You’ve looked at all your options and decided to go with us, realwarstories.com. First of all, we would like to thank you. We appreciate your business and believe that you will be very satisfied with our service.

Here are some guidelines regarding your submission. All submissions must be mailed to the following address:

Submissions must include a double-spaced hard copy of your book and a copy on disk. The disk should be PC formatted; no Mac disks will be accepted. Your book should be in one large file, not several small ones and it should be saved as either a Microsoft word document (.DOC) or as a rich text format (.RTF) file. We’ll show you how to do that in second.

If you save your book as a Microsoft word document (.DOC) you should not add any formatting to the text. The reason we ask you not to format your book is that some types of formatting can cause problems when trying to get your book ready for download. For example, if you’ve used columns, they may inhibit the layout of the text when we try to handle your book. This is also true if you format your name and the title of the book to appear at the head of each page. Remember, keep it simple. If you would like to emphasize a word or phrase, italicize it instead of underlining it. Use end notes instead of footnotes, or better yet, put all of your notes at the end of the book. If you are sending pictures or graphics, those should be saved in one file/folder on your disk separate from the file containing your book. You may also send actual photos, however, please make sure all photos are no larger than 8 X 10 and that they are clearly labeled with your name and address on them. We cannot be responsible for lost photos if you do not put your name on them.

In addition, on your story disk, you should include a brief autobiography, that we can use on the web site to tell other people something about you. A picture of yourself would be a nice as well.

The last guidelines we have are simple – we cannot accept manuscripts in foreign languages, and we will not accept pornography, hate literature or scatological/nonsense prose. We appreciate everyone helping us out with these guidelines and remember, if you’re unsure about something, you can always call or e-mail us your question. Following these guidelines will make publishing your book a much smoother process.

Now let’s talk a little bit about saving your story. You’ve written your story; you’ve printed out a hard copy and you’ve saved your book on your hard drive. Now, you want to save it again on two separate disks – a backup disk and a submission disk. The backup disk is for you in case your computer meets with some unforeseen disaster. The submission disk is for us to go along with the hard copy of your book.

You will save your story as a Microsoft word document (.DOC) or as a rich text format (.RTF) file. These are the only two types of document files we can accept. For this demonstration, let’s say you want to save your story to your submission disk as a .RTF file.

1 – go to the „File“ menu – from the drop down menu (Click here to see instructions)

2 – highlight and left click on „Save as“ – a window should appear. Let’s work from bottom to top and click on

A) „save as type“ – click the arrow on the right hand side of the box and then scroll down until you find Rich Text Format (.RTF). Highlight and left click to choose this line. Now move up to the next dialog box,

B) „file name“ – if you want to use the same name on this file that you did on your hard drive, no problem, or if you want to use a different name or add the word „copy“ to this name, that’s fine, too. This is where you do that. Click on the white space and type whatever you’ve decided to call this version of your story. Now, move up again, don’t hit save, and find

C) „save in“ – this pull down box is the box you’ll use to save to your disk. Notice when you click on the arrow on the right, a whole list of places in your computer comes up. You are looking for „3 ½ floppy (A:)“ or if you are using a zip disk, „removable disk (D:)“. Highlight and left click whichever of these you are saving to and now you’re ready to hit save. Good job! Your story has just been saved to your submission disk.

Remember, your story is still on your hard drive as well. You’ve simply created a copy of your story on disk. The only variation between the two might be the format.

Now save it again as a backup for yourself. In this case, you will most likely save it in the format you wrote, i.e., a word document (.DOC).

Save your story to your submission disk only after you have finished writing/editing and are ready to send your story to us. If you continue to edit and rearrange the story on your hard drive after you’ve saved a copy to your submission disk realwarstories.com won’t get the correct version of the story you want to publish.

How to send us your files (hard copy and electronic)
Mailing submissions and corrections – please use a service that uses a tracking number or return receipt. The United States Postal Service offers a return receipt for an extra 35 cents. That’s a small price to pay for some extra peace of mind. If you are sending a manuscript from overseas, please use a shipper that can deliver to a P.O. Box. If this is impossible, please e-mail or call us for other arrangements. -Top-

Editing
When you receive your manuscript back, you may see some weird squiggles on your pages. What do these marks mean? More than likely, they are editing marks.

We prefer a straightforward editing style at realwarstories.com. A single line through a letter or word means delete the letter or word. An „s“ shape means invert the two. A circle around punctuation means change punctuation. A backward looking P means „new paragraph.“ It’s pretty easy.

Editing services and prices
Remember that hard copy of your story that you printed out? Here’s where it goes to work. Editing services consists of light and heavy editing as well as the addition of graphics and cover art. Manuscripts which are essentially clean will be corrected at no charge. By clean we mean a script that has a good story line written in clear language with approximately 30 typos throughout.

Light editing – $1.00 per page plus $20.00 mailing
Light editing is correcting spelling, punctuation, and grammar. The story line is intact and persuasive; it just needs some housekeeping.

Heavy editing – $3.00 per page plus $20.00 mailing
Heavy editing consists of sentence structure, rewriting paragraphs, deleting sentences, rearranging, etc., in addition to the spelling, punctuation, and grammar. This is for someone who has a story to tell, but needs some help telling it.

Please note that the number of pages is determined by the total number of double-spaced pages you originally submitted as your hard copy, not simply the pages that need work. This number will be determined at the beginning of the editing process and will not change as the process continues. A submission of 295 pages that needs a light edit, therefore, will cost $295.00.

In either case, light or heavy editing, the process goes something like this. You submit your hard copy and disk to us. We suggest any editing we think would be advisable, for example, the light edit for the 295 page manuscript. If you think this is appropriate, we then take the first pass at your hard copy and make the corrections we think necessary. We then mail the changes to you and let you look them over, make more corrections, if necessary, agree to the ones we’ve made and send the corrections back to us. Realwarstories.com then prepares the manuscript for the web. It’s that simple. -Top-

Ghostwriting
If you have a great story to tell and absolutely no idea how to tell it ghostwriting services are available. This service allows you to work with someone who can write the story for you the way you want it told. The cost for this service will be quoted on an individual basis. -Top-

Graphics – $2.00 each
Graphics are pictures or maps or other kinds of illustrations. We will be happy to scan and imbed your graphics into your story. If sending in actual Photos they can be no larger than 8 X 10. Please be aware that we retain the right to refuse graphics to be judged of poor quality. In the case of you sending us 60 photos and we only use 20, you will only be charged for the 20 used in the manuscript. Please make sure that all graphics you send are copies, or if they are originals, that your name and address are clearly marked on each. We cannot be responsible for lost photographs. If you have the equipment, you may also scan your pictures onto disk and send them to us. If you choose this alternative, please save them as .jpgs at 200 dpi. -Top-

Copyright – $85.00
It is highly recommended that you have a copyright for your work. We will submit all the paperwork and copies necessary and in return your work is protected for your lifetime plus 50 years. You may also choose to do this yourself at considerable savings. -Top-

Royalties
Ha, the good stuff that everybody wants to know. As an author, you will receive 18% of sales of your work as an e-book and 11% of sales of your book in print form. Realwarstories.com will keep records of all sales and provide you with a sales history of your book. Royalties will be paid on a quarterly basis in U. S. dollars.

If you are sending a submission from overseas, please note the following: all prices quoted above are in United States dollars. If you wish to have your story edited, etc., all payment must be made by International Money Order in USD. Please include sufficient funds for shipping and handling. -Top-

How to contact us
For more information or to ask us a question, please e-mail us at intell@realwarstories.com. You may also call us at (314) 291- 7975. We will try to respond in a timely manner, usually within 24 hours. -Top-