Writers Guidelines, Your Ticket to Success
Follow them to the letter and you will get the editors attention in a good way. Here’s how.
Writers Guidelines, What’s in them for you?
You want to get published right? You have this great story idea. All your friends swear it’s a number one best seller.
Publishers are always looking for new writers, right?
Well, they will rave about your new manuscript with its pretty fonts and the perfumed paper it’s a romance after all. Or, is it the one with the fake snake made up to look like your alien creature that you’ve included in the package with your Science Fiction manuscript that will pop out and scare the begeebers out of anyone who opens the envelope. Stop!
Boring details and submission hints.
Why do you suppose they list all those boring details about what they are looking for in a manuscript submission in their guidelines? Oh, but you know that what you have to offer is so good, who cares what they normally publish. This will crank up their sales and their readers numbers for sure…it’s your very best work you’ve ever done in the Science Fiction genre. All your friends raved about it. So will they. Wrong! If the publisher you are aiming for publishes mystery or romance or thriller or anything other than Science Fiction you are wasting both your time and the publisher’s time. They write up guidelines for the same reason cooks use recipes.
Apples and oranges don’t mix.
If you are making an apple pie, you certainly wouldn’t put 2 cups of garlic cloves in it would you? Apple Pie calls for certain ingredients, Apples, cinnamon, sugar maybe allspice, dotted with butter and two pie crusts. Nothing more, nothing less. Magazine and book publishers call for certain ingredients in their submissions. The guidelines are a recipe for a successful submission.
Editors and publishers are over whelmed with submissions. Think of this, 83% of the people in the United States say they have a book they want to write. Some days, you can bet those editors and publishers feel like everyone of those people is sending in a manuscript to every publisher in the writers market book without even bothering to see if they publish the genre the writer is submitting to them.
Careless haphazard submissions = Rejection
Everyday a stack of manuscripts from writers that fail to follow the guidelines provided are dumped on the first reader’s desks at a number of publishers. You know if they have fifty manuscripts, the quicker they can dwindle their stack down, the more per hour they are getting paid. There are at least 250,000 publishers, currently, for authors to choose from. And they all get way more manuscripts than they can possibly publish within their budget, even, if they were all great submissions. Why would they waste time on those that don’t conform to their guidelines?
Get those guidelines first and use them!
Read them. Comb them for all the tips that are included. Finally, send exactly what the guidelines ask for. And make sure it is your best, cleanest, sharpest submission possible. Follow everything to the letter. If they say double space – double space your manuscript, every page of it. If they only want the first five pages, send only the first 5 unless you have a half a paragraph on the 6th page that will end the chapter, then send that too. If they specify New Times Roman font in 12pt type face use that.
Do not put oranges in your apple pie.
Do not submit a genre this publisher does not publish. They will not accept it no matter how great you think it is. They know what they like and will accept, they know what they like and will publish and know what they are looking for. Any reason to deep six as many manuscripts from the slush pile as they can as quickly as they can should not put your manuscript at risk. Don’t give them a simple reason to reject yours. Unless, you are planning on re-wallpapering your bedroom with your rejections, follow the guidelines from the publisher you hope to entice into buying your manuscript.
Success may just be a guideline away.
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Award-Winning Mystery Author Billie A Williams also edits and publishes a newsletter, Mystery Readers and Working Writers, sign up for it here: Join My Newsletter Mailing List
http://www.billiewilliams.com
She is also author of The Mystery of Writing a Mystery–Solved You can find it at the link below.
http://tinyurl.com/4y9djtv
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October 30th, 2011 at 3:42 am
I am with you in following these tips. It certainly does not make any sense submitting a manuscript that the publisher would not have any interest in. Understanding the guidelines first is important to be successful. Thank you for sharing these guidelines.
February 6th, 2012 at 9:01 pm
Great article with a lot of good writing tips. Love the analogy. Guidelines are more than a little important…no editor or publisher will even give you a glance if you don’t follow their guidelines. They are your recipe to success.