Story Submission Guidelines


Thank you for your interest in submitting your story.

We are bringing together stories into a book about men who have been in and chose to continue to be in abusive relationships with women. Our editorial staff will select stories from the submissions for inclusion in the book based on a variety of professional criteria. Some commentary may be added by one of the editors or a consultant.

Here are a few guidelines for submission:

» The intent of the submission should be to help readers become better people.

» The story must be truthful, true stories of real people and relationships, not fiction. Obviously, this cannot be strictly enforced. Word of honor will have to be trusted. If the story seems suspicious, it may not be used.

» Submissions should be a maximum of 2500 words. Please exert spelling and grammatical care. That is ten pages. Longer is not necessarily better.

» Stories should describe a patient, friend, colleague or family member where the male partner is treated poorly in some way by the female partner. The poor treatment may present in any form, such as verbal, physical or emotional abuse, cheating, wasting money, alcoholism or similar dysfunction. The important property is the ill-treatment and the continued tolerance, perhaps even lifelong scripts, of the man to choose such women who are not good for him.

» Separate from the story, please provide an explanation in your professional opinion of the factors sustaining the choices for and toleration of the ill treatment. An example is "the man grew up in an environment where his mother berated him and his father. As a result, this treatment became his normal."

» Do not use psychoanalysis of the people in the stories. If there is any psychoanalytic type orientation, with Freudian speculative type of interpretations, the story will not be used. For example, "The man, sensing his own infantile inadequacy on a deep unconscious level, only chose women who were sadistic to him in order to re-enact his continued frustration at being thwarted as powerless child of the infantile humiliation of wanting to have sex with his mother, and her refusing him."

» Stories cannot be returned.

» If you wish to hear from us regarding if your story will be used, please enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope

» If your story is used, you will be credited in the book. You will be asked to permit us to publish the story at our discretion, to edit the story at our discretion and make no copyright claims regarding the use of that story in our book or subsequent reprints of that book. By submitting your story to us for publication, you agree to this.

» Submissions to:
    Preferred:
    E-mail to iStories@comcast.net

    Or:
    Ken Land, 342 South Ashley Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48104

    Or:
    Fax: 734-761-7226

» Contact:
    office phone: 734-761-7204
    fax: 734-761-7226
    cell phone with confidential voice mail: 734-320-5805

    E-Mail: landkk@comcast.net

    Ken Land, 342 South Ashley Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48104