17 Tips for Stranded Manuscript Submission

1. If you are submitting your manuscript on paper, type the document. Do not submit a hand written version. (Rejected)
   2.Use a single, clear font, 12 point size. The best to use is Courier or Courier New. At the very least, ensure you use a 12 point, serif font. Something like Arial with be Rejected.
   3.Black print on white paper. The only acceptable choice.
   4.When printing out your submission (rather than submitting it electronically), agood quality plain white paper is a must. Print only on one side of each sheet.
   5.Include your name and contact information at the top left of the first page. Put an accurate word count at the top right. Put the title half-way down the page, centered, with "by Your Name" underneath. Start the story beneath that.
   6.If you chosen to write under a pseudonym, put that beneath the title but your real name in the top left of the first page.
   7.Put your name, story title and the page number as a right-justified header on every subsequent page, in the format Name/Title/Page Number. You can also just use a key word from your title and not repeat the whole thing on each page.
   8.Left-justify your paragraphs. Right margins should be "ragged".
   9.Ensure there is at least a 1 inch (2 centimeters) margin top, bottom, and left, right, around your text. This is to allow annotation to be written onto a printed copy.
   10.Use double spacing for all your text.
   11.Don’t insert extra lines between your paragraphs.
   12.Leave the first line in the chapter start out a the left margin.
   13.Indent the first line of each proceeding paragraph by about 1/2 inch (1 centimeter). Usually one (1) tab keystroke,
   14.If you want to indicate a blank line, (Scene Break) place a blank line, then a line with the # character in the middle of it, then another blank line.
   15.Don’t use bold or italic fonts or any other unusual formatting. To emphases a piece of text you should underline it.
   16.Put the word "End" after your text, centered on its own line.
   17.If you are submitting on paper, don’t staple your pages together. Package them up well so that they won’t get damaged and send them off.