Thursday, October 1, 2015

Little Things #2: Submission Guidelines



[Disclaimer that none of these are specific to any one writer I've worked with, and in some cases, are based on my own experiences as a writer having my own work edited.]

Little Things #2: Following Submission Guidelines

Here's the tl:dr right upfront:

1. Follow the Submission Guidelines! They are there for a reason. Not following them can make things harder for the agent or publisher you're submitting to, and the thing is, you want them to want you (like the song). Don't make things harder for them. They will not like you for doing so.

Other points:

2. Some agents and publishers will not even bother to look at the rest of a submission packet if they run into things that don't follow the guidelines. It will be an automatic rejection.

3. Some won't automatically reject, but it puts them on notice, so to speak. You have to work even harder to make a good impression.

4. When the submission guidelines include formatting specifications—saving it as a certain file type, using straight quotes over smart quotes, two spaces after a period or one—following these may seem small now, but could have time-consuming consequences later.

5. Following guidelines tells agents and publishers stuff beyond the quality of the writing: how well you research who you're submitting to, how well you follow direction, how willing you are to make changes (someone who thinks, "My story is great, they'll see that and won't mind that it's a different font, or that I included scene/section breaks in a unique way," probably won't be easy to work with, and rejection is more likely).

To sum up:

Following submission guidelines are an important part of the querying process. It might seem time-consuming, especially if you are submitting to a lot of different places with wildly different guidelines, but for agents and publishers, it can be the first line of defense against manuscripts that could be disorganized, badly written, or incomplete, as well as writers who are hard to work with.

Last thought:

Just as it's the publishers' and agents' first line of defense, it's also your first impression. Following submission guidelines shows that you are professional, attentive to detail, and serious about getting published.

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