IF you want send an article or story to a magazine, first take a look at their website or give them a ring to see if they have any submission guidelines. If not, the below is fairly standard throughout the industry:
- This might seem obvious but use decent paper! There's no need to spend a fortune on thick, top quality paper but don't use flimsy either. The packs of average thickness typing paper you find in all stationer's is fine. Always use size A4.
- Type in double-spacing on one side of the paper only. Don't send in a hand-written manuscript unless you are as well-known as Ernest Hemingway.
- Choose an easy-on-the-eye font like Courier, Arial or Times New Roman.
- Size: 12pt
- Leave a good-sized margin on all four sides of your paper - around one-inch or 3cms.
- Use a cover page on which should be the following information:
Top left: your real name, your address and telephone number.
Top right: the word count.
Half way down and centred: the title of your submission. Underneath that type "by ______”. Here's where you put your pseudonym if you are using one.
Bottom left: the rights you are offering, for example, First British Serial Rights or World Wide Web Reprint Rights. (I will write more about these in a subsequent post if you are unsure what they are). - Include your name and a contact number/email address on every page. You must work on the assumption that an editor will at some point drop your manuscript and may even get it muddled up with someone else’s… which leads us to the next point.
- Number every page.
- Keep the text ragged right.
- At the end, leave two or three lines blank and then type The End.
- Do not staple the pages.
- If you want your manuscript returned, you must include a stamped, addressed envelope.
Then send it off and sit back and wait for the acceptance letter!
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