: If magazine submission guidelines say nothing, are they expecting Standard Manuscript Format? A lot of current science-fiction and fantasy magazines have online submission systems, accepting Word

@Cody1607638

Posted in: #Magazines #SubmittingWork

A lot of current science-fiction and fantasy magazines have online submission systems, accepting Word documents. And where I remember, way-back-when, submission guidelines noting that (printed) manuscripts should follow Standard Manuscript Format, I'm now seeing a bunch of magazines that do not mention that.

One particularly confusing example is that Clarkesworld magazine's guidelines call for standard format, but guidelines to submit for an anthology by the same editor, using the same submission system, do not.

Is Standard Manuscript Format obsolete? Or is it so ubiquitous it doesn't even need to be mentioned?

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@Caterina108

@Caterina108

No, but yes

There are a few things that you can do that will improve your chances. Since the editor (most likely) sees a lot of them:


Remove all funky formatting like headers, columns, tables, and graphics (unless they are crucial to your entry)
Use a simple font like arial, Courier Sans-serif or Times new roman. Not anything fancy.
Line-and-a-half spacing
Remove all double-space (space-space)


Those are good practices I do when there are no guidelines. Unless told otherwise, follow the Standard Manuscript Format...

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