Note: this is just a guide, not rules. It does make things a whole lot easier if you follow them and it's easier on the eyes of your (fellow) editors.
General Posting
Now on to the good bits. I'm sure most people here have read the posting guide in OS/P, or have had me or one of my fellow writers post this in their thread:
Posting Guide
exclaim Tips for getting more readers
Format for online viewing. This means skip a line between every paragraph, so that you don't end up with a block of text. If you copy and paste out of Word or some other word processing program, your indents will not transfer (nor will any text formatting). You'll have to redo it all by hand.
Leave the size and color of the text set to default. No one wants to strain their eyes to read pink text, or squint to read a tiny font. It will detract from the actual reading of the story. Don't center or align the text.
This is quoted directly from the OS/P posting guide, and it works. Most commonly people forget to put a space between paragraphs, but some people also think it's cool to shrink the text or make it a hard-to-read color. I'm sure the people here are smarter than that, but just in case.
On the symbols: Sometimes quotes and other things copied from Word show up funny. You can either go through in notepad and use the "search and replace" feature; or in your browser go to View --> Character Encoding and try switching between Unicode (UTF) and Western (ISO). That usually does the trick.
Raising Expectations
Also, there's something else: especially in here, people are going to want to know what your story is about. It's much easier to put it in the thread title so people can just browse without having to go in and read the first post, which may or may not contain the information they're looking for.
This one is not quoted from the OS/P posting guide:
Title Guide
exclaim Let them know what's in there!
In the title of your thread put the rating of your story, an approximate word count (if it's finished), whether it's fanfiction or original, the genre, and if it contains any questionable themes. Then, if you have any room left over, you can put the title in.
This way, betas/editors know where to go and a bit of what to expect. Of course, there should also be an additional summary in the first post, with an explainaton of the story and what you want them to look for and help you fix.
Broadcasting Your Story
For the story itself: either post it in your thread here, post a link, or if you'd rather that no one except your beta saw it, state that you'll email it to whomever asks.
