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Submission Guidelines
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Official EBSFFW Submission Guidelines

  1. You must attend and participate in at least one critique meeting before requesting a submission slot for our Monthly Critique Session. This rule serves two purposes; it ensures participants are familiar with our group and format, and it helps prevent authors from attending only to have their own work critiqued. Everyone involved gives a lot of time to provide this valuable service to you. Don’t be “that guy”.
  2. You must have gone through our critique process at least once before submitting a novelette, novella, or novel-length work for a Longer Work Session. Those require the set up of separate critique sessions, so we want to make sure you’re already familiar with how the group critiques work, and we want our members to have had a chance to see your work before committing to reading a lengthier manuscript. Please head here to read more about our critiques of longer works and how to submit yours - it is a separate process than for our monthly critique sessions.
  3. Submitting authors pay a fee to help defray Meetup and Zoom expenses.
  1. $5.00 fee for short fiction or chapter length work (< 7,000 words)
  2. $10.00 for novelettes (7,000 – 17,500)
  3. $15.00 for novellas (17,500 – 40,000)
  4. $20.00 for novel length work (40,000 – 125,000)
  5. We do not accept manuscripts above 125,000 words for critique at this time.
  1. Payment is collected when the manuscript is submitted.
  2. There are two critique queues. One is the monthly gathering for short works, and one is for longer works (novels/novelettes/novellas) that are scheduled as needed. Preference is given first come, first served for the queues. You are placed in the earliest open spot on the queue once you put in a request. You can always view the queues HERE. You cannot put in a request for either queue until you have attended your first regular session. You may have one slot in either or both of these queues at a time, but within a queue you may only have one slot. When that slot is used you may request another.
  3. Please submit your work in one of the following file formats: .DOC or .DOCX (Word - please use compatibility mode), .RTF (Rich Text File).
  4. We ask that submissions be double-spaced, have 1-inch margins, and be in a 12-point font. Only put a space between paragraphs when changing scenes or chapters. Please use fonts such as Arial, Calibri, Helvetica Neue, or Times New Roman. Do NOT use fixed width fonts such as Courier New. Please include page numbers.
  5.  Please include on a cover page or in the submission: 1) title, 2) author's name, 3) a working email address (members will use this address to email you critiques), 4) word count, and 5) whether it's a short story, an opening to a novel, a continuing chapter in a novel, or some other format (such as an epistolary, script, etc.).
  6. If your work contains material that is disturbing or inflammatory, please consider including a content warning for sensitive readers and trauma survivors as to its presence and the nature of the material. This isn't censorship or judgment, just a courtesy from authors to help reviewers anticipate and buckle up before diving into shark-infested waters. If you choose to place a content warning on your submission, Sisters in Crime has a great primer on how and why to use them, along with a list of common ones.
  7. If the author's goals are other than literary merit and/or the submission is in an unusual format, please lead with a blurb defining what kind of feedback the author would like from the meeting.
  8. Please limit your submissions to about 7,000 words. That's an average chapter or about 20 pages of screenplay.
  9.  If you are submitting an excerpt from a longer work (e.g. Chapter 4 or Book 2, Chapter 1), include a list of Dramatis Personae and a synopsis detailed enough that someone new to the work will have all the information they need.
  10. To submit, please email admin@ebsffw.org to request a slot for our monthly critique sessions. We will give you the deadline to submit your work and let you know at which meeting it will be critiqued. You can expect an automated email with instructions to upload your manuscript a few days before that due date.