[stylist] Further clarification on holiday book submissions

[Kerry Thompson]

An unforeseen question has arisen, which I need to address.

Word count of entries is NOT cumulative. Each fiction entry and each nonfiction entry must be between a minimum of five hundred and a maximum of two thousand words. The word count of any poem or recipe submitted at the same time as any prose entry does not count towards the word count of that prose entry. Thus, a two hundred and fifty word recipe cannot be used to pad the unacceptably low count of a four hundred and fifty word story.

Similarly, each poem submitted for consideration must contain a minimum of five lines. Do not send a haiku (three lines) and a couplet (two lines) and expect this to constitute one poetry entry. Five lines means all in the same poem.

On a different topic: There have been inquiries about acceptable formatting. I should expect anyone in this division to use standard manuscript format, but for the purposes of entries for the holiday anthology, my requirements are not all that stringent. Please include your full name and, if you want it published, your city and state either directly above the title of the piece or directly below it. A statement of word count for each prose entry is very helpful, but not strictly necessary. Clearly identify each entry as Recipe, Poem, Fiction or Nonfiction and tell me which holiday it is intended for.

Use either single spacing or double spacing, but make sure there is one blank line between paragraphs in prose and between stanzas in poetry. Prose should not be right justified.

Paste your entry directly into the body of an e-mail message or send it as an e-mail attachment (.doc, .rtf or .txt file formats), and be sure to tell me in the e-mail message which method you've used.

Kerry