Stoke-on-Writing Submission Guidelines

At it's last meeting, the group adopted a set of guidelines for submissions. The purpose of these is to ensure that group members are submitting work to a standard that publishers would expect. The guidelines are those specified as the standard professional layouts for prose and poetry and apply to all group members when submitting pieces of writing.

Prose Writing

The following criteria are those specified as the standard professional layouts for prose writing:

· Text should be double line spaced

· Margins of at least 3cm at either side of the page should be used

· A 12 point standard font (Times New Roman, New Courier, Arial) should be adopted

· The first line of every paragraph should be indented, with the exception of the first line in each chapter or section

· There should usually be no space between paragraphs. A line space between paragraphs indicates a section break – a change of scene, or viewpoint or to indicate that some time has passed

· Asterisks can be used to draw attention to a section break that falls at the end of a page, that otherwise might be missed by the reader

· Dialogue – each person’s speech should begin a new paragraph (indented). Single quotation marks should be used for speech and quoted words within the text. Double quotation marks should only be used when they occur within another pair e.g.

‘I can’t explain it,’ he said. ‘It’s a complete mystery.

‘He couldn’t explain it,’ William said. ‘Just that it was a “complete mystery” to him.’

This is the modern standard for writing dialogue, which is widely specified by today’s publishers and editors.

· Alternatively, if preferred, the more traditional approach of using double quotation marks can be used instead for speech. In this instance further quoted words within the text should be enclosed using single quotation marks i.e.

“I can’t explain it,” he said. “It’s a complete mystery.”

“He couldn’t explain it,” William said. “Just that it was a ‘complete mystery’ to him.”

Poetry

· Stanza breaks and the gap between the title and the first line of the poem should be indicated by an extra line space, otherwise, poems should be single-spaced within stanzas

· Margins should be positioned to the left of the page (poems should not be centred). This requirement does not prevent the writer from indenting lines as part of the poem

· The title of the poem should be in bold type

The Write On Anthology

Today I received confirmation that the deadline to this anthology has been extended to 9 January 2010. This anthology is only open to all participants of Stoke-on-Trent's Write On workshops held over the past 18 months.

Submission guidelines: Max 1200 words prose or a 40 line poem. Or a combination, such as 600 words of prose and a 20 line poem.

Send your submissions on disc (save in 'doc' file format) and paper to:

Write On Anthology / Emma George
City Central Library
Bethesda Street
Hanley
Stoke-on-Trent ST1 3RS

Crimewave: submission guidelines

From their website:

We are always open to submissions of new modern crime and mystery short stories of up to about 10,000 words in length. Follow these simple guidelines:

• Send your manuscript mailed flat or folded no more than once, in standard manuscript format — typed (not handwritten!), double spaced, good margins all round, printed in black ink on one side of white paper, numbered pages, keyword from story title and author's name on each page — with a covering letter and adequate return postage (ie a stamped, self-addressed envelope).
• Please include a covering letter but don't worry too much about it, just introduce yourself and list any relevant credits, things like that. If you've never been published before tell us this too — we've published many debut stories over the years.
• Use a paper clip to hold pages together, not staples or any kind of binder. There is no need to place your manuscript inside a folder. An ordinary paper envelope is sufficient, don't use bulky padded envelopes.

There are more guidelines. To read these go here.

Pegasus flies high

The Pegasus Publications catalogue includes both fiction and non-fiction. If you want to submit anything, first check out their submission guidelines, here.
.