Submission Guidelines

A few guidelines for submitting your work to be critiqued.

  1. Up to 10 pages of manuscript per critique session. (This is to ensure that we have time to evaluate everyone’s submission.)
  2. Double spaced. (This gives us room to make comments, and is easier to see when using Track Changes).
  3. Easy to read fonts. Such as, Times New Roman, Veranda, and Ariel. (Nothing fancy that is difficult to read.)
  4. Font size should be at least 12.
  5. Do not have a submission end mid sentence. (It’s okay to go to page 11 to finish a paragraph or sentence.)
  6. Make sure you run the manuscript through Spell Check and Grammar Check on your computer before submitting. Remember, you only have one chance to make a good first impression.
  7. Please do not submit first drafts. Go through your manuscript three or four times before you submit it. (See #6 above)
  8. Please include in the header on each page, your name (pen names are fine—but let us know who you are!), the title of your submission, the page numbers, and the genre.
  9. When you submit your work, please do not re-write it before you receive the critiques back from our members. It is a waste of the members’ time to go through it and then you tell them you’ve already changed it.
  10. You should read your work out loud before you submit it, to make sure it flows smoothly. If you have trouble reading it aloud, members will probably have a problem reading it. Nearly everyone has a smart cellphone these days.  You can get a voice recorder app and record yourself reading it, then listen back to it for clarity.
  11. If your genre is *Adult Only* you may bring something for us to critique, but you will need to leave out the “Adult only” parts. We do allow minors in the group with a legal guardian, so we have to keep everything rated PG 13. After you get to know some of the members, you may ask if anyone is willing to read “the good stuff”, and if they do, you’ll just give those to them privately and they’ll critique it for you, privately.  This also applies to submissions that have graphic violence or other controversial content.  Which is why it is important to include the genre in the header.
  12. We have a Google Drive where we submit our work.  Even when we are able to return to meeting in person, we’ll use this method to prevent people from handling each others papers.  Upload your submission in .doc or .docx format there so others can download and critique it using Track Changes.  Instructions for using Track Changes is in the files section in the Group. You will receive the link to the drive in an email you’ll receive on the day of each meeting.  This link will never change.
  13. Please save your document in .doc or .docx format. Name it “Name of Submission by Your Name”
  14. Please do not upload .PDF files unless you are submitting part of a graphic chap book with artwork in it.
  15. Please do not submit more than one peice of work per week. If everyone submits more than one, people won’t have time to get everything critiqued by the next meeting, and we won’t have time to critique everything.
  16.  Prior to the next meeting, please log into your Pick-up folder and download what has been critiqued, then remove it from your folder. This Google Drive is not a place for you to store your work, it’s only submitting and retrieving our work for critiquing.  Any files left for more than two weeks will be removed.
  17. You do not have to follow the suggestions given in the critiques. However, a good rule of thumb to follow is:
    1. If one person mentions something, think about it.
    2. If two people mention the same thing, consider it.
    3. If three people mention it, investigate it.
    4. You may feel the group is being hard on you, but we’re trying to get your story to be the best it can be before you publish it.
  18.  * NEW Here are a list of videos that show you how to Format your manuscript in Word.

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