The Gay Publishing Company

  Our Submission Procedure

While we encourage—and prefer—that all authors

submit their work electronically, we realize that you don't all feel entirely comfortable doing so and we currently have no requirement for submitting one way or the other. Regardless of the manner you chose to submit, however, we do ask that you correspond with us before sending a file or package.

When possible, the earliest correspondence from an author should arrive via e-mail and have a subject line that identifies the e-mail as legitimate correspondence. Doing so will usually prevent the message from being identified as spam and getting routed to a "trash can" or "recycle bin."  In the event that a message is routed into cyber danger, a strong subject line will identify the diverted message as legitimate before it is actually deleted.

If e-mailing is not your thing, feel free to correspond via surface mail or via our online Contact Form.  All contact methods are discussed on our contact page.

If submitting electronically,

submissions will flow more easily between the editors, the reviewers, and the publisher. The use of the Internet to exchange information and e-mail correspondence is preferred and encouraged but not mandated. As discussed above, it is suggested that an e-mail correspondence be established before a submission is blindly sent.

• A piece may be submitted as a part of an e-mail or as an attachment. A reply to the submission e-mail will inform you that the information has been received and was successfully downloaded and entered into the system.



• The document file itself must be saved as
  
  
  • a Microsoft Word .doc file or as
  • a rich text .rtf file or as
  • a text only .txt file.
  Other file formats may not be compatible with the equipment used by The Gay Publishing Company.



• The document should have no formatting applied. The default settings will provide a Times New Roman, Courier New, Ariel, or similar font that is 12 points in size with a left-justified margin. Default margins should measure at least one inch top, bottom, and sides. No headers or footers should be used; that includes no chapter titles, no identification, no page numbers. Paragraphs can be marked with a simple tab or a double line space as long as the use is consistent; letterspaces should not be used under any circumstances.



• When you are ready to submit the electronic copy,
  
  
  • mail a disk copy to  the address on the Contact page  or
  • send the electronic file to  "the Gay Editor at Im Your Editor dot com" 
    (say it out loud if it doesn't make sense) or
  • contact us about the possibility of uploading the file to an ftp site.

If submitting manually,

the piece will have to be transferred or converted to an electronic form before
it can be posted to the Internet or used in the newsletter or magazine, which can cause delays in consideration and processing as well as some fees for transcription and electronic formatting. Nonetheless, if you only have your work in paper form, we'll just have to work with it!  Do not, by the way, try to fax more than a few pages of a manuscript—use the post office or other door-to-door delivery network to send complete hard copies.

• Do not send The Gay Publishing Company the only copy of anything—if it gets lost, we all lose. If you want to be sure that your manuscript was successfully delivered to our office,
  
  
  • arrange for a return receipt or a signature confirmation when you post it or
  • enclose a SAS reply postcard of your own that we will initial and return or
  • enclose a SASE with a note of receipt that we will initial and return.


• The document should have margins of at least one inch at the top, bottom, and sides. Text should be printed with a Times New Roman, Courier New, Ariel, or similar font that is 12 points in size with a left-justified margin. Paragraphs can be indented or separated with a double line space as long as the use is consistent. Lines of running text should be double-spaced.



• Each page should be printed on one side only and should be labelled with the author's name or a short form of the book's title and a page number. Pages should not be "permanently" bound in any manner (binder clips or rubber bands are acceptable).



• Once an electronic file is created, manuscripts will be returned  if  a SASE is included with adequate postage in stamps (not a meter mark); otherwise, the paper will be shredded and recycled.



• Finally, the minimum fee for manual submissions is $45US (to cover the cost of creating an electronic file). An estimate will be furnished and will need to be paid in full prior to the beginning of the transformation process.


• Paper payment may be made by check or money order—payable to  the-freelance-editor—the parent entity of  theGayEditor  and The Gay Publishing Company. Payment should then be mailed to  the address on the Contact page.  If payment is made in this manner, submissions will not be processed until payments have cleared the issuing bank.
• Electronic payments involve no hold times, so submissions begin processing as soon as they are received. Visit  the shopping cart of the-freelance-editor  to make electronic payments. Directions will be furnished with your estimate.


• Send submissions to the address on the Contact page.