Please adhere to the following guidelines when formatting your stories. This makes it easier for us to format them appropriately for the site, ebook, and print. It also saves us time if we do not have to go back through each individual story to fix these ourselves.

• English. LT3 does not require that stories be formatted to American English, British English, Australian English, or any other standard, only that you are consistent in your use throughout your submission.

• Paragraphs. Be sure that there is a space between each paragraph. Do not indent your paragraphs.

• Headers/footers. None. LT3 will format these according to what is appropriate for the book/story.

• Quotation marks. You should format your story using straight quotes (" " or ' '), not curly quotes (“ ” or ‘ ’).

• Emdashes. Emdashes should be formatted accordingly: word—word. Most word processors are programmed to auto-format a double hypen (–) into an appropriate emdash (—). Note that there are no spaces between the emdash and words on either side of it. An emdash should also be used in instances where a sentence is cut off.

• Ellipses. Ellipses should be formatted accordingly: word … word. There should be a space between the word and the ellipsis; there are no spaces between the periods (.) of the ellipsis.

• Spacing after colons. Colons should be followed by two spaces.

General Editing

• Do not use "you." If you are writing your story in the third person point of view, please avoid use of the word you within the narrative body of the text. This does not include dialogue.

  Examples for when such incidences normally occur:

  It was the kind of day when you could drag your chair out to the quad and spend the next several hours dozing in the sun and pretending you were doing your readings for class.

  The bar was warm and cozy, one of those places where you really felt at home, even if no one there knew your name.

• Avoid the use of epithets. If they are found by our editors, your story will be sent back for revisions to remove them.

  An epithet is any adjective or descriptive phrasing that is being used in place of the character being mentioned. It is any instance where you are replacing either the character's name or a pronoun that would reference him with an adjective or phrase (the mage, his lover, the redhead, the operative, the blond, the middle-aged professor, etc). Examples include:

  He slid a look at Jeremy, wondering what the boy found so amusing.

  The blond sat back in his seat, enjoying the view as his lover swam laps in the pool.

  Cozying up to Richard's side, Brad reached a hand into the tall brunette's back pocket, in search of his wallet.

  An epithet may be used in the case of a character who is unknown or has not yet been introduced, or a character whose identity is meant to remain a mystery.

• Avoid use of the phrase soon-to-be-lover.

General Serial Fiction

• Subscription time
• 10% of gross earnings from subscription sales while in serial

• 40% of cover price for all sales through LT3's Ebook Market
• 35% of gross earnings for sales through 3rd party distributors
• Author copies

• 10% of cover price for all sales of print books
• Author copies

• Subscription time
• One-time payment of $125 - $200 (varies according to anthology)
• Author copies of ebook and print

• Subscription time
• 5% of gross earnings from subscription sales while the fairy tale is in serial
• One-time payment of $100
• Author copies of ebook and print anthologies in which they are compiled

Make sure your story is properly formatted according to the Formatting and Editing Guidelines outlined above. If you have any questions about these guidelines—whether they be exceptions or on how to format punctuation within your document (e.g., switching from curly to straight quotes)—do not hesitate to email the editor.

Please make sure your story has been edited; do not submit a first draft. (We do not expect a perfect editing job, and your manuscript, if accepted, will be subjected to LT3's editing process. However, we do not want a rough draft.)

To submit a story to Less Than Three Press, send an email to submissions@lessthanthreepress.com or use the Online Submission Form. Include the following in your email:

• Put SUBMISSIONS in the subject line! Emails without this subject line or sent to another email address (for example, the administrator email address) run the risk of not being seen or read, so please, do not forget this!
• Your real name, pen name (if you use one), and preferred email address.
• The approximate total length of the completed story.
• Whether or not your story is complete.
• A brief summary of the story, not to exceed approximately 200 words in length.
• Attach the complete manuscript in .doc, .docx, or .odt format.

Please note the following:

• Stories should be a minimum of 10,000 words and should not exceed 200,000 words. At present, we are looking primarily for stories in the 35,000—60,000 range, but we will not discount longer works out of hand. Stories that are 10,000—35,000 will be considered for publishing as ebooks only. The only exception is if you are writing for an anthology.
• Please do not send queries, outlines, or proposals for stories that you have not yet written.
• Less Than Three Press will not consider manuscripts currently under submission to another publisher or anonymous writings.
• Please allow 4-6 weeks to hear back regarding your submission.

If you have any questions or concerns, please send them to editor@lessthanthreepress.com.