Formatting and submissions

Finni · Feb 24, 2009

I've never submitted a poem for publication or a contest before, and I have some questions about it.

There are two contests I am entering and neither of the publications have submission requirements other than putting name, address, etc on a cover letter.

I do not know what font or font size to use, I am only guessing that I should not double space, don't know what to do about margins, and, most of all, I do not know what to do about poems that are more than a page long. I can submit 3 poems, all my poems are more than one page (which is fine with the contest). Should I staple the pages? Number the pages with footers and also put the title in the footer without stapling? What should I do about this?

any help is needed, thanks everyone!

Dichroic · Feb 24, 2009

I don't know much about it either. But I do know about professional formatting; for a professional appearance, I'd suggest a standard font such as Arial or Times New Roman, 10 point type, left justified except where a particular poem needs special formatting, single spacing with a blank line before each new stanza, titles in bold, and the poem title in headers for the subsequent pages of each poem but not on the first page (which would have the title itself. For poems more than two pages long, it would help to include a page number in the footer, either centered or on the lower right.

For a poem I'd probably use bigger margins than on something like a resume, so maybe a full inch (2.5 cm) on all sides or even a little more, depending on your line length.

Don't know about staples, sorry!

Finni · Feb 25, 2009

Thank you for your help Dichroic.

Formatting and submissions

Finni

discipula vitae

Dichroic

that's di-CROW-ick

Finni

discipula vitae