Mary Rosenblum  has published four SF novels, four mysteries, as Mary Freeman,  and more than 60 short stories in multiple genres, as well as nonfiction. She also teaches writing, and has for many years.   

 

Submission 101

by Mary Rosenblum

It’s time. You’ve polished your words until they shine, there’s not a weak syllable in the entire piece. You’ve chosen your market and you just know that the editor will live this! Time to send it off! You call up the file and…

…and just how do you do this?

Does the page number go in the upper right hand corner of the page or on the left? And you want to use a pen name… How do you handle that? It’s important to present a professional looking manuscript, right?  What about that italic/underline thing?  You don’t want to come across as a rank amateur. But exactly what constitutes a ‘professional manuscript’?

Look Like a Pro

Manuscripts do need to be formatted according to certain rules, but a minor variation in how you number your pages, which side of the page your header goes on, or your choice of font won’t cost you a sale…as long as the editor can easily read your prose.  The reasons to format professionally are two fold. First, your editor reads a dozen or more articles or stories every day. A clear, readable page is a must. Secondly, hundreds of manuscripts arrive in the publisher’s mail room weekly. In most houses, a First Reader sorts through these, setting aside the professional writers for the editor to deal with and quickly skimming the unpublished writers’ submissions. Promising manuscripts from this pile join the ‘pro pile’, bound for the editor’s desk.

Our First Reader has a stack of fifty manuscripts on his desk to skim before lunch. If he picks up a manuscript that is single spaced, uses a curly and hard-toread font, and is without page numbers, he is going to realize that this writer is not only an amateur, but that author didn’t bother to do any homework and learn how to format his manuscript properly.

Well, that author probably didn’t bother to learn how to write, either, and there are forty-nine more manuscripts to read and they are formatted properly!  First Reader reaches for the pile of rejection slips…

So let’s look at the basic rules:

Rule Number One:  READ the writers guidelines from the publisher!!!  If those guidelines tell you to use purple crayon on yellow construction paper, DO it.  J Those guidelines are available in market lists such as Long Ridge’s Best of the Magazine Markets, or often are online, at the publisher’s website.  Read them.  Follow them.  Many Ezines have very specific requirements for submission that do not the traditional submission standard described below.  If you can find no guidelines, the following list is the industry standard.

 

Publishing Standard Format

1. Use a clear readable font such as Courier or Times New Roman. Use 12 point type, yes it takes up more space than 10 point, but it’s easier to read.
2. Double space. Always. No excuses!
3. Use 1 inch margins all around. The editor will make notes to the typesetter in those margins.
4. NO italic, boldface, or fancy fonts! Underline to indicate italic. If you wish to set off a large block of text in italic or other style, write [set off] in the left margin at the beginning and [end set off] at the end. That will tell the editor that the text should appear in a different form. The editor will decide what style to use.
5. Use a skipped line and centered * or # or multiples to denote a scene change or break. Do not leave blank lines between paragraphs unless there is a scene change!
6. Number each page in the upper right hand or  left hand corner. Use a header that includes last name/title keyword/page number, all in lower case: smith/rosebud/35
7. On your first page, in the upper left hand corner, type your real name, even if you are using a pen name (this is the name that goes on the check!), mailing address, and if you wish – email address and phone number. (These last two are not necessary). Do NOT type your social security number on the ms. You don’t know who will read it, and it is the key to your identity! In this day and age of identity theft, it is no longer a quick and easy ID.  Your copyright is automatic and needs no symbols or ID numbers to represent it!
8. In the upper right corner of your first page, type the word count, rounded off to the nearest hundred for a short story and nearest thousand for a novel. Don’t worry. Your editor has his own method for determining word count. But round UP since you’re getting paid by the word. J  Or round DOWN if you’re a bit over the maximum word count. 
9. One third of the way down the page, type in your title. Use regular font and do not use all caps, but instead, capitalize all words except for a, an. No italic, no fancy fonts! No kidding! Beneath that, you type by and the name you wish to appear on the published work…your own or that pen name. Skip a line, indent and…begin your story or article.

You can set up a template on your PC so that every story or article you write is automatically formatted. Read Gary Kearny’s excellent articles on PC basics: Make Your PC Work For You http://www.longridgewritersgroup.com/rx/st03/make_your_pc_work_for_you.shtml and his excellent, complete with illustrations, PC Basics for Writers: http://www.longridgewritersgroup.com/rx/st01/pcbasics.shtml .

 

Pack It Up and Send It Out!

Once you have printed out your article or story, read it through one last time. A spell checker does not catch misspellings that unintentionally spell out actual words. The sere lake is not the same as the serene lake or the seen lake, but your spell checker won’t warn you that you have the wrong word here! It is perfectly fine to make final corrections in ink on the page. Don’t use pencil. It smudges.  If you have more than two corrections on a page, fix them on the computer and reprint that page.  

Type a brief cover letter to the editor.  If you are resubmitting a requested revision or sending a complete article after the editor responded to your query letter, make that clear to the flunky who opens the mail:  Here is the article, Your First Fishtank that you requested. I added the sidebar you asked for and you’ll see that it came in just short of your limit of 1000 words. I hope it meets your approval. Do let me know if you’d like me to make any changes. If you’re submitting an unsolicited story, your letter is brief and to the point: Enclosed, please find my story ‘First Blood’. I love Hitchcock’s Magazine, and I think my story fits it. I hope you enjoy the story, and thank you very much for your time and attention. Editors are busy people. Let the story speak for itself.

All submissions must be accompanied by a SASE, Self Addressed Stamped Envelope. Any that lack this feature end up in the recycle bin. Period. No read, no exceptions. You can either include a manila envelope large enough to fit the entire ms with enough postage affixed to it so that it will return to you, or you can send in a disposable manuscript. In this age of printers, there is nothing wrong with telling the editor in the cover letter than she can dispose of the ms if unwanted. Be sure to write 'disposable ms’ on the first page  of your manuscript in ink.  If you do this, you must include a self addressed stamped business sized envelope for the acceptance letter or the rejection slip.  But for that, you only need a first class stamp. 

You’re all set, now! Paper clip the cover letter and SASE to your manuscript, slip it into an envelope large enough to fit the entire stack and head for the Post Office!  No staples!  Never staple your work.  Don’t bind it into a pretty folder complete with illustrations.  Don’t use a ring binger.  No fancy plastic ‘report’ cover.  Just pages, paper clip, letter…that’s it.  Congratulation, you are now a professional writer!

Reply Card Insurance

Response time being what it is, paranoia is easy to come by! Did my story arrive at the publisher? Did it get shredded by PO machinery? Should I query? Should I wait?

If you want to be certain that your manuscript actually arrived at the mail room, you can include a reply card. Write ‘please mail this’ on a stamped, self addressed post card, and add the name of the magazine and the name of the piece you are submitting. Paperclip it to the manuscript. The mail room will drop it into the mail when they open the envelope.  Now this does mark you as an amateur.  Pros don’t do this.  But if you’re going to get ulcers worrying about the manuscript, do it.  You won’t get rejected for being an amateur.  You’ll get rejected for being an amateur that submitted something the editor didn’t want to buy.  J

That’s all there is to it! A professional presentation won’t actually sell your story, but it will certainly help you get past that First Reader and the editor will pay attention to you.