Many submissions get rejected simply because the formatting is incorrect. Here are the Do’s and Don’ts of formatting your submission for Dragon Soul Press.

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Do’s

Spacing

• To add the nice visual space between your paragraphs, you can use this formatting tool pictured below in Microsoft Word (or via Google Docs).
  • This formatting is not necessary. You can hit the enter/return button once and start the next paragraph with no spacing. When left-aligned, it will seem like a block of text to you, but our submission and formatting teams are used to processing submission files this way too.

Dialogue

• All dialogue should have double quotation marks, never singular (“Always use double quotations for dialogue,“ DSP pleads.).
  • If telepathy or internal dialogue is in your story, format it with Italics. This is common practice across all publishing companies. Use dialogue tags (s/he thought, s/he spoke in their mind, etc) to immediately inform the reader of what you’re portraying.

Social Media Link(s)

• Always include a social media link.
  • We aren’t checking to see if you blast the anthology, we don’t care how many followers you have, we don’t watch how often you post, and we don’t check to see if you’ve been published before. We need a link for the readers who enjoy your work so they can find you and your past/future work.
    • Hate a certain social media website? That’s fine. Pick one you prefer, create a profile, and give us the link.
  • Pro Tip 1: If you have multiple social media links, you can use websites like LinkTree to connect them all under a single link for free. This way, followers can choose which social media they want to follow you on.
  • Pro Tip 2: If you are juggling multiple social media profiles, you can use websites like Metricool and Socialync for free to cross post the same content. These have paid versions too, but after investigating, these two offer the best free plan options.
• Social media links should not be Facebook.com/profile49483489413934184318 or Amazon.com/profile/AU8347jl3829. From the paperback version, no one is going to take the time to type all of that to hunt you down.
  • You can use websites like TinyURL.com to create a personalized link for free.
  • You can also ask Google how to change your social media platform settings to create a custom link for your profile that’s always readily at your fingertips.
  • On Amazon, they provide the link for you on the Author Central home page. Most of the time, you can use amazon.com/author/firstandlastname to find your profile. Ex: amazon.com/author/jefeldman

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Don’ts

New Paragraphs

• Do not hit enter twice when making a new paragraph. This creates an invisible space between the paragraphs and every single one has to be removed manually by the formatter.
  • Also do not start a new paragraph and hit the space bar multiple times. This also creates invisible space that has to be removed.

Google Doc Link

• Do not submit a Google Doc link to your submission file. Attach the file directly to your email.

Empty Email Body

• Do not send us an “empty” email. An email that does not include the minimum of your story summary, submission word count, social media link, and author biography is considered an empty email.
  • Exception: A few authors have begun including all of the information on our short story submission guidelines in a separate Microsoft Word document attached to the same email with their submission file. They still include a small introduction in the body of their email. This works too (drabble and poetry anthologies included).

Scene Break(s)

• Do not get fancy with your scene breaks. That’s our job. Please use three ### to signal all scene breaks. This ensures that no scene breaks are missed during the formatting process.

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Bonus: Saving Time

Story Summary

• You don’t need to include a lengthy summary of events within your short story. An elevator pitch (one to five sentences max) is acceptable. Those that do this, we appreciate it, but it’s extra work for you. Save yourself the time and stress.
  • Make sure to mention how the story matches the anthology’s theme that you are submitting to within the summary. (Ex. If vampires are the theme, mention vampires in your story summary.)

Drabbles or Poems in One File

• You can include all of your drabbles and poems within a single Microsoft Word document to save yourself time.
  • Make sure each drabble/poem begins on a new page with a clear title heading.

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Ask Questions

When in doubt, contact the DSP team via the Contact Form or dspquestions@gmail.com.