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SFReader Forums > Writing > Gripe! > Formatting Guidelines

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Bitter Irony
Grammar Goddess and Spelling Sinner

Date Joined Jun 2007
Total Posts : 81

Posted 7/24/2008 2:36 PM (GMT -4)

...that aren't listed on the website.

Apparently, my awesome psychic powers do not extend towards knowing whether to include indents in the body of my e-mail or not. :-) I suppose from now on I'll just assume "not" and hope I don't get e-mails from the editor asking me to reformat my story "as per the submission guidelines"--even the invisible ones!

From even the greatest of horrors, Irony is seldom absent.

~H.P. Lovecraft, The Shunned House

And here I begin my foray into the dark and deadly waters of e-zine editing...

http://mirrordancefantasy.blogspot.com

crystalwizard
Forum Moderator

Date Joined Nov 2006
Total Posts : 4578

Posted 7/24/2008 3:18 PM (GMT -4)

have you considered emailing the editor in question, saying you have looked at the submission guidelines but can't find the answer to a question you have and then proceed to ask about the missing pieces?

Never meddle in the affairs of a wizard unless you are soggy and hard to light!

Cyberwizard Productions

kaolin fire
Magazine Frontman

Date Joined Apr 2007
Total Posts : 206

Posted 7/24/2008 3:48 PM (GMT -4)

I'll just toss in a generic gripe for specific formatting guidelines. Things should just be plain and legible--especially if they're digital and the editor can change them any which way. No bright colors, no fancy fonts, .... legible. And plain. Not specifically times, or specifically courier, specifically double (or 1.5) spaced, specifically para-indented versus linebreaks between paras.... blah blah whine blah. ;) :)

-kaolin

Greatest Uncommon Denominator Magazine - literary + genre fiction, poetry, art, and articles
(see our submission guidelines)

crystalwizard
Forum Moderator

Date Joined Nov 2006
Total Posts : 4578

Posted 7/24/2008 4:06 PM (GMT -4)

kaolin fire said...
I'll just toss in a generic gripe for specific formatting guidelines. Things should just be plain and legible--especially if they're digital and the editor can change them any which way. No bright colors, no fancy fonts, .... legible. And plain. Not specifically times, or specifically courier, specifically double (or 1.5) spaced, specifically para-indented versus linebreaks between paras.... blah blah whine blah. ;) :)

-kaolin

Having a bad day?

There's a good reason for specifying the font. Otherwise you're going to get people sending you documents that use fonts you don't have installed on your system. And when that happens, you're going to find that the document is read-only for you, so no you can't do anything you want to it. Times New Roman and courier New are fonts installed on every windows system by default and I believe also on Macs.

Courier is a mono-spaced font that's also used for figuring word count if you have a paper submission or you want to be more accurate than Word is.

Double spaced is a hold over from paper submissions because editors need some where to write as they edit.

kaolin fire
Magazine Frontman

Date Joined Apr 2007
Total Posts : 206

Posted 7/24/2008 4:16 PM (GMT -4)

Even if it's a PDF with fonts you don't have, unless the font is saved as an outline, I find it easy enough to edit; if you're worried about fonts you don't have, say "Courier New or Times New Roman or Verdana or Arial". I'd say courier is _differently_ accurate than Word is (counting lines and averaging versus counting actual word-like-things).

But then we ask for submitters to submit "txt, rtf, or doc--not docx or wps", and we get a fair number of docx and wps. Just that the majority of us can't open wps or docx at the moment (I use an updated version of microsoft "word viewer" which I can copypaste out of).

I do understand where these things come from and why they came about. It mostly irks me from an organizational point of view where I have five different copies of a story, for various markets (especially "this header here; or no headers; story labeled on every page or not;" random miscellany that must be good for the workflow, but are largely, I think, hold-overs from print submissions).

Just a pet peeve of mine. :)

Greatest Uncommon Denominator Magazine - literary + genre fiction, poetry, art, and articles
(see our submission guidelines)

kaolin fire
Magazine Frontman

Date Joined Apr 2007
Total Posts : 206

Posted 7/24/2008 4:18 PM (GMT -4)

(hate, admittedly, may be too strong a word. I grumble when I'm doing it, that's about it)

Greatest Uncommon Denominator Magazine - literary + genre fiction, poetry, art, and articles
(see our submission guidelines)

crystalwizard
Forum Moderator

Date Joined Nov 2006
Total Posts : 4578

Posted 7/24/2008 4:52 PM (GMT -4)

kaolin fire said...

But then we ask for submitters to submit "txt, rtf, or doc--not docx or wps", and we get a fair number of docx and wps.

I do too, and I email right back, explain I can't read it and ask for a new version of the file. Then I go on with life and don't worry about it unless I get a new version I can use.

Bitter Irony
Grammar Goddess and Spelling Sinner

Date Joined Jun 2007
Total Posts : 81

Posted 7/24/2008 5:14 PM (GMT -4)

I completely understand the docx problem (though, fortunately for me, I own the 2007 Office and can open docx Mirror Dance submissions).

The issue here is that the editor e-mailed me (twice, but that's another story) asking me to fix the formatting errors. What were these errors? I had indented the first line of each paragraph. The publication's guidelines did not mention indents (for or against) at all!

From even the greatest of horrors, Irony is seldom absent.

~H.P. Lovecraft, The Shunned House

And here I begin my foray into the dark and deadly waters of e-zine editing...

http://mirrordancefantasy.blogspot.com

AlexMoisi
Neophyte

Date Joined Feb 2008
Total Posts : 65

Posted 7/24/2008 10:51 PM (GMT -4)

I remember one instance where I couldn't find anything about multiple submissions on the webzine's page (it seems different people understand different things by multiple submission like just one story or just one story per e-mail or just one story per 2 weeks anyhow)

So I mailed the editor who sent me back an e-mail along the lines of:

"Only amateurs don't read the formatting guidelines. Since you had to ask don't bother sending a second submission."

I portested saying I couldn't find anything in the guidelines and I'm sorry. He mailed me back saying he liked puzzles and his guidelines would reflect that...

for more of me check out
www.dracken.co.nr

crystalwizard
Forum Moderator

Date Joined Nov 2006
Total Posts : 4578

Posted 7/24/2008 10:52 PM (GMT -4)

AlexMoisi said...
I remember one instance where I couldn't find anything about multiple submissions on the webzine's page (it seems different people understand different things by multiple submission like just one story or just one story per e-mail or just one story per 2 weeks anyhow)
So I mailed the editor who sent me back an e-mail along the lines of:

"Only amateurs don't read the formatting guidelines. Since you had to ask don't bother sending a second submission."

I portested saying I couldn't find anything in the guidelines and I'm sorry. He mailed me back saying he liked puzzles and his guidelines would reflect that...

did you write him back and tell him that if he felt the need to put potential authors through a maze so he could get his kicks, you'd spread the word around and see if you could spare other authors the annoyance of bothering with him?

kaolin fire
Magazine Frontman

Date Joined Apr 2007
Total Posts : 206

Posted 7/25/2008 3:18 AM (GMT -4)

crystalwizard said...
did you write him back and tell him that if he felt the need to put potential authors through a maze so he could get his kicks, you'd spread the word around and see if you could spare other authors the annoyance of bothering with him?

Seriously. That sounds like an amateur that needs to be slammed. Guh.

Greatest Uncommon Denominator Magazine - literary + genre fiction, poetry, art, and articles
(see our submission guidelines)

Jaqhama
Adventurer

Date Joined Oct 2007
Total Posts : 391

Posted 7/25/2008 1:21 PM (GMT -4)

So I mailed the editor who sent me back an e-mail along the lines of:

"Only amateurs don't read the formatting guidelines. Since you had to ask don't bother sending a second submission."

I portested saying I couldn't find anything in the guidelines and I'm sorry. He mailed me back saying he liked puzzles and his guidelines would reflect that...

Don't be shy. Post up the tosser's webzine/magazine. yeah

You can read some of my stories here:

Skulkers. Jack be nimble, Jack be quick. RAT's. La Carcajou. Jet Bike Boogie...at www.pulpanddagger.com

Swamp Story. Down South. Florida Haze.Wild Justice...

at www.bikernet.com (Plus many of my motorcycle related articles.)

The Covert OP. Chick Prick...at www.milstory.com

Tim
Stablehand

Date Joined Mar 2008
Total Posts : 31

Posted 7/25/2008 2:10 PM (GMT -4)

So I mailed the editor who sent me back an e-mail along the lines of:

"Only amateurs don't read the formatting guidelines. Since you had to ask don't bother sending a second submission."

I portested saying I couldn't find anything in the guidelines and I'm sorry. He mailed me back saying he liked puzzles and his guidelines would reflect that...

What a moron. You gatta say who this is .... devil

"Dinner at Faneuil Hall" June 2007 Writer's Post Journal

"Making Sand Castles" Oct 2007 Six Sentences website

"Unmoving" Issue #8 December 2007 Twisted Tongue Magazine

fourth coming :

"Intertwining Tales" in the July 2008 issue of Grim Graffiti

"Experimental English" in Demondminds Halloween 2008 issue

Bill Ward
Biblioholic

Date Joined Jul 2006
Total Posts : 1632

Posted 7/25/2008 10:24 PM (GMT -4)

Or at least tell the curious privately . . . I like to know when I'm dealing with a jackass.

billwardwriter.com

HTKuehl
Kaylee is watching you

Date Joined Jun 2007
Total Posts : 524

Posted 7/27/2008 6:57 PM (GMT -4)

Honestly, if the guidelines are not spelled out for me then I don't submit. The last thing I want to deal with is a snippy editor that gets a tude because I can't read their minds. I get enough of that at work, thank you.

Oh Alex, you've got to share!

**~**~Heather~**~**

"Learn to paint pictures with words." ~ Brian Jacques

------------------------

Forthcoming:

"The Final Goodbye." Ruins Metropolis. Hadley Rille Books, June 2008.

"Miscommunication." The Drabbler: SETI Calling, June 1, 2008.

"The Escape." Pen Pricks, July 2008.

"The Death of Zeke." AlienSkin Magazine, Aug/Sept 2008.

"Dalamar's Quest." Flashing Swords, February 2009.

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