Scott H. Andrews
02-16-2009, 09:47 AM
A great LJ post by Nayad Monroe, who reads slush for Clarkesworld Magazine (http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/), on subtle things that make your short story submission look less professional (http://nayad.livejournal.com/266800.html).
I agree with all her points, including Standard Manuscript Format (http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html). The BCS Submission Guidelines state that we prefer Standard Manuscript Format, but even still, about a quarter of the submissions I receive are not anywhere close to that format. If you don't use something close to that, your story automatically looks less professional before I've read the first word. Why risk that when it's so easy to avoid?
So I recommended that all submitting short fiction writers take a look at her post. The submissions game (as I know from my own experience) is hard enough as it is--might as well give yourself every possible advantage.
I agree with all her points, including Standard Manuscript Format (http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html). The BCS Submission Guidelines state that we prefer Standard Manuscript Format, but even still, about a quarter of the submissions I receive are not anywhere close to that format. If you don't use something close to that, your story automatically looks less professional before I've read the first word. Why risk that when it's so easy to avoid?
So I recommended that all submitting short fiction writers take a look at her post. The submissions game (as I know from my own experience) is hard enough as it is--might as well give yourself every possible advantage.