When submitting a manuscript to WA Poets Publishing, please adhere to the following guidelines.
Biography include a biography of around 300 words
Introduction include an introduction of around 700 words outlining how/why/where these poems were created, the significance of the poems/this collection to you, why/how this collection came about, and what you hope to achieve by publishing this collection.
Acknowledgements to be placed at the end. All extended quotes and images that are not your own must have written approval (email is okay) from the copyright holder authorising their free use in this publication (if there are costs involved you, as the author, are responsible for those costs). Images provided must be of sufficiently high quality for printing.
Acknowledgement of Country optional
Number of Poems; we consider around 60–80 poems (depending on length) to be ideal aiming for a publication of around 100–120 pages.
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LAYOUT
—– Font: Times New Roman (negotiable)
—– Title 14pt
—– Text 11pt
—– Line Spacing 1.15
—– Space between Title/ text: 2 blank lines of 11pt
—– Epigram (under the title) 11pt italic
—– Footnotes 10pt
—– Left and Right Margins 5cm
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CAPITALISATION
Capitalize the First and Last Word and all words in titles of publications and documents, except; a, an, and, as, at, but, by, for, from, in, nor, of, on, or, the, to, up, with.
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EPIGRAMS
The epigram, quote, inspiration, ‘after x…’ etc. should be in italics under the title (the name of the person attributed to the quote is in regular font) and indented three spaces, with one line space between it and the first line of the poem.
—– Thin place … a means whereby the sacred becomes present to us.
=============== Marcus Borg from “The Last Song of Darkness”*
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REFERENCES
If it’s referring to a specific literary reference this can be added at the bottom of the page. The quote could have an *. Allow at least 2 lines between the poet’s name and reference.
—– *Ballardong tribe of Aborigines from the Wheatbelt of Western Australia
Simple reference: First name, Surname, Title, Publisher, year
—– Peter Burges, through slow-turning days, BookBaby, USA, 2019
for Music: First name, Surname, “Song”, year Album, Album
—– Leonard Cohen “Anthem”, 1992 Album, The Future
for quoted poems: First name, Surname, “Poem”, Title, Publisher, year
—– inspired by Mary Oliver’s “Wild Geese”, Dream Work, Atlantic Monthly Press, NY. 1986
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RUN OVER LINES
Insert a return to break the line and commence the continuing line after 5 spaces
—– As the dark land aches and cries and cracks its back in longing, in anticipation
—– of our resurrection
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EN DASH– (option, dash)
The en dash is used to link and show the association between words and numbers, its most common uses, per the Style Manual, being:
- to show spans of figures, time and distance
- to show an association between words that retain their separate identities
- to link prefixes with what follows in certain circumstances
- to join some types of compound adjectives
- used for the minus symbol in mathematical settings.
The first of these is by far the most common use of the en dash: meaning ‘to’ between two series of figures:
—– pages 54–9
—– 63–75 Palmerston Street
—– 9.00 am–12 noon
—– September–December
—– 1993–2001
—– Darwin–Adelaide railway
Note that the en rule is unspaced when linking one word or one set of numbers on either side (as seen above). If there is more than one word to be linked on either side, the en dash is spaced:
—– a Commonwealth – Western Australia agreement
—– 65 BC – 115 AD
The second use of the en rule is to show an association between words that retain separate identities (keeping in mind the spaced en rule if there is more than one word on either side):
—– teacher–student relationship
—– the Asia–Pacific region
—– New Zealand – Australia defence talks
—– Queensland – New South Wales rivalry
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EM DASH— (option, shift, dash)
The em dash (or em rule) has three main uses:
- to introduce an explanatory aside or signify an abrupt change in the direction of the sentence
- to introduce an amplification or explanation (standing in for a colon or semi-colon)
- to set apart parenthetic elements (i.e. a word or group of words that interrupts the flow of a sentence and adds additional, but nonessential, information to that sentence.).
There is no space on either side of the em dash.
—– The works of Shakespeare are considered classics—indeed, I doubt that there
—– are any here who have not read at least one of his works.
—– The city is falling afoul of rising property rates and deteriorating infrastructure—but the
—– City Council is not concerned with these matters.
—–Of all the chili sauces I’ve tried, and I’ve tried a lot, this is my favorite—some people,
—–who I won’t name, wouldn’t like this.
A pair of em dashes can enclose a phrase, clause or word mid-sentence, in the same manner as a pair of commas or parentheses placing emphasis on the isolated parenthetic expression:
—–The five of us—already unashamedly drunk—entered the party amidst
—–much pomp and fanfare.
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ELLIPSIS …. (option, semicolon)
Ellipsis can be used to:
- remove some of the unneeded words in a quote, however, DO NOT omit words in order to change the original meaning or intent of the original author
- create a pause for dramatic effect or suspense
- trailing off into silence.
The Oxford Style Guide recommends setting the ellipsis as a single character (…) and surrounding it by spaces. If there is an ellipsis at the end of an incomplete sentence, the final full stop is omitted. However, it is retained if the following ellipsis represents an omission between two complete sentences.
—– The … fox jumped …
—– The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. … And if they have not died, they are still alive today.
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QUOTATION MARKS
The convention is usually to use single quotation marks. If the quoted material would have contained the punctuation mark in the absence of any interruption, the punctuation mark stays inside the closing quotation mark. On the other hand, if the punctuation mark is part of the carrier sentence, it follows the closing punctuation mark.
—– ‘Are you going to apply for the position?’ the chairman said.
—– ‘Once it’s been given to you,’ the tiger said, ‘it’s always yours’.
When the material being quoted contains a quotation within a quotation (i.e., something in single quotation marks), use double quotation marks.
—– The author’s final argument is less convincing: ‘When Brown writes of “interpreting
—– the matter through a structuralist lens”, he opens himself to the same criticism
—– he made earlier in his own paper’.
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