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Lisa’s Original Submission Guidelines

General Note #1: Crossword Conventions
 
Crucinova seeks to foster creativity and innovation in crossword construction, including specifically through selective bending or breaking of the usual rules. The usual rules do still matter though, so ideally the bending or breaking will not happen at random, but with consistency and rigor, according to the dictates of your concept.
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There will be some overlap with other venues. I do sometimes see grids elsewhere that I think would be at home on this site. Another way to describe the niche Crucinova seeks to occupy would be to say that it picks up at the quirkiness level that NYT Thursday puzzles often inhabit and goes on further from there. For more on how this site relates to traditional puzzle norms, I suggest reading the manifesto on the About page.

That overlap noted, the chances of getting anything in the classic standard 15x frame accepted are lower than if you come up with some brand new idea that demands a grid of a different size and/or shape. The 15x vein has been mined long and deep.

Under each heading below I discuss which conventions still seem to me worth keeping and/or which ones we have to keep for technical reasons, and which ones we can play with. I cannot possibly predict or plan for all the fabulous, unique ideas constructors are likely to send in, so I’m trying to keep these guidelines as loose and free as possible. I can also imagine being intrigued by concepts which amount to wild abandon in one chosen aspect of the construction process. I value whimsy, elegance, and virtuosity, so when in doubt, query!
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Note that the focus will be on American-style grids, rather than the British-style cryptics. I’m definitely open to grids with some “meta” element, though. (N.b.: Crucinova has also taken a couple grids in crossword-adjacent formats like Marching Bands, and in one instance a word search. As long as it’s a word puzzle in which the words cross somehow, we will consider your pitch. We would not take, e.g., a sudoku.)
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General Note #2: Diversity
 
Until recently the crossword realm has been mostly white, mostly male, and mostly straight. As a trans/enby/queer person, I applaud recent shifts of this old paradigm, including more varied hires in the industry and the growth of other indie services like this one. I also whole-heartedly endorse efforts to increase both the diversity of the constructing pool, and of puzzle content. So, while submissions are welcome from anyone, I commit as a founding principle to featuring the work of constructors of previously under-represented races and ethnic identities, gender identities, and sexualities, and people with disabilities. I also strongly encourage the development of theme concepts, fill, and clues that draw from the totality of the cultural riches of our nation and world.

General Note #3: Editorial Process

I prefer to frame our work together in terms of collaboration, and I always try to work it your way first. At each stage I will do all I can to respect and preserve your particular style and voice.

That said, I am a hands-on editor, operating out of a sense of shared geeky glee, and if I like your idea, I am likely to look for ways to make it better. At the theme stage, I may ask you to search for better and/or more themers, or suggest some myself. At the grid design and fill stage, about which I am quite particular, I may to ask for changes/redos, or I may propose to do some or all of the block placement and/or fill myself, if I think that’s needed to bring a promising idea in line with Crucinova’s editorial standards. If at either of these stages we can’t agree, we can stop the process, no harm no foul, and you are welcome to submit your grid elsewhere.

At the clue stage, as is the industry standard, I will be editing and possibly changing some or many of your clues. The constructor’s agreement, formalizing the purchase of the your puzzle, gets sent once you’ve delivered clues. As a courtesy, before finished grids go live, I send final edited versions back to constructors for a last look and chance to comment. No matter how much of the final published grid is your work and how much is mine, you’ll get sole credit and full payment. 
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Theme/Concept
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Convention requires that themes/concepts be specific and clear, and that all themed answers fit the concept neatly and in the same way. I hold to this, because clear themes consistently executed are crucial to a pleasurable solving experience.
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The constructing tools that currently work both in Crossword Compiler, which I use to edit, and in PuzzleMe, the posting software, and which are therefore available for use in theme development, include: custom size, non-square shapes, symmetry variations and breaks, bars, circles in squares, shaded and/or colored squares, images in squares, clue linking, and the rebus function. 
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I am aware that people have been coming up with clever ideas for puzzles for about eighty years now, which means it’s really hard to invent something totally new, so fresh takes on old ideas and loving tributes have a place in the queue too.
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Themeless puzzles are also welcome, as long as they still somehow fit the mission of the site. 
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Crucinova puzzles have titles, so please feel free to suggest one or more titles when you submit. Titles should avoid using words that appear in the grid or clues.
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Grid
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Puzzles do not have to be square or even rectangular, though they do have to be constructed out of squares arranged in a square lattice. Any size or shape of submission will be considered.
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If your innovation is not specifically about block placement and grid design, I will still generally expect that all squares have at least two words passing through them, with no two-letter words and a reasonably small number of three-letter words. Grids should generally have good interconnectivity, with multiple solving pathways into every section, including at least one non-theme fill word, unless the theme covers most or all of the words in the grid.
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Some kind of symmetry will still generally be the default, but symmetry is definitely one of the things that is flexible if you have a good reason. And, in general, I’d like to keep block density within industry norms (unless you have a good reason to diverge, as always.) I often find that placing more blocks than the least possible number leads to better fill and a more pleasurable solve, so no need to always strive for maximum white space.
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Fill
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I join all the other editors I know of in valuing lively fill drawn from the full range of human experience with a minimum of “crosswordese” or “glue.” We all need to use a little glue sometimes, so when you find yourself in that position, please do what you can to push it to the shorter entries. In easy-to-fill areas, I appreciate constructors who take the time to get past the first RSTLNE-heavy options and work to bring up the Scrabble count somewhat. The fewer E’s and S’s along the bottom and right edges, the better.
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Based on my own experience of what I’m willing to send in, I’m a little more open than the industry norm to esoteric longer fill words if solvers can get a “Cool, I didn’t know that!” moment out of them, as well as select widely known abbreviations, the occasional roman numeral, well-known or inferable prefixes and suffixes, and guessable compounds. I don’t care so much for uncommon plurals, oddball verb endings, or other contrived word-forms, or for partial phrases, which should used as sparingly as possible and never be more than 4 or at most 5 letters. In my own construction I try never to use partials consisting of A+[random noun] – ACAT, ABAR, ANOSE, etc., so best to avoid those. Please also avoid vulgarity and slurs, and try to stay away from repeats of the same word in two different phrases (ONE or THE, for example), unless it’s part of the theme. Repeats of UP, IN, and other common 2-letter words are a little more OK. Finally, I do think it is crucial to avoid having two challenging entries cross each other. The more challenging an entry is, the more important it is that every word that crosses it is a solid easy solve.
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Clues
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Clues need to be precise and fair, but beyond that, please feel free to get creative. Linked clues are fine. I appreciate playful and tricky clues, and I’m open to other approaches than the usual, either with regard to single words or whole grids, if you’ve come up with some general cluing innovation you like.
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The difficulty of your clues should complement the grid. That could mean that both are easy, for a fun fast solve, or both hard, for a challenge, but it could also mean easy clues keeping a particularly tricky theme idea within reach of solvers, or hard clues toughening up an easy theme. In any case, the difficulty level should be consistent within each single grid. When we get to the cluing stage, I am likely to suggest a difficulty level to aim for, and if I don’t and you want guidance on that point, please ask.
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As a general rule, clues should avoid using words that appear in the grid.
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Difficulty level
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I believe that unusual and innovative grids do not have to be super-hard to solve, and I specifically intend that Crucinova’s grids should fall within the difficulty range of a week of New York Times puzzles. There are other excellent outlets for the real head-banging grids.
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Submission sequence
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Generally speaking I will want a theme query first. Your initial query should include a brief description of your concept and, if applicable, a complete list of proposed themed answers with draft clues. Once I’ve approved your concept and we’ve settled on solid themers, I’ll ask for a filled grid; and once we’ve completed the fill, we can move on to cluing.
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If you want to send me the whole thing right off, that’s OK too. I’ve made grids myself about which I wanted to say to editors, “It’s simplest if I just show you.” Please just understand that I will still be responding in the order of concept, design, fill, and finally clues, so you might want to be strategic about how many of those steps you’ve completed before hitting the send button.
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All submission-based correspondence must be by email to lisa@crucinova.com. (I, the current non-Lisa editor of Crucinova, am crossing this sentence out just so that no one attempts to do this. Again, as it says at the top of the page: please send your puzzle pitches to me, the current editor here, at quiara@crucinova.com. I make no promises Lisa’s e-mail still works, even.) One concept per email, please, and only one pending puzzle per constructor at a time. I’m a one-human shop, so I need to keep the flow manageable. You can submit again if I’ve declined a submission, you have withdrawn your last submission, or when your last accepted grid has gone live on the site. Grids must not also be on submission anywhere else, and must never have been published anywhere else before, either in print or electronic form. I will do my very best to respond to all queries within a week of receiving them. Grids should be sent as attachments in ccw, puz, or xml format. When you submit, please tell me what constructing program you are using.
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The only exception to the one-grid-at-a-time rule is collaborations, which I encourage. If you are collaborating with one or more other constructors, you can have one jointly-constructed grid in the pipeline in addition to a solo effort. 

New policy as of September, 2021: Because of the volume of submissions from diverse constructors, I will be accepting a maximum of three grids per calendar year per constructor, one of which must be a collaboration. (N.b.: As of 2023 I have relaxed this rule somewhat – I will try my hardest not to *run* more than two solo grids from the same constructor in a single year, but in the interest of building a backlog I have been soliciting work from old reliables to have on the backburner in case I need to swap out a puzzle at the last minute or that sort of thing. If you’re on your third submission in any given calendar year, though, I really would encourage you to find a collaborator or mentee whom you would like to work with; otherwise I reserve the right to say “woah, buddy, that’s enough bylines for now.”)
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Rights and payment
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Crucinova buys all rights to puzzles, including first rights. Payment is made on or shortly after publication by mailed check. There will be a simple constructor’s agreement in which you certify that the work is original and has never been published before. (At least, not published for public consumption before – if you upload your puzzle to a private Crosshare page for playtesting that’s fine.) The rate for all puzzles is based on the number of subscribers at the time your puzzle is accepted. As of this writing (7/8/22) the site has between 300 and 400 subscribers, so until further notice the puzzle payment, regardless of grid size, is $150. (This is still true as of 2023 Q1.) When we reach 400 paying subscribers, the puzzle payment will go to $200, and so on: 500=$250, and at 600 subscribers we’ll top out at a $300 payment. (If your grid is really, really big and we have the budget for it we may throw a little bit of money on top of that.)

New for Crucinova year two, starting July 2022: if you like, you can specify that you want to receive $15 less than your usual fee, and receive the difference in the form of a 50% off annual subscription for yourself or a friend.