Writers Workshops: Submission Etiquette
Concept
In a workshop, everyone should be working from the same manuscript -- not just the words, but how they appear on the pages. With most manuscripts now submitted via email (because it is mightily efficient), recipients print out their own copies, so manuscripts should be formatted to create consistency.
Etiquette
None of what follows is mandatory. All of it is helpful and polite.
- Identify the author and the work. Assume that any ancillary piece of paper will be lost. On the first page of the manuscript, list all particulars necessary to contacting the author: Name / Full mailing address / Day phone / Evening phone / Fax / Email. Also list the work's title and the author's pen name.
- Identify each page. Use a page header (typically; footers are for page numbers) that identifies Author / Work in some short fashion (e.g. "Smith / Etiquette").
- Embed page numbers. Use a document format that automatically numbers each page and prints the page numbers as a footer. That way, in the roundtable discussion, everyone can find a particular cited page quickly.
- Allow adequate editorial white space. Most critiquers will write comments write on the printed text. Give them ample room to do so: use double spacing or 1 1/2 spacing and suitable margins.
- Avoid exotic fonts. Pick something easy to read (Arial, Times New Roman, Century Schoolbook, Verdana). Use exotic fonts only when you feel they must be included in that format in a published work.
- Minimize exotic diacritical marks. You may love accents aigu, grave, and circumflex, umlauts and tildes ... but remember, read into somebody else's printer, they may come out as indigestible control characters. Let your prose dazzle, not your typography.
- Make sure the file is broadly readable. If you use an exotic word processor, convert the file into something standard (Microsoft Word, Word Perfect, or Rich Text .rtf) that can be read by almost any email recipient.
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Copyright 2002 David Alexander Smith