Editors: Prefered Submission Guidelines? Help?

[3113]

I submitted these questions in the "contact us" area, but I thought perhaps others would like to know the answers as well. I hope you editors will help me out here. The FAQ's really do not cover what YOU guys want in submissions (or if they do, I missed them completely!). Can you help us out? For example:

1) Perfered Format on documents: Do you have a particular font and font size you like? How about spacing? Double or single? How about paragraphing? Do we just indent new paragraphs of do you want us to skip lines between paragraphs? Is Microsoft Word preferable--and is there any problem/difference if we're using Word for Mac as compared to Windows?

2) Italics, etc.: The guide lines say to "post a message above" the story indicating that there is special stuff in it like bold or italics. How do we separate this message from the story? And does this mean that we just tell you "don't unformat it!" That is, that we put in our own bolds, underlines and italics and you won't touch them? Just trying to clarify that.

3) If I'm writing a story, and it seems to me to be getting a little long...how do I know when I ought to put it in to two parts or more? Longer stories here on Literotica have "sections" or pages--numbers on the bottoms that allow the reader to continue reading (1, 2, 3....) but surely, there's a point where the writer should just create a new chapter as it were. How many words are a good number for a "chapter"--that is, after that number of words, the writer should start a "part 2" to the story?

I'm particularly interested in this question because a seemingly lengthy, doubled paged story might be no big deal compressed and single-spaced as stories are here on literotica. So it's hard to tell exactly how long, here on Literortica, a story might run.

4) Some writers have emphasized their copywrite over a story (italicized at the top): is this a good idea? Or is it a redundancy?

If you can think of anything else to add, please do. I figure that correct spelling and punctuation go without saying (and are certainly discussed in the FAQ)--but anything else to make your job easier would be nice to know. You shouldn't have to do more than read and enjoy.

 

[LadyCibelle]

I submitted these questions in the "contact us" area, but I thought perhaps others would like to know the answers as well. I hope you editors will help me out here. The FAQ's really do not cover what YOU guys want in submissions (or if they do, I missed them completely!). Can you help us out? For example:

1) Perfered Format on documents: Do you have a particular font and font size you like? How about spacing? Double or single? How about paragraphing? Do we just indent new paragraphs of do you want us to skip lines between paragraphs? Is Microsoft Word preferable--and is there any problem/difference if we're using Word for Mac as compared to Windows?

Can't answer for everyone as we all have our preference and they differ greatly but I can tell you from all the stories I've edited that most writers use either Arial or TNR, Single space. No indent for paragraphs as Literotica don't use them. Microsoft Word seems to be the norm but I've seen some writers use WordPerfect also.

2) Italics, etc.: The guide lines say to "post a message above" the story indicating that there is special stuff in it like bold or italics. How do we separate this message from the story? And does this mean that we just tell you "don't unformat it!" That is, that we put in our own bolds, underlines and italics and you won't touch them? Just trying to clarify that.

You can put italics and/or bold in your story, it doesn't change a single thing for the editor if you do. One thing though, IF you want to keep your formatting it's better to enclose those parts within their HTML tags < b > < /b > gives bold as long as you omit the spaces I've put there. Change the "b" for an "I" and you then have italics. And also submit your story by copy/pasting in the submission box instead uploading it.

3) If I'm writing a story, and it seems to me to be getting a little long...how do I know when I ought to put it in to two parts or more? Longer stories here on Literotica have "sections" or pages--numbers on the bottoms that allow the reader to continue reading (1, 2, 3....) but surely, there's a point where the writer should just create a new chapter as it were. How many words are a good number for a "chapter"--that is, after that number of words, the writer should start a "part 2" to the story?

10 Word pages. give or take a few words, are 1 Lit page. A chapter has nothing to do with the number of pages you've written IMHO but more with a natural break in your story...eg..introduction of a new character, change of scene etc....

I'm particularly interested in this question because a seemingly lengthy, doubled paged story might be no big deal compressed and single-spaced as stories are here on literotica. So it's hard to tell exactly how long, here on Literortica, a story might run.

4) Some writers have emphasized their copywrite over a story (italicized at the top): is this a good idea? Or is it a redundancy?

It's a personal choice and doesn't imply that you give up your copyright if you don't put it there.

If you can think of anything else to add, please do. I figure that correct spelling and punctuation go without saying (and are certainly discussed in the FAQ)--but anything else to make your job easier would be nice to know. You shouldn't have to do more than read and enjoy.

You really think that editing is simply reading a story and that's it??

 

[Guest]

 

[3113]

You really think that editing is simply reading a story and that's it??

I would never think such a thing! I know too many editors and how hard and thankless are their jobs--and how very valuable they are to making any piece of literature a success. A good editor is worth his/her weight in gold. I was just trying to imply that, in the best of all possible worlds, the writer won't make stupid mistakes (or a lot less of them thanks to this advice you've given us) so that you don't have to do extra work and can enjoy the story better.

 

[LadyCibelle]

I would never think such a thing! I know too many editors and how hard and thankless are their jobs--and how very valuable they are to making any piece of literature a success. A good editor is worth his/her weight in gold. I was just trying to imply that, in the best of all possible worlds, the writer won't make stupid mistakes (or a lot less of them thanks to this advice you've given us) so that you don't have to do extra work and can enjoy the story better.

You're forgiven