Writing Dos And Don’ts
Fiction Ed, Lucy, runs through some dos and don’ts around submitting fiction to ‘The People’s Friend’.
Submitting
Do – use a pen name, if you prefer.
Don’t – forget to include your real name and your pen name on your submission.
Do – give your narrator a name.
Don’t – forget to let us know if your narrator is male or female, if it’s unclear.
Do – submit by email, either to your assigned editor, for established authors, or to friendfiction.co.uk if you’re not a published ‘Friend’ author.
Don’t – submit by post. We no longer accept postal submissions.
Writing
Do – use a legible font, at least 11pt, with double line spacing please.
Don’t – use formatting, or repeat information such as byline or story title.
Do – follow our guidelines and stick to our word counts.
Don’t – send stories of under 1000, or over 4000, words, unless it’s a Long Read (maximum 8500 words).
Do – include word count on your cover sheet. If your story has a historical setting, please make the date or era clear. A ‘log line’ is helpful – one line which sums up your story.
Don’t – forget to include contact details on each submission – name, address, email and a contact phone number.
Prepping
Do – read the magazine regularly before submitting, to check the tone and content is suitable for our readers.
Don’t – send sci-fi, or anything involving unpleasantness, violence, swearing or intimacy.
Do – remember that as well as being a strong stand-alone story, your story needs to fit into a ‘mix’ of stories in an issue .
Don’t – rewrite a story without being asked. Please check with your assigned editor first. Your editor will be happy to help with writing queries.
Do – remember that we look for stories with contemporary and historical settings.
Don’t – forget that we need six contemporary stories for every one historical, in the weekly.
