When submitting your entry to contests, you must be very careful to follow the guidelines. In the last few contests The Storyteller has sponsored, so many have failed to meet those guidelines. Because The Storyteller is a teaching magazine, and geared to new writers, we have either sent the entry back so you could fix it right, or we have ignored the lessor offenses.       By ignoring those small offenses, we feel we are not doing our job as a teaching magazine. If we ignore them, you will not learn to submit them correctly to other contests, and therefore, you will be disqualified and your entry fee becomes a donation.       From this point on, anyone not following the guidelines in any contest The Storyteller sponsors will be disqualified. Our requirements are not that hard to understand as we've tried to make them as simple as we possibly can.

The title page is a separate page from your manuscript. The title page should be on top of your manuscript and should include the following: Title of story, name, address, phone number, email (if you have one) and word count.       Your name SHOULD NOT appear anywhere else on your manuscript. The first page of your story should include the title only, followed by the story itself.       Make sure you have included the entry fee and make sure it is postmarked on or before the deadline date. If the deadline says, "deadline: must be postmarked by November 1", you can mail it on November 1st without being disqualified. But if you mail it on November 2nd with the November 2 postmark, then you will be disqualified.       As with all manuscripts sent, contest entries should be double-spaced. Single-spaced with an extra space between paragraphs will be disqualified. Name on manuscript and no title page will be disqualified. Over the alloted word count will be disqualified. No entry fee will be disqualified.       If you want your entry to be read and considered for prize money, then you MUST follow the guidelines to the letter. If you can't do that, then we thank you for your donation.

TITLE PAGE SHOULD LOOK LIKE THIS:   (double space after the title. Name, address, phone number, email should be single-spaced. Double-space then add the word count)       The first page of your manuscript should look like this:       (There should be nothing else on the first page of your entry.)     Second page:      If you are not sure how to do any of this, please feel free to contact us. We'd be happy to help you set it up correctly.   Remember: The above examples only apply to contests. But remember, If you don't follow the guidelines for both contests and regular submissions,  you'll get a nice little rejection letter to add to your growing pile or nothing at all. When I talk to writer's groups, I stress this fact, but still, I get more submissions and contest entries that have not followed the guidelines than I do ones that have. When you submit without following the guidelines, the only thing you accomplish is to tick the editor off and you have enough going against you (competition) without adding that to it. Read the editor's tips and FOLLOW THE GUIDELINES! And remember, you can always email us if you have any questions. storyteller1@hightowercom.com or storytellermag1@yahoo.com             Webmaster: CheyDok Designs