We try to prepare you for submitting your work to an editor. This info is based on a document found at http://www.shunn.net/writing/coach/format.html. That document agrees with all previous documents used by NIP but also presents more detail and an example you can see. However, this web page and the statements below are the official NIP format and may be slightly different from the above example. This format is to be used by all NIP members when presenting material for public feedback in a Probe or Roundtable.

One warning: To keep this simple, please assume that if a statement is made, then a variation is not OK.

• 12 point Courier or Courier New.
• Double Spaced.
• Left justification of all story text.
• Margins of 1" or more on all four sides of a page
• Indent the start of each paragraph by 5 spaces.
• First Page:
• Place centered title halfway down the page.
• Place a centered byline one double-spaced line below the title. This name gets the credit.
• Start the text of your story two double lines below the byline.
• Top left:
• Your real name. This name gets the money
• address,
• telephone number
• email address.
• Any professional writing organizations to which you belong.
• Top right:
• Approximate word count rounded off up or down depending on story size.
• 1500 words or less, round to nearest 100 words
• 1500 to 10,000 words, round to nearest 500 words
• 10,000 to 25,000 words, round to nearest 1,000 words
• 25,000 or more, round to 5,000 words.
• All other pages:
• Place a header in top right corner consisting of the following items separated by a forward slash:
• The surname used in your byline,
• One important word from your title,
• Current page number,
• Other issues:
• Use underline where you want italics.
• Don't use bold.
• Don't hyphenate a word unless it is normally hyphenated.
• Use one space after each punctuation used to end a sentence.