Dreaming of being a writer? Here is how to try

The New Books Section Is Now Live!
Since its inception, TriggerStreet.com has been the place to go if you wanted to find exposure and feedback for your Screenplays and Short Films online. Now, in addition to being able to upload your Short Stories to the site, a section we launched earlier this year, you can now also upload Books that you have written.

Much like we did with Short Stories when that section first launched, we will have an initial temporary period of "free" uploads for Books, meaning that unlike the existing sections of the site that require you to complete assigned reviews before you can upload your work, you can just follow the upload instructions on the site and upload your Book without reviewing any others. Once there are enough Books uploaded to ensure that the Assignment Generator and ranking system can work as designed without favoring the first ones to upload, you will then be able to request assignments and complete reviews for credit just as you do now with Screenplay, Short Film and Short Story assignments. At that point, in order to upload a Book, you will need to successfully complete 2 assigned Book reviews, so take advantage of this 'free upload' time while you can. Reviews of Books will have a 100 word minimum requirement.

When formatting your Book, please reference the following guidelines before you upload, which is similar to the standard style used in the publishing industry by copy editors. To summarize, the basic structure is as follows:

- The cover page should state the title of the Book in all capitals about halfway down the page and the author's name or TriggerStreet.com member name. For your own safety and security, do NOT include personal contact details on the cover page or in your book.

- Page size should be standard US letter size (8.5"x11")

- Use only 12 point Courier font

* Spacing: Book manuscripts have a uniform layout to ensure that each page contains in the neighborhood of 250 words per page. Keep these rules of thumb in mind for spacing of your text...

- The text in the body of your book should be left-aligned, not justified, so it has a "ragged" right margin.

- Top and bottom margins should allow for 25 lines of text to the page (not counting the header), and left and right margins should allow for an average of 10 words per line

- Each page except for the title page must include a header consisting of the author's surname or member name, the title of the work (or a keyword) in capitals, and the page number in the top right corner. Ex: "Name / TITLE / #"

- Use a centered '#' on its own line to indicate a scene break

- Begin new chapters on a new page with the chapter number about a third of the way down from the top of the page

- All Books should contain no less than 51 pages (approx 12,750 words at 250 words per page) with no maximum limit on pages.

- Lastly, like other written uploads on the site, your Book files should be in PDF format only.

Ready to get started? Just make sure that your story is formatted properly, then click on the Books tab in the navigation menu, and then click on Upload Your Book in the menu on the left side of the page, and you'll be on your way. If you have any questions make sure check out the FAQ's (by clicking HELP in the main nav bar) or by asking on the Message Board.
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