You've written your book, researched multiple publishers and decided on where you'd like to submit your work based on your findings.
It’s been noted
recently that many authors who submit their stories for consideration are not
appropriately following the publisher requested guidelines for manuscript submission.
What does this mean for you as a writer?
For your story when you send it in to NNP or any publisher for that matter? What happens when you send the wrong
format or do not fill out the requested information on the cover letter within
the body of the email?
Chances are, it means the acquisitions
editor may never see your story. Yes, it likely gets tossed in the trash.
Why?
Because we have requested these guidelines
be followed for a number of reasons, the first and most important one being to
make our job easier.
We requested your story
sent in .DOC format. Why?
Because any other
format does not retain the formatting required on the submission when it’s
opened for review in our applications. Period.
We request certain
information be included in the body of your email. Why?
Because we need this
information to assist us in making a determination as to whether your story is
of interest to us, who you are with your multi-pseudonyms and how many
manuscripts you currently have open with us, among several other reasons.
We ask that you format
your story with certain fonts, spacing, and other formatting. Why?
Because this saves us
having to wipe out the formatting on your story and redo the entire thing to
fit our typesetting style on the ebook conversion files or settings for print
books. It also makes reading through your submission or editing it, easier.
This reduces the amount of time required to tend to those issues if you've not
followed our request.
What is the risk you
take each time you don’t follow our request?
You may get lucky if
one of our admin is feeling particularly nice the day he comes across your
email, and he may send it back to you noting the concern, what is missing from
the submission, and requesting you resend. However, this can still put your
work farther back in the “FCFS” (First come, first served) queue that we work
on here at NNP. OR, it may get dumped immediately in the trash as the admin
have been instructed to do.
Why have the admin
members been told to send these unsavoury emails to the garbage?
Because when we make a
request for things in a submission, we expect them to be followed. We do not
have time to fix things, make allowances, send emails back and forth between
the admin and the author to get something done correctly from information that
is right there in print on a publicly accessible page.
Because other writers
who are waiting their turn on consideration of their works have followed our
request to the letter and we don’t feel it’s fair to them to continuously
expect them to follow the rules, yet make allowances for others.
Why should these other
writers have to wait while you figure out what you should have done before you
even hit the send button? What makes you think you are so important that you
can forgo the requests NNP has made of EVERYONE who submits their works?
Because a simple thing
like following these instructions can indicate to NNP how well you read,
comprehend information and can relay that into your works. The process can show
us how hard it may be to get you to understand the requested edits on your works.
It shows us how much importance you place on attention to detail, and if you will
reflect that high quality standard in the manuscript you are submitting.
There are so many
factors to our reason for asking writers to follow a few simple guidelines. One
of the most important ones, though, is RESPECT. Respect for your acquisitions
editor. Respect for your fellow writers. Respect for your work and yourself as
an author.
So, the next time you
have a manuscript that you have double checked, triple checked, and gone over
so thoroughly to ensure there are no errors or omissions that the words are
blurring on the page, and you feel you could read your work in your sleep,
STOP. DO NOT HIT SEND. WAIT.
Take the little extra amount of time and review
the submissions guidelines to see if you’ve followed them as we’ve asked. Be
confident that your work will pass the necessary “test” and actually get
reviewed for consideration for publication at NNP. And, once you’ve done that,
THEN, and only then, should you hit that button.
You will find all you need to know at the
bottom of the page under our current submissions calls. Additionally, you will
find any changes to the requests that we may have made since the last time you
looked at our guidelines.
This little bit of extra time you take can
be the difference between an acceptance and you wondering what on earth
happened to your submission. Give your manuscript the respect it deserves.
Follow all requested publisher guidelines.
