Users submit content. Posts are formatted

Hi there,

I’m looking for suggestions (especially for plugins, as my experience with coding is limited). I’ve been searching for an answer to no avail, so I thought I’d ask you fine folks. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

I’m looking for a way to have users submit content and then have that content become part of a pre-formatted post.

I have a book deals website where authors can submit discount notices on their Kindle books, etc. Right now, I have a submission form that has customized fields with all the info they need to submit to me (book title, author name, genre, description, etc., etc.). It is pretty time consuming for me to copy/paste all the info, so I’d like to automate the process and have their information go directly into a post that I can just approve or not.

Here’s what I’m trying to do:

1. Have users (public or registered – whatever makes this process easier) submit content.
2. Have content fill in the blanks of a post template (or whatever would be a good/similar way to achieve this).
3. Have post be pending until I approve it.
4. Ideally, allow this to interact with shortcodes, although I’m willing to give that up.

For example, if I have a post that has default text like:

“This book will be free from [dates]. That’s 100% off the list price of [regular price]!”

Is there a way to have users fill out a form that will drop that information into a pre-formatted post? Or is there a way to have a post template that will allow them to input the information in a user-friendly way? (E.g., if I just have a bunch of X’s for a field, I know for certain they will ignore it or write over something they aren’t supposed to, etc.)

Any thoughts or ideas?

Thanks in advance for your time and assistance. 🙂