We accept any ms in standard ms format (size 12, Arial/Courier/Times, double spaced, underlining for italics), because they're easy to read. We hate it when people do not format their ms properly and include loads of funky fonts.

For you swots out there who like to do everything perfectly, here's how to be ultra useful to us when you submit:

1. Type ellipses as ' . . . ' (or '[space]dot[space]dot[space]dot[space]')
2. Close em-dashes (remove spaces from either side) and use the longer '—' dash to the shorter '–' or '-' or even '--' or '---' dashes. This can be achieved by typing '[word]--[word]' and then hitting space or return. This will automatically stretch out the em-dash to the right length. Typing it as an open em-dash (with spaces surrounding the dash), you will only get the shorter '–' dash.
3. Use 1.5 spacing.
4. Use Times New Roman. (Many people hate it; we like it.)
5. Do not include headers or footers (including titles or page numbers, because your submission will never be printed off anyway).
6. Start new scenes/chapters without the initial paragraph indent. But then indent paragraphs after this.
7. Include 'Title', 'by' and '[your name]' on three separate lines, at the top, in bold. If you want to be really good, you can also single space these three lines.
8. Use italics instead of underlining. Okay, everybody else tells you not to do this, because underlining is supposed to be more prominent, but we work from the original file you send us and will have to hand change every use of underlining. Therefore, we prefer italics.
9. Do not use bold. Unless it's absolutely necessary (and I can't think of any reason it might be).
10. Send files in .doc or .rtf format. Do not send them in .docx or any other file type. We use OpenOffice, which can open basic Word formats, but not the newer file types.
11. If yours is a concrete poem or a story where the presentation and layout is utterly important to its meaning, then let us know. Otherwise, you can't complain if we typeset it and it ruins your intended meaning . . .
12. Never, ever send e-subs for anything but Polluto and The HyperTEXT Project, unless we say otherwise.