In days of yore, the accepted rule for estimating word count was 250 words per manuscript page. Is that still the case today? If not, how should it be done instead?  read

When it comes to indentation, keeps things as simple and uniform as possible. Don’t take your cues from the way published books look.  read

Set up paragraph styles in your word processor to handle pesky tasks like indentation. Your editor and her staff will thank you for it.  read

A reader writes to ask: I know it’s still acceptable to space twice after periods. However, if there’s a close quote after a period is there actually only one space remaining after the quotation mark before first letter of the...  read

A reader writes to ask: I am currently trying to put together a manuscript of all of my late mother's poetry that she wrote from about 1970 to 2013, when she passed away. I made her a promise that when...  read

A reader writes to ask: I have just one question concerning the "1in from margin" factor: what page size is normally used? 8.5x11? 6x9 ? I see the '1in from margin' statement everywhere but nowhere I've found do they say...  read

A reader writes to ask: I'm finalizing a manuscript and your templates are so helpful. One thing I can't seem to find addressed is the use of quotes - a poem or just a quotation from a person, at the...  read

A reader writes to ask: I enjoyed reading your article about formatting short story submissions, but wondered whether the Name/Title/Page# thing is necessary for electronic submissions. I have a story ready for submission to EQMM. There are essentially two kinds...  read

A reader writes to ask: How should we format a manuscript of multiple poems that each span more than a single page? Do we number our pages starting from 1 whenever we begin a new poem, or should we number...  read

A reader writes to ask: I have three questions about longer poetry manuscripts. In most cases, editors request poetry submissions that contain 3-5 poems, yet nearly every example I can see depicts a submission of a single poem. How, or...  read