iOS app for short story formatting (online submission)

Newdaddy06 · Apr 16, 2015

Hello,

I'm trying to submit short fiction to markets like Asimov's and Analog. They typically call for the submission to be formatted as described here;

http://www.shunn.net/format/story.html

I can match this format exactly, except for one detail. This format calls for a header line for the first page that tells the word count, and in all subsequent pages a header line like this "Story name / Author name / page #".

I can't seem to do this in iOS Pages, nor in Google Docs, Textilus, Daedalus, UX Write, Storyist. I'm ideologically opposed to loading Microsoft Word onto my iPad, specifically because it wants me to get an MS365 account and store all my documents in their cloud.

Can anybody recommend an iPad app that will do this for me? Or a source for an appropriate template for Pages? I would be deeply grateful. I want to feel that Asimov's is rejecting my stories based on their merits and not for some little formatting nit.

Sincerely -

Introversion · Apr 16, 2015

I can't recommend an app you can buy today.

I can say that 1) Scrivener is what I use on my desktop to write and it easily accommodates exporting to formats like that one, and 2) Scrivener's maker claims to be close to finishing a port to iOS.

Of course, they've said that for awhile now. But lately it's started to sound a bit more convincing.

For example, this recent claim that it's in closed Beta now:

http://www.literatureandlatte.com/blog/?p=594

A Quick iOS Update

By KB, posted 11 March 2015
We have a lot of people asking after the iOS version given that I haven’t posted much about it on here recently (although I have been giving incremental updates over on the forums). The lack of updates isn’t intended as a slight against our very valued users; it’s just because we’ve had our heads buried in code and haven’t been coming up much for air.

The good news is that our iOS version is (at last!) feature-complete and is currently in internal beta-testing. We’re in the process of smoothing out the rough edges we find through use and fixing bugs before we make it available to our wider beta-testing group. Having taken so long to get to this stage (we know), we don’t want to fall at the last hurdle and rush beta-testing. After all, the sync code is complex (it was a three-month job in itself) and we want to ensure it’s never going to cause any data-loss in the real world (it is holding up well in testing so far, though). Once it’s out with our wider beta-testing group, I’ll start posting some screenshots and showing off the features. Given past debacles, I’m hesitant to talk about release dates, but we expect a summer release, though whether mid or late summer will depend on what is thrown up during beta-testing, of course.

Newdaddy06 · Apr 16, 2015

Scrivener -

I'd love to buy Scrivener today, absolutely. I have been waiting for Scrivener for iOS to drop for years now. But realistically, if they are in closed Beta now, they are not going to release a production version before 2016 (which I think is what I last heard them acknowledge.) I really believe that if they so much cared, they could have issued a version without the file sync, and made that one feature their first update, once it was ready.

I'm kind of looking for something I can run with today, if that exists for iOS. The alternative is to buy an actual laptop and software to go with it, which is a long way to go for a drink of water. I want to make sure I'm not missing some other obvious option before I take that step.

Introversion · Apr 16, 2015

I agree with your healthy skepticism, but I can say only what they publicly said last month, which is that they're targeting a summer release.

Of course they didn't say what year

but I infer they meant 2015.

Good luck; I hope you do find something else you can buy now.

Newdaddy06 · Apr 16, 2015

Well, here is my solution, in the hope it may
help others as well. I went to the website of Mr. Shunn, whose formatting document everyone refers to. There, he has tarred up and freely available MS Word format files. I pulled those onto a desktop machine at work, made a document using the short story format file, and then emailed that .docx file to my iPad. iOS Pages (part of iWork) cannot make a document with such a format itself, but can read and respect such a file if it is imported to it.

Thewitt · Apr 16, 2015

Newdaddy06 said:
Well, here is my solution, in the hope it may
help others as well. I went to the website of Mr. Shunn, whose formatting document everyone refers to. There, he has tarred up and freely available MS Word format files. I pulled those onto a desktop machine at work, made a document using the short story format file, and then emailed that .docx file to my iPad. iOS Pages (part of iWork) cannot make a document with such a format itself, but can read and respect such a file if it is imported to it.

Glad you sorted it, but I'm surprised that Pages cannot do this by itself if it can import it.

You might try - just as a learning exercise - creating a new document in Pages and recreating what works in the imported document. I've been able to figure out a few things this way that the documentation was unable to set straight for me.

juniper · Apr 27, 2015

Newdaddy06 said:
I'm ideologically opposed to loading Microsoft Word onto my iPad, specifically because it wants me to get an MS365 account and store all my documents in their cloud.

Is that true even with their new *free* version of the Office package? My husband has 365 for his work and I'm one of his 5 users included, so mine's the paid version, but I think others are using the new free one without problems. And storing to iCloud successfully.

Introversion said:
which is that they're targeting a summer release.

Of course they didn't say what year but I infer they meant 2015.

Happy news! Long-awaited. Crossing my fingers.

AW Admin · Apr 27, 2015

Newdaddy06 said:
Well, here is my solution, in the hope it may
help others as well. I went to the website of Mr. Shunn, whose formatting document everyone refers to. There, he has tarred up and freely available MS Word format files. I pulled those onto a desktop machine at work, made a document using the short story format file, and then emailed that .docx file to my iPad. iOS Pages (part of iWork) cannot make a document with such a format itself, but can read and respect such a file if it is imported to it.

Yes it can. Really.

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH3553?locale=en_US

iOS app for short story formatting (online submission)

Newdaddy06

Introversion

Pie aren't squared, pie are round!

Newdaddy06

Introversion

Pie aren't squared, pie are round!

Newdaddy06

Thewitt

juniper

Always curious.

AW Admin