What Standard, Standards?

While I am still working publishing fiction and non-fiction here at Myriad Paradigm, I also write my own fiction and submit it elsewhere. I have been doing this a long time, my first published short story was over twenty years ago. Lately I am finding it more and more frustrating. One of the things that is really getting to me is the constant response from short story publishers to make sure stories are in "standard format". These publishers conveniently provide links to places that tell you "the standard". Funny thing though, not everyone of these are the same, all similar, but not the same. So "the standard" is not standardized. And then there are those want you manuscript in "the standard format" but with exceptions. Most standards say to underline anything you want italicized but others say to just make it italicized. This one actually makes sense to me, as the standard to underline was set back before computers or word processors when typewriters had no italics function. But others still insist that your submission, that must be electronically sent through a computer, must still be underlined for italics like you typed it on a 1959 Smith Corona.

Besides that there are plenty that want all submissions anonymous, so all the required "standard formatting" of name, address, email, and last name on every page must be removed before sending. And how about the fact that almost every "standard" set of instructions says to use Courier or Times New Roman fonts, yet many of the publisher then say, in other places on their sites, to only use Courier, or only use Times New Roman. If that is the case, why send us to "The Standard" that says different? I'm starting to feel some of these people no longer really care about how good the story is, but how easy it is for them to get it out and make some money. While money would be nice, I don't write for the money, I don't publish for the money. So far I have lost money every year I have been publishing. While I agree it is nice to have submissions that are easy to read, and there have been a few that were so hard to correct I did not read them, I will not throw out a story just because the format is not perfect to some arbitrary standard.

I read over 700 stories to publish the two Mind Candy anthologies, and many came in less than perfect format. I cannot tell you if any of the stories that are in the books came with strange formats, because as long as a story wasn't too hard to correct, I just changed them to what I like, re-saved them, and moved on. I believe that is part of the job of a publisher/editor, not to be format standard nazi. I look for the best story, and that is what is most important to me. I feel some of the bigger names in publishing have forgotten that. And even if they haven't, and they are just trying to make it easier on them and there slush pile readers, maybe they should coordinate a standard that is actually standardized.