Hi! I'm glad you like my story page enough to consider submitting something. These are the submission guidelines for The Short Story Page. Please read and follow them carefully before you submit.

• The Prime Directive -- Please keep it short! I am limited in file space, so I'm a bit picky about what I add to my page. My main rule-of-thumb is that if I don't care for a poem, story, or link, I'm not going to add it. Don't be upset if I don't use your submission -- there are many other web pages out there that have stories on them. I'm sure your story will be a good fit on one of them (or you can start your own story page and make me totally jealous of your success ; )

  And now, if you aren't totally peeved at me, and you're still interested in submitting something, here's the rest of the story:
  
  

• Short Stories Only -- I'd like to limit any stories to a short or medium length size (usually 50-60K maximum size -- most of the stories currently on the page are 25K or less). I'll occasionally add a longer one if I really like it, but that's the exception, not the rule. Of course, if the story is on someone else's server, that's another story.

• Read On-line -- I'm looking for things that can be read on-line. So if your story or poem is so long that it really should be ZIPPED, GZipped, ARCed, etc, you might want to submit to another site.

• Links to Other Servers -- If you know of a story or poem that's already on someone else's web page that might fit well here, let me know. I'll read it, and if I like it I'll get permission from the author and the page owner to link to it.

• Finish It First -- I'm not really interested in unfinished works -- what happens if you don't finish for some reason? And I don't think it's fair to make the readers wait for you to finish.

• Make Sure It's Corrected! -- Your story or poem will be added as you send it. Please make sure you've corrected all your grammar/spelling errors. That's what grammar and spell checkers are for!

The Short Story Page does not pay for any submissions, or for anything appearing on the page. It's not a commercial or for-profit operation. The only thing I'm getting out of this is satisfaction.

If you decide to submit something to me, I will need some additional information in the event your story or poem is added to the page.

• Please tell me how you would like the author's credit to read. Some people use their real names; some people use their internet "handle" or a pen name. I'll use whatever name you'd like (within reason).

• Please let me know if your e-mail address is going to be in service for a while. If you have no e-mail address, please give me an alternate address you can be reached through. From time to time I do check addresses, and an invalid email address is sufficient to put you onto the Missing Authors list.

• Please let me know if you have a preference as far as what category your story should go under. (fiction, fantasy, etc.)

• If you are submitting a story, please send along a 10-25 word teaser about your story. This will be attached to your entry on the index page, and is used to attract potential readers and give them some idea what your story is about.

IMPORTANT -- Make sure you include your e-mail address in any correspondence with me!!! Some people have sent things I'd love to use, but their e-mail software wasn't set-up correctly and didn't provide me with a valid address to reply to!

1. Other Web Site -- If it's on another web site, send me the URL.

2. For My Server -- It it's to be added to my server, send your submission to me via e-mail, either in the body of the message, or as an attachment (I can take MIME files). Please make sure you've provided all the information I need (see the I'll Need More Than Your Submission section). Also, be sure to double check the File Format section -- I hate getting submissions I can't read because I can't open the file! If I use it, I'll format it for the web, put it on the server, and then contact you for any changes or corrections that need to be made.

PLEASE do not send your submission in all upper case letters, unless that's how you intend it to be published.

The preferred formats for attached file submissions are: Text (TXT), Word (DOC), or Rich-Text Format (RTF) documents. Other formats can be tried, but I won't guarantee I can read it.

There are several excellent sites on the web about copyright as related to writing. Some sites I've found helpful are

• 10 Big Myths about copyright explained
• Copyright on the Internet
• The Copyright Website

So, having said all that (and hopefully not coming off like a jackass), I hope you are still interested. I'd certainly like to hear from you. Send your submissions or any questions you might have to me at jhedge@rcn.com.

Thanks again!

Jeanne Hedge

back to the Short Story Page.