element, or other commonly misspelled or misused words.
• Grammar: Any story that has more than 20 major grammar errors for every thousand words will be declined. Major errors include, but may not be limited to, capitalization, punctuation, quotations, verb tenses, dialogue formatting, proper and varied sentence structure, and the use of Netspeak.
• Quality: Stories may be rejected due to overall quality. This may include, but is not limited to, lack of original plot (including plot conventions that are frequently submitted to the archive, even if well-written), clumsy sentences, choppy organization, no explanation for characters being OOC, and any other factor the Council deems to not meet the Standard of Quality.

*The Witches' Council reserves the right to reject any story they deem unfit for the site. This is purely subjective.

Length:
All story submissions must be no less than 1000 words. This policy applies to one-shots and each chapter of a multichapter story. Author's notes, quotes or song lyrics used to frame a story will not be included in the word count.

Plagiarism:
Plagiarism is defined as copying the work of another author, in part or in whole. Paraphrasing can also be considered plagiarism. The Witches' Council will investigate all charges of plagiarism. Stories found to be plagiarized will be deleted, and offending authors may be banned from the site.

Publishing and Submission of Stories:

• Authors may only have one story waiting for approval at a time, and two stories total waiting for publication. If you are unsure if your submission has gone through to our queue, check the "Publishing and Editing" page. It will tell you what stories you have awaiting publication.
• Submitted stories are reviewed by the Witches' Council and Head Boys and Girls. Most stories are reviewed by 3-4 members of the team before a decision is made to ensure that decisions are fair and not based on personal preference. Approval may take up to three weeks.
• An accepted story then goes to a queue where Prefects (betas) claim the stories they would like to beta. You may request a particular beta, but the beta is under no obligation to accept the request. You will receive an email from your beta once they pick up the story.
• You will receive an email if your story is rejected. We try to provide some detail with the rejection letter to explain why a story was rejected, but we are unable to provide true beta service until a story has been approved. IMPORTANT There are cases where a story is rejected but either the author has an incorrect email listed in their profile, or their email provider has spam filters running that block automatic email. Please make sure that you have the correct email address listed, and that you allow all emails from council@checkmated.com
• Rejection may not be appealed. Rejected stories may be resubmitted only after they have been revised in accordance with suggested improvements or corrections. Authors who resubmit without taking the suggestions given in the rejection letter into consideration will be rejected automatically. Repeated offenses may result in being banned from the site.

Change of Policy:
These policies and guidelines are effective immediately and apply to all authors, new submissions, and stories currently awaiting approval. However, any new policies and guidelines will not be enforced retroactively for already archived stories. New chapters of WIP stories will be subject to these guidelines.

*These policies and guidelines are subject to change without notice.

Updated March 2006