I. What is Voice Over?

Voice Over is an electronic magazine for scriptwriters and/or -readers. The basic structure of each issue consists of editorial, articles and/or interviews with writers or other closely related to the scene and script reviews by readers. It is distributed in plain text by email.

II. Why do or read electronic magazine when there are hundreds of real professional magazines out there?

Well, professional magazines cost money. A lot of money. And besides, they are directed to professional writers. Of course professionals can read this and it may even have something interesting for them, but in this I’m also going to do interviews of good and respected amateurs as well. I’m also going to sniff the air of the internet writer community. And there is also possibility to do reviews by everyone. The review section is specifically for the readers. Everyone can write articles as well.

What really differs this from other magazines concerning scriptwriting is that I try to keep this interesting and useful to both writers and readers. As the magazine does have a writers viewpoint, readers will also find much interesting sections from the magazine. So in order to enjoy the magazine, you don’t have to write scripts, but you will hopefully find it interesting and useful if you do.

III. How can I subscribe and what is it going to cost?

To subscribe, simply put in your email address and click "submit". You will receive a confirmation email (to make sure you really want to subscribe). Just click on the link in the email and you will receive Voice Over, and it’s free! Totally free, does not cost a thing. And, if you decide you no longer wish to receive Voice Over, it is just as easy to unsubscribe. Each issue of Voice Over has simple instructions to unsubscribe.

The issues are also going to be released on the site, but with a bit of a delay. This is just to encourage subscribing because I want to keep track of how many readers the magazine actually has, as you may understand.

By subscribing, you will not be giving your email to anyone else but Voice Over.

IV. How can I contribute?

Like many magazines, the contributions from the readers are very important and valuable. All comments, suggestions and questions are welcome and valued. If you want to contribute to the magazine the process goes like this:

There are basically two sections of the magazine you can contribute to. You can contribute with articles, but you need to pitch your ideas first. If I give the green light, you can send your article to me. But I might choose not to include it even after I’ve given the green light if your writing is hopeless (although I'm sure it isn't). I’m also entitled to edit it. But after saying this, I usually do release all the articles sent to me as they are.

The other part is of course the reader script reviews. To this you only need to send me the review. I, again, can edit it, but I basically edit just typos and the likes. Every review will be released unless it consists unacceptable material. I think we all know what falls into that category, so I won't be going to it here.,

You should understand that you are to review the scripts, not the movies or series or whatever it is that the script is to. So for example: If you are to write a review of a movie, do not write it if you’ve only seen the movie. You should write it only if you’ve read the script because only by that you can really know what the writer was after. It’s not just once of twice when the whole message of the work is destroyed in the production. Good example being Men In Black to which I found an early draft that was really funny and imaginative, when the finished movie was only full of empty Hollywood jokes and unimaginative blood-thirsty aliens. You can compare it to the final product, but the review should be about the script.

You should begin the review with next lines:

NAME: [Script name Here]
EPISODE: [If series script, episode title here, remove if not]
WRITTEN BY: [Script author(s) here, not the reviewer]
PRODUCED: [Yes/No]
DRAFT: [Draft date, version, number or unknown]
FILE FORMAT: [.doc, .txt, .rtf, .pdf, etc.]
URL: [If in free contribution online, direct link here. If not, remove]

(Header is basically ripped from SPAG [The Society for the Promotion of Adventure Games] magazine, so sorry and thanks to there.)

To the URL line, put direct link to the script file itself. For instance it can be found from Simply Scripts, do not put just http://www.simplyscripts.com/ because it just causes unnecessary difficulties.

I will also feature special announcements if necessary. So if you have something important to let the world know, you may send it to me and I will include it to the next issue. And by important I mean something that someone else than you care. No "Hey look! I'm in Voice Over!" type messages will be included.