The Nuts and Bolts of Submissions

Follow the guidelines of the publication you are submitting to. However, following are some general tips.

Paper

Use white paper - nothing fancy. Some handbooks recommend using bond for letters or recycled paper for environmentally aware publishers. Do so if you have the time and money to purchase and keep separate supplies of paper, but I feel it's what you've written that's important and not what it's written on. 

Type size 

Although writers' handbooks often say use 10 or 12 point type, I prefer 12, as I think 10 is a bit small. Double space, except for your name, address, etc.

Printers

Inkjet or laser printers are best for submissions. However, if dot matrix is all you have and if what you've written is good, it shouldn't make too much difference as to whether your work is accepted or not.

Margins

1" to 1½" is acceptable - automatic with most Word documents.

Collating

Your cover letter should be separate. I use paper clips for the piece I'm sending in, except with book manuscripts, where I submit loose-leaf. If you wish, you can buy special manuscript boxes in which to ship your book to the publisher.

Short stories

Many handbooks advise: "Submit the complete manuscript without a cover letter." There's usually no need to query with a short story, but personally, I still think it's courteous to attach a brief cover letter.

Double space and indent paragraphs 5 spaces. And these days, most publications prefer just one space between sentences.  Print on one side of the paper only.

On the first page, type your name, address and telephone number in single spacing (plus email address if you have one) in the top left hand corner. In the top right hand corner put the approximate number of words (rounded off) and the rights offered (e.g. "First British Serial Rights").  It is usually not necessary to put your copyright symbol.  Do not number the first page.

About a third of the way down the page, type the title of your story (centered), skip a line and type "by" with your name (byline).

Skip four lines (two double spaces) and start typing your story.

On succeeding pages, some handbooks advise that you should type your name and page number (e.g. Knowles-2) in the top left; others say type your surname and a brief indication of the title along with the page number to the far right (Knowles-Soup-2). I think it helps the editor when flipping pages if you do the latter, but it probably doesn't make much difference, as long as it's neat, clean and clear.

Articles

Basically, the same procedures as above. Follow writers' guidelines for individual publications.

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