Your project and what you need

You do not need to know the publishing vocabulary

Start with what you actually have. It might be a short story, a novel, a group of poems, a memoir, a picture-book text, a comic, a zine, a proposal or something that does not fit a familiar label.

Spectrum uses five pieces of information to orient the guide: form, scale, audience, work state and what you need help with now. If you do not know one of those answers, that is a valid answer.

Measure first, classify second

Length matters because it can affect submission routes, production cost and the kinds of publication that are plausible. But there is no single word-count table that defines every market.

Current competitions and professional schemes use different boundaries for flash fiction, short stories, novellas and novels. The useful fact is therefore your actual word or page count. Any label comes later and must be interpreted in the context of the place you want to submit or publish.

Form is not format

A novel, poem, essay, picture book or graphic narrative describes the kind of work. Paperback, hardback, ebook, web publication and audiobook describe ways it can be published.

Keeping those questions separate avoids a common confusion: deciding how a work should be manufactured before deciding what publication route is actually wanted.

Where to go next

• If the work is still taking shape, use Chapter 1 to decide whether it is ready for outside input.
• If you need readers or critique, go to Chapter 2.
• If you need professional editorial help, go to Chapter 3.
• If the work is ready and you need to understand publishing routes, go to Chapter 4.
• If it is already accepted, in production or published, jump directly to Chapters 6–10 as appropriate.