Here's Roger's take on the preferred format for manuscript submission. It might look a tad old-fashioned or conservative, but believe me -- this is what editors want! They might grit their teeth and put up with Time New Roman with space between paragraphs and weird margins, but this is what they WANT to see. Learn the industry standard and use it. 

The Eye of Argon by Jim Theis

Where did this story come from? Who wrote it? How did it come to its odd underground prominence? How much do we know about its origins? How the hell do you pronounce Grignr? In this special Scholars' Ebook Edition of THE EYE OF ARGON we learn all there is to know, and then some.

In "One Fine Day in the Stygian Haunts of Hell," Darrell Schweitzer recounts his own encounters with THE EYE OF ARGON in the 1980s and 1990s, and unsnarls the first tendrils of myth and folklore surrounding it.

Then we go "In Search of Jim Theis" with Lee Weinstein as he puts on his Sherlock Holmes hat and tracks the story back to its murky origins, and its author.

Finally, Roger MacBride Allen offers his own "Drippingly Sincere Apology and Bonus Obsessive Analysis," uncovering the deep hidden meaning of everything, down to and including the staple holes in the original publication from whence sprang THE EYE OF ARGON.

And, oh, yeah -- this special Ebook Scholar's Edition of THE EYE OF ARGON also includes the full text of the story, with newly uncovered bonus typos.

Price? A mere $2.99.

Get your copy now, before Grignr gets distracted by the "amorphos, broad breated female, stretched out aluring-ly before his gaping eyes."

PDF Version

 The Eye of Argon by Jim Theis

Where did this story come from? Who wrote it? How did it come to its odd underground prominence? How much do we know about its origins? How the hell do you pronounce Grignr? In this special Scholars' Ebook Edition of THE EYE OF ARGON we learn all there is to know, and then some.

In "One Fine Day in the Stygian Haunts of Hell," Darrell Schweitzer recounts his own encounters with THE EYE OF ARGON in the 1980s and 1990s, and unsnarls the first tendrils of myth and folklore surrounding it.

Then we go "In Search of Jim Theis" with Lee Weinstein as he puts on his Sherlock Holmes hat and tracks the story back to its murky origins, and its author.

Finally, Roger MacBride Allen offers his own "Drippingly Sincere Apology and Bonus Obsessive Analysis," uncovering the deep hidden meaning of everything, down to and including the staple holes in the original publication from whence sprang THE EYE OF ARGON.

And, oh, yeah -- this special Ebook Scholar's Edition of THE EYE OF ARGON also includes the full text of the story, with newly uncovered bonus typos.

Price? A mere $2.99.

Get your copy now, before Grignr gets distracted by the "amorphos, broad breated female, stretched out aluring-ly before his gaping eyes."

Epub version

The Eye of Argon by Jim Theis

Where did this story come from? Who wrote it? How did it come to its odd underground prominence? How much do we know about its origins? How the hell do you pronounce Grignr? In this special Scholars' Ebook Edition of THE EYE OF ARGON we learn all there is to know, and then some.

In "One Fine Day in the Stygian Haunts of Hell," Darrell Schweitzer recounts his own encounters with THE EYE OF ARGON in the 1980s and 1990s, and unsnarls the first tendrils of myth and folklore surrounding it.

Then we go "In Search of Jim Theis" with Lee Weinstein as he puts on his Sherlock Holmes hat and tracks the story back to its murky origins, and its author.

Finally, Roger MacBride Allen offers his own "Drippingly Sincere Apology and Bonus Obsessive Analysis," uncovering the deep hidden meaning of everything, down to and including the staple holes in the original publication from whence sprang THE EYE OF ARGON.

And, oh, yeah -- this special Ebook Scholar's Edition of THE EYE OF ARGON also includes the full text of the story, with newly uncovered bonus typos.

Price? A mere $2.99.

Get your copy now, before Grignr gets distracted by the "amorphos, broad breated female, stretched out aluring-ly before his gaping eyes."

Mobi (Kindle) edition

The Eye of Argon Free Competitive Reading Edition

From out of the Stygian Haunts of Hell it came -- and, with a sloshing plop, arrived in our midst, where it has remained ever since as (to quote the text) "a dark red blotch upon the face of the earth, blotching things up." Here, at no cost to anyone, for absolutely free (and it would be cheap at twice the price) is the immortally bad and possibly worst story ever, THE EYE OF ARGON, as you've never seen it before -- but will from now on. (We're not sure what that means, but it sounds good.) This is the only edition suitable for downloading and printing that reproduces, word for word, line by line, page by page, the exact layout of the godawful original -- including the remarkably bad illustrations without which the THE EYE OF ARGON is to a certain degree less complete than it otherwise would be. This Somewhat Official Competitive Reading Edition at long last brings standardization and a level playing field to the cut-throat world of Competitive EYE OF ARGON Readings. Now competitors can be sure that everyone is literally on the same page, and that they are reading from a text that is as near as dammit to the original. Bad typing, murky-grey type, scratched-out text -- all of it is simulated in relatively high fidelity for your enjoyment, if that's your idea of a good time. Includes a handy chart of what pages were what colors in the original, so you can print your copy on the very same Malevolent Orange paper stock as seen in the primordial edition. Also includes the somewhat official rules of the game.

Price: Zero. Zip. Nada.

This essay explores the mistakes that beginning writers make over and over again, analyzes the errors, and shows how to avoid them. This one essay distills Roger's decades of experience as a writer and editor down to the core advice a writer of fiction needs.