The Place For My Writers Notes

Original Posting 29 Oct 2009

Writers' Digest, October 2004, pages 26 to 33, has a collection of short "nuggets of wisdom" related to getting published. Maria Schneider is the author of the compilation. Take a deep breath, and here we go:

"Ensure that your manuscript will be read and your talent has a fighting chance by making your manuscript as easy for the editor to read as possible. Pay attention to details. Before printing, make sure your ink or toner cartridge is fresh and choose a paper that will hold up to being passed around from editor to editor." Robin Gee

And you thought I had forgotten. No, simply set aside for the halloween contest postings.

The key here is simple. Make that submission as clean and ready-to-go as possible. Check the guidelines, and make your submission the way it should be. Don't play games with strange fonts, papers, or whatever -- that simply means that the editor or slush reader has a good reason for simply ignoring your work. Make the submission -- the mechanical parts, the paper, printing, and so forth -- as invisible as possible, so that the editor only sees your writing.

Now, admittedly, email submissions and such are gaining ground. But you still need to do it right! Check those guidelines -- if they say rtf, do it rtf. If they say Word, do it that way. Get the font right, the files, everything you can do to make it easy for the editor (aka slush reader) to read your work.

Sounds obvious, doesn't it? And yet, according to every editor or slush reader I've ever talked to or heard from, there are amazing things in the slush pile. Tinted papers, scented submissions, fonts never imagined by humans... and other wonders of the slush. Of course, doing that does make your submission stand out. And gets it rejected quickly.

You want slow rejections. Honest. That means someone read it.