| | Manuscript Formatting Guidelines When it comes to our reading your manuscript and editors reading it, you want it to be as clean and professional in appearance as possible. You want readers to focus on your words, not on whether or not you’ve got the right margins, etc. Therefore, we have prepared the following guidelines to help you format your manuscript so that it will leave editor focused on the right thing: your writing. Margins: | 1 inch all around. | | | Font: | Dark Courier or Courier New. 12 point always. | | | Italics: | Never use italics. Instead, use an underline to indicate italics. This is because typesetters will not respond to italics, only to underlined words. Please note that the punctuation following a word to be set in italics should also be underlined. | | | Spelling: | Preferred spellings may be found in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition. If your word processor has a spell-checker, please use it. Also, please set your grammar checker to on and be sure it checks for two spaces at the end of a sentence and punctuation inside quote marks. | | | Spacing: | Double-spaced always. There should never be a single space; there should also never be a triple space. If you want to insert a line space to indicate a change of viewpoint or a change of setting or other break in the narrative, insert a centered pound sign (#) where the line space should be, e.g., |
Joe didn’t know what to think. After all, his life depended on finding the right answers. # Susan Watson hadn’t heard from Joe Davis in days and she was beginning to get worried. | | Justification: | Left for all paragraph text. Chapter numbers can be centered, but please use the centering command. Do not tab over to center your chapter numbers. | | | Chapter Breaks: | Always start a new chapter on a new page. However, do not just hit “Enter” until you get to a new page. Use CTRL-Enter or Insert Page Break to start a new page. | | | Notes: | If you are using notes in your work, Endnotes are generally preferred. They should be at the end of your manuscript and broken down by chapter. You may restart the numbering in each chapter or not, as you prefer. Most prefer to restart numbering. | | | Tabs: | At the beginning of every paragraph. Some authors don’t bother to indent the first paragraph of a chapter. Please do. | | | | You should never have more than one tab. It is strongly recommended that, during your final review of the manuscript, you set your word processor to show all non-printing characters, e.g., paragraph marks, tabs, spaces, etc. This will help you to see if you have extra breaks, tabs, etc. | | | Header: | Your page header should include the title of your work in the top left-hand corner and also your name, e.g., MY BOOK/Joe Smith/Draft #. The page number should go in the top right-hand corner. They should be in the same font as the body of your manuscript, but may be in a slightly smaller type size, e.g., 10 point. | | | AutoReplace: | Microsoft Word has exceptional AutoFormat and AutoText features that are very useful for most business writing. However, some of these features are best turned off when writing a book. Do not allow the computer to replace two dashes (--) with a long dash (—). Do not allow the computer to replace three periods for ellipses (. . .) with a single character (…). Do not allow it to auto-indent your paragraphs. Use the Tab character. | | | File: | Many authors prefer to write chapters in separate files. This is useful for backing up chapters. However, when we ask for a manuscript, it must be consecutively numbered and when we ask for the file, we want one, single file containing the whole work, please. | | | Printouts: | Preferably laser, but in no event less than letter quality. Please use a bright white paper intended for the type of printer you are using. | | | Shipping: | Please box your manuscripts when shipping them, preferably in a hard box, not just a photocopy shop box. The Post Office provides hard Priority Mail boxes at no charge. Put your manuscript in a copy shop box and then into the Priority Mail box for maximum protection. | | | Disks: | Disks of your manuscript are not necessary. If we need the file, we’ll ask you to send it via email. |
Want more information? The company recommends that every author own (and use!) The Chicago Manual of Style, The Elements of Style, and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition. Chicago is quite helpful when trying to figure out what to capitalize, what to italicize, etc. The Elements of Style is a good book to read frequently, to remind you of the basics that are often second nature, but sometimes get lost in the shuffle (like the strength of active voice over passive voice). Found this helpful? Want more advice? Then you need an Author Coach! Use the Information Request Form to find out more. |
