Point the first:

I chose 19+ because opening it up even that one extra year might not change CONTENT greatly . . . but it would massively expand the stories that qualified. We have a lot, LOT, of writers here who like to write stories with teenage protagonists, often ending those stories with those characters in the 18 year old age range. Ideally I'd like to receive stories with characters whose tales START in the 19+ range, but I figure a lot of people will want to cheese that a little, so this gives a tiny bit of wiggle to that without subjecting myself to getting thirty dozen "TECHNICALLY they're a high schooler but they're in the age range" type submissions.

I'd have actually made this even stricter (19-30) except that, this being the very first of these, I wanted to make sure I'd get enough suggestions/feedback to make it worthwhile. I didn't want to open it up to lower ages, but stories in upper age brackets are honestly kinda under-served on the site (outside of age regression, which doesn't really count for this,) so I figured a general 19+ requirement would still work fine for this.

Point two: "Complete and Posted Here"

This is, unfortunately, the one requirement I'm NOT going to ease up on for these. A big part of the inspiration for my suggesting/running this was a reader's search for completed stories, not parts or incomplete ones. I want to keep that focus on fully-readable sagas on the site specifically for that reason.

I can't assume readers have the money to buy books. I can't assume they have the wherewithal to find the rest of a series elsewhere (even if I link it,) and if the story isn't complete as-is, then it'd defeat the purpose of the entire "Ready Reads" title.

There are, of course, exceptions to this. Stories that are complete and have fanfic by other authors that aren't, or stories that are complete but have spinoffs by the SAME author that aren't required to enjoy the core story. It's really on a case by case basis. As for the examples you listed, I love Gaby but it would certainly NOT qualify for being "complete:" the cutoff points for the books tend to be somewhat arbitrary, with no real conclusion for each volume, and Maddy clearly hasn't reached a point she's comfortable calling it good yet. "A Second Chance" wouldn't qualify either for those same reasons: if, as you say, Volume 1 ends abruptly just so Volume 2 can start, and Volume 2 isn't complete, then the story isn't.

Opposing examples to this would be something like Donna Lamb's "Blue Moon." The story is complete and stands fully on its own despite having an incomplete sequel started. Likewisse, Angela Rasch's "Peaches" would qualify despite having spinoffs (though in their case the spinoffs are complete too, so perhaps that's not the best example.) Most of Erin Halfelven's "Prometheans" stories would qualify to be shared (under appropriate categories,) since they're standalone entries, each with their own unique story.

Bottom line if a story is questionable but you want to submit it, go for it. Just make sure I KNOW it's questionable, since I'll be checking all submitted stories out before making posts anyway but would like to know going in how likely I am to approve 'em. :)

Next, on how to publish:

A master book listing will be a Thing. Every entry will start with "Ready Reads," followed by whatever that week's theme is. I hadn't considered a tag, but that's a great suggestion and one I'll absolutely take on. I'll be posting these as forum posts rather than blogs for easy location as well, since the forums tend to be under-utilized nowadays so posts will have a higher visibility for longer that way. I figure if this goes well we might get a header link eventually like Drabble Theatre had for quite a while, but that will come with success of the overall concept.

We WILL be running themes more than once: I'll just be trying t o put a few months in between each time I do. I'll have the same requirements for suggested stories: I don't mind featuring the same story in multiple categories it qualifies for, but I WILL try and only feature a story once every few months to a year to make sure nothing becomes a staple of the lists and takes another equally worthy entry's spot.

Comments will be open for people to share whatever they want, up to and including the stories they've suggested to me in PM for the NEXT Ready Reads post. If I get multiple suggestions in PM for the same story, then that will make it much more likely to get listed, and a significant number of such suggestions will be noted. I would love to see people making other recommendations, requesting help finding new stories, and more in the comments: with luck this can turn into a community feature everyone can be part of and benefit from :)

And now, your last question:

PM me your story suggestions. Questions about format and viability should be comments here, that way other people can see both what others have already asked and what I've said in response. I want the suggested stories for the list to be a bit more private to promote people being A) honest about what they want to see (since your suggestions will remain anonymous as far as the rest of BCTS is concerned) and so that nobody feels like someone else has already said what they wanted to so their feedback isn't worthwhile.

To be clear: I WANT multiple PMs suggesting the same story from different people, so I hope nobody decides not to PM me on the basis that "well surely someone else has suggested this too." More suggestions equals more likelihood the story will show up in the list(s,) and when it comes down to trimming down "Ready Reads" lists to no more than 10 I will look at number of suggestions first, then consider my own personal tastes. The more people suggest things the less biased the lists will be, so I hope everyone chips in on this :)

I hope this answers your questions, Willow, and if you have any more don't hesitate to ask!

Melanie E.

Rather than making it a point of the actual category, however, I will be noting length in the descriptions I write for each story that makes it to Ready Reads.

I don't intend to make this nothing but a list of links with no further information: I plan to include brief descriptions of the stories (based either on my own experience with them or information provided in the PM when they are suggested,) and I'll be including the broad length of the story in that information.

Melanie E.