When we return, via email, a story or essay, we will include several important steps—from saving the file, to dealing with our tracked changes and comments, to returning to us a “clean” version of your work that’s ready for submissions. The email is intentionally concise, but some writers might like more information about these steps. So here you go . . .
Our Expectations
First of all, we expect our clients to be able to handle general document revisions, perhaps with the help of the instructions and videos below. Of course, we’re happy to answer a question or two, but we simply haven’t set aside (and billed for) the time to walk clients through every step of the process. If you’re new to Microsoft Word, take it slow, follow the steps, check out the videos, and be patient with yourself. We hope you’ll be able to figure everything out on your own.
But if you get stuck, let us know. Christine or I can walk you through all of this in an official consultation. This might be a great way to learn—hopefully just once—these essential aspects of being a writer.
Also keep in mind: A journal that accepts your work will likely edit it in the same way that we do (with tracked changes and comment balloons). And they’ll expect you to understand the basics. So you might as well learn now.
Microsoft Word
I highly recommend using Microsoft Word. I promise, I don’t work for Microsoft, but .docx (or .doc) has been the preferred file type in the publishing industry for a while. Nearly all journals demand it. And if you convert (or worse, paste) a different file type—such as Google Docs or Apple’s Pages—into Word, I can pretty much guarantee that problems will occur (I see, and correct, them endlessly).
So if you don’t have MS Word, please get it. Everything below assumes you’ll be using Word.
As with most software programs, Word has changed over the years. Nothing major, but just enough to keep us on our toes. Perhaps the main issue is that some icons and buttons have moved around. So if I say, “click the Track Changes button in the middle of the Review tab,” the Track Changes button may actually be over toward the right, or the left, etc. If any of the images below look a little “off,” Google is your best resource. Between the steps below and asking Google questions about your particular version of Word, you should be good to go.
Now on to the steps . . .
The Steps
1. Save the returned file—which will likely be called something like “Smith_My Story_Submitit-edit”—as a new version.
The point of this step is to create a new version of your work so you don’t lose the returned (our edited) version. This way, even after you’ve accepted or rejected changes and cleared comments in the new version, you can always go back to our original edited version, if you’d like, to review our changes and comments.
Also, if you follow the steps below, you will be using the actual file we’ve returned to you. This is important. We generally make a number of formatting changes to get a work ready for submissions, not to mention tracked changes of the actual text, so make sure to use our returned version. Please do not simply look at (or print out) our returned version and apply changes to a previous version.
Here are the steps:
Download the file from our email. (Remember, if you’re unsure of any of these steps, try a Google search.)
Open the file in MS Word.
Before you make any changes to the file, click on the File menu, and then click Save As.
Name the new file by increasing the draft number by one and removing “Submitit-edit.” For example, if the returned version is called “Smith_My Title_1_Submitit-edit,” save the piece as “Smith_My Title_2.” This is now an unedited version 2 of the story.
2. Turn “track changes” off.
When we read or edit your work, we’ll “track” most of our changes so you can see (and review) what we’ve done. This is standard editing practice. When you revise your own work, however, do not track your changes; make sure to turn “track changes” off.
The Track Changes button is just a toggle (on-off) button in your Review Tab. This button has changed over the years, but generally, if the button is shaded (as it is in the image below), you’re tracking changes. Just click the button (not the little arrow at the bottom right of the button) to remove the shading (Track Changes will be off).
Try typing in the document: if your font is a different color or underlined while you type, then you haven’t turned Track Changes off. Try again.
If you have trouble with this, here’s a video.
3. Accept or reject our tracked changes and delete our comments.
When we read or edit work, we’ll typically do two things: (1) track changes of the actual text (for example, we might add or delete words, or change formatting) and (2) add comments, which are simply notes about the indicated text (the text itself is left unchanged). I’ll cover these one at a time, starting with tracked changes.
Tracked Changes
Tracked changes will show up in a different colored font (and sometimes underlined) in the text. You might also notice a vertical line in the left margin for any line of text that includes a tracked change. To accept or reject a change, click anywhere within the changed text, and select Accept or Reject in the Changes section (Review tab) of the toolbar.
You can also find tracked changes by clicking Previous or Next in the Changes section. Then just follow the steps above.
After accepting or rejecting a change, make sure to review the resulting text. When we edit, it’s not always easy to see what the final version will look like (for example, added spaces are easy to miss), so please read things over carefully.
Comments
In most versions of Word, comments show up as “balloons” to the right of the document. After you read a comment and possibly make any associated changes to the text, delete the comment. There are a few ways to do this. You can click anywhere within the comment, and then hit the Delete button on your toolbar (make sure you’re in the Comments section of the Review tab).
Or you can simply right-click the comment and click Delete in the pop-up menu. Some older versions of Word even have a Delete button in the comment itself.
Bottom line: we do not want to see any comments of ours in the final version of the story that you return to us (unless you add a comment referring to one of our comments). If you have a text-related question for us, you can leave your own comment (see New Comment in the toolbar), but please know that we will charge a reading fee for more than a few of these, to cover our time.
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If you have any issues accepting/rejecting tracked changes or deleting comments, here’s a video.
4. Return a “clean” version to christine@submititnow.com.
Please email Christine with your returned story/essay attached, free of all tracked changes and comments—that is, “clean.” It should be 100 percent ready for submissions (we’ll skim it, but unless you pay for an additional read or edit (see “add-ons” below), we will not read the piece again). If there are lingering tracked changes in the document, we will accept them blindly.
If you make a few changes that you’d like us to look over, please add comment balloons of your own (and let us know in your email that you’ve done this so we don’t miss them).
Note: Journals List Only clients need not return stories/essays.
5. Add-ons
If you would like a complete reread, we charge a reading fee of $35/1,000 words (no major editing). This is usually a good way to catch any new mistakes that may have cropped up while revising. If you’ve already had your work copy or line edited and would like a second edit, we discount our editing rate 15% (assuming, of course, you did not do a major rewrite of the work). All add-ons can be purchased at your Client Portal. For now, please return pieces via email.
We hope the above was helpful. As mentioned, if you have trouble with any of these steps, please let us know and we can set up a consultation. Good luck! We look forward to submitting your work.
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