Saturday, 3 May 2025

What the editors want

Thanks to Babs Trevitt who sent me the following which she spotted on Twitter. I no longer use that platform, so hadn't seen it.

Obviously these are the requirements for The People's Friend submissions. If you have guidelines from a different publication with different instructions, then you should follow those for that particular publication. Otherwise, I don't think you'll be going wrong by adopting the above for all submissions.

Btw, I don't use Word to write. Before submitting I 'save as' a Word document and that works fine, so don't worry you'll need to buy Word if you don't already have it.

If anyone is concerned / confused about submission guidelines (for any publication) then contact the editor concerned - but feel free to mention it here. If there are queries about a publication where I have a contact, I'll attempt to get an answer.

To any magazine editors who may happen to see this - I'm always happy to post any guidelines / tips / requests / super exciting gossip you may wish the share! Same thing goes for organisers of free to enter writing competitions.

10 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Thanks Patsy and Babs, very useful information.

Sharon at A Quick Read said...

Many thanks Pasty and Babs. I've subbed TPF many stories over the years but never had a yes. I can't grasp their house style.

Marguerite said...

Thank you, Patsy and Babs. TPF is my New Summer's Resolution: I WILL crack it! (Just don't know how!)

Sue McV said...

Thanks Patsy and Babs. Marguerite I'm in exactly the same situation. But it has been a resolution before and still not cracked it. On the subject of guidelines, just to say that Woman's Weekly want single quotation marks for speech.

Bubble said...

crikey. More things to think about! Doing most of that already, but not all... Thanks for passing this on. I haven't quite left twitter, but don't go on there often.

ados123 said...

This was on TPF's twitter account too - if people want to know what to send...
·
May 1
A quick request from Fiction Ed Lucy! She's looking for 3000 word stories! Late summer and feel-good!

Patsy said...

@ Elizabeth – That's what we thought.

@ Sharon – It took me a long time. They definitely have a unique style, but it's not easy to describe.

@ Marguerite – Good luck.

@ Sue – I kept trying and giving up for years. I got there in the end so hopefully you, Marguerite and Sharon will too.

@ Bubble – Yes, more to think about, but it does help when requirements are spelled out.

@ ados123 - Thanks for that. 3000 worders do seem to be what are most often asked for.

Sheelagh said...

All useful info. Only use Twitter myself for TPF Tuesday morning writers get together & occasionally for following Bernie Sanders updates! Trying to write a longer piece of work recently but life keeps throwing me curve balls so I'm taking a little break at moment

Anonymous said...

Sorry about George
HB xx

Sheelagh said...

Thank you so much, HB