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DISCLAIMER: About "About Parrafada"

Parrafada is currently in Alpha. This means that, while it's online, it is not considered yet released and it's missing key features, and in consequence everything written below is at best tentative. When our lawyers read it, chastise me, and make me change most of it, then this disclaimer will be removed and what follows will stop being considered a work of speculative fiction.

About Parrafada

Parrafada (Spanish: [para'faða],Long and tedious text piece) is an interactive narrative platform and editorial. We define interactive narrative as something that is in the twilight between a video game an a book, where the Reader (or Player, but Reader from now on) makes choices that affect the outcome of the stories Writers publish. In Parrafada Writers (or Game Developers, but Writers from now on) will be vetted and given access to the platform on an individual basis in order to ensure both that only quality work is published and Parrafada's editorial line is respected.

Readers

Reading is Single Player

Everything you do in Parrafada as a Reader will never Internet facing by default. We will not include multiplayer features in our interactive stories. We are trying to keep the experience of reading in Parrafada as close to the experience of reading offline at home as this medium allows.

Reader profile

For now, the Reader profile is fully private and only accessible to Parrafada administrations. In the future it will be possible (and fully optional) to showcase your profile and achievements.

Writers

Becoming a Writer

NOTE: The process to become a Writer in Parrafada is not yet open to the public and is still under development. We'd like to meet every potential Writer at least once via video call (or maybe in person if feasible) before approval. Once approved, the Writer will get access to Parrafada's tooling and community of Editors and Writers.

Publishing with Parrafada

Parrafada is an interactive storytelling editorial. This has the following consequences:
  • Writers will keep a very significant share of the profit their published stories generate.
  • Writers have the option to keep their Copyright.
  • Writers' stories will have to be approved by Parrafada's Editorial Team.
  • There is an Editorial Line.

Writers Profile

Once a Writer is published the Writer's stories, bio, etc, will be publicly available. Writers can upload stories and check how they will behave online, but they will only be accesible with their account. Account sharing as a way of avoiding the need of publishing is strictly forbidden.

Editorial Line

We will review and accept or reject only stories submitted by approved Writers. Stories don't need to be categorized in a particular genre in order to be approved. That said, we are interested in most fiction genres, and particularly in:
  • Science Fiction
  • Fantasy
  • Crime/Thriller
  • Historical fiction
We are currently unable to accept the following:
  • Content catering to children younger than 16
  • Erotic & Romance
  • Fan fiction
  • Content with political or ideological undertones that we consider incompatible with our values1
Please communicate clearly what story you intend to publish with us before doing so, send a short summary, a sample, or equivalent. We reserve the right to reject any story for any reason, including reasons like "while this looks good it's not really our cup of tea". We also reserve the right to remove any story and/or Writer at any point in time from Parrafada, for example if the Writer is damaging our brand by participating in extremist forums, or it comes to our attention that the intention of their writing (in Parrafada or elsewhere) is to subtly proselitize for an ideology that we consider damaging to our readers or our brand2.

About sexual content

Sexual content is accepted as long as the following rules are respected:
  • Sex is accessory to the plot, not the central theme.
  • No pornographic images.
  • No unnecessary pornographic imagery in prose. The exact definition of "necessary" will always be the editorial's discretion.
  • No underage sexual content of any kind.
Examples of media that contain explicit sex that we consider borderline acceptable:
  • Mass Effect (video game series).
  • The Witcher (video game series).
  • Game of Thrones (book series)3.
Examples of media that contain explicit sex and we consider unacceptable:
  • Game of Thrones (TV series)5.
  • Leisure Suit Larry (video game series).
  • Californication (TV series)6.

About sexism, racism, slavery, authoritarianism, and other human miseries

Sadly, these have been constants during most of History. In order to allow as much creative breath as possible, Parrafada allows these themes to be depicted in their historical contexts, in fantasy, as political commentary, and even in contemporary or near-future fiction settings7. However, there will be no tolerance for the endorsement or glorification of any of these (or similar) themes.

Editor's Discretion

Ultimately, the Parrafada's Editorial Team reserves all the rights to reject any story it deems unfit for any reason, including reasons not listed above.

Notes

1 Our values summarized: Equal Rights, tolerance for everyone except the intolerant, Secularism, Freedom of Expression.

2 A good example would be Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game". Hypothetically, if he had been an unknown author that wanted to publish something like Ender's Game in parrafada.com at the start of his career we would have most likely accepted him, as it is a great novel... But probably would have retracted everything in our platform as soon as his values would become public.

3 Be warned, in order to include extreme sex in your work and get away with it; your prose needs to be almost as good as George R.R. Martin's. You will also need to have a good excuse, like medieval royal inbreeding and its consequences being central to the plot. Regardless, while this might sound ridiculously arrogant, if GRRM had been an unknown author4 and wrote "The Adventures of Cersei and Jamie Lannister" we'd have probably not published them.

4 If GRRM came to us right now and decided to ironically test our editorial resolve with some high quality smut... We'd most likely bend our own rules backwards, to be fair.

5 The sexposition in the TV series not present in the book series we see as a clear example of "sex that barely adds to the story".

6 You should watch this one, as it is really good. It is also a great example because while it is great entertainment; it is too sex centric and consequently doesn't fit our editorial line.

7 "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood is an excellent example of a well crafted story that depicts a horrifying and plausible situation without glorifying it.