A Word About Submissions
Formatting Guidelines
I’ve decided to institute some formatting guidelines for submissions. This post will be archived for the future and will be included in my submission guidelines on the website. If you haven’t personally been thinking of submitting an essay or story, but you know someone who might be interested in doing so, please pass this along, as well as the content guidelines for submissions.
Originally, I didn’t think I would need formatting guidelines, but after a few submissions, I’ve come to see that I do. Going forward these will make my life easier, and they will streamline the revision process for submitters (by saving time otherwise devoted to reformatting).
Most short fiction magazines require Shunn Manuscript Format. I actually don’t want Shunn Manuscript Format, and I think my guidelines will be simpler and easier for new writers to follow.
Please include your name in the document, ideally in a header or at the top of the first page. No need to include an address or telephone number.
Please do NOT indent your paragraphs. I realize this is the opposite of most publications, however you will note that almost everyone on Substack eschews indentation and that it actually looks more professional this way (my oldest posts have indentation and they look slightly unprofessional on a mobile screen). Many other internet publications also ditch indentation, even though most books and magazines continue to use it. Not indenting your paragraphs in the first place will save you (or me) time in removing them.
You can submit a Word document or you can share a Google Doc with me if you so choose. I need to be able to comment and/or suggest changes in the document. Please don’t submit a PDF or a text file.
Any legible font is fine. Substack will automatically strip out the old font and replace it with our default font.
If you cite sources, you can use any style guide you prefer, but please be consistent. If you cite internet sources, you can include hyperlinks to the source itself, and you don’t need a bibliography so long as the sourcing is correct.
If you wish to include a page break, please do not leave a blank line. Please put something (a series of asterisks, a hyphen, etc.) in the gap.
Please single-space your submissions.
That’s it for now. These should be relatively straightforward to follow. If I discover any issues down the line, I will add to or revise these formatting guidelines.
Cheers,
Ben