In the old days of the 20th century, writers presented their manuscripts on paper and prepared them on typewriters. Today, many publishers will still consider paper manuscripts, but most will want a word processing document submitted when an agreement is reached to publish the book. Previously, publishers had typists who would retype manuscripts, but no one wants to waste time and money on that today.

Unfortunately, many authors are still stuck in typewriter mode and consequently make mistakes when formatting their manuscripts. Here are some points for formatting your manuscript to send to potential publishers or to send to the person who designs your book. While there are no hard and fast rules for formatting manuscripts (some variations are allowed and different editors may have different preferences), if you adhere to these basic guidelines, you will look professional and have a manuscript that won’t require a lot of extra work to format into a book.

Title page

In the upper left corner of the title page, include all your relevant information: name, contact information, number of words in the manuscript, and copyright. Word count can be found in most word processing programs by going to Tools and then Word Counting. If you cannot find it, use the Help option in the program. Regarding copyright, it is not necessary at this time to register the copyright of the book; you are simply stating that you know your rights to the publisher. Its format would look like this:

Hope whitman

1222 Pineapple Street

Hollywood, CA 89983

(616) 228-1443 home

(616) 482-9430 work

89,557 words

Copyright 2010

Then, a third of the way down the page, center your book’s title and your name below.

My novel

For

Hope whitman

Header

The heading should include your name, the title of your book in italics, and the page number. Do not manually type the page number on each page; your program should be able to automatically insert the page numbers for you. Again, go to the Help button for instructions on how to insert the page number (as well as a heading) if necessary.

The header information should be aligned with the right margin, so it would look like this:

Whitman / My Novel – 89

Spacing between lines

Double space throughout the manuscript. If you don’t know how to double the space, go to Help in your word processing program or get help from a live person. Whatever you do, don’t decide to double the space by pressing the Return key at the end of each line. I’ve seen it happen too many times, and it’s not only a waste of time but a nightmare for the design person to remove all returns later. Being a professional requires basic computer skills. If you don’t have them, take a class or ask someone else to format your manuscript.

Punctuation spacing

Too often, I hear authors tell me, regarding some punctuation rule, “This is how my third grade teacher taught me to do it.” Guess what? Your third grade teacher was probably 1972 by now, but the scoring rules have changed. If you are unsure of something, get a copy of the most recent (15th) edition of the “Chicago Manual of Style” and it will answer all your dilemmas about whether the periods go inside or outside the quotation marks (they used to go outside, but now go inside) and whether to write numbers greater than ten or only greater than one hundred (one hundred is correct).

Also, make sure you only have a space after a period, semicolon, exclamation point, etc. In the days of the typewriter, two spaces was standard, but now one space is preferred. If your manuscript already has two spaces, don’t worry. You do not need to go through the entire book to remove each individual space. Use the Find and Replace option. In the Search field, enter a period and then two blanks (.), In Replace enter a period and a blank space (.), And then select Replace All and voila! You now have only one space after your periods. Repeat the process for question marks, settlers, etc. And in just a minute or two, the score spacing will be perfect.

Titles, styles and fonts

The authors are not book designers. Too many authors try to make their manuscripts look pretty by using 24-point Algerian for the book title, 16-point Aristocrat for part titles, 14-point Baskerville for chapter titles, 12-point Bodoni for subtitles , etc. All you are doing is creating a logistical mess. All manuscript must be in 12 point Times New Roman. The use of bold is sufficient for part titles, chapters and subtitles. Fancy fonts will only turn off editors, and those fonts will be erased anyway when the book is ready, so instead of wasting time decorating your manuscript, focus on the writing itself.

Follow the editor or designer’s guidelines

In general, format your manuscript following the standard guidelines above, striving for simplicity and clarity. However, if you are publishing on your own, you may want to ask your typesetter if they have any preferences on how to format your manuscript. If submitting to a publisher, you want to follow the proper formatting guidelines rather than asking questions because you don’t want to sound like a hobbyist, but it doesn’t hurt to look at the publisher’s website to see if it contains specific formatting guidelines. follow, continue. Also, be sure to follow the instructions regarding whether the publisher wants you to submit only an inquiry letter, book proposal, or full manuscript, and whether the publisher prefers paper or you can submit the manuscript electronically.

A properly formatted manuscript will not guarantee publication of a book, but it will show that you are a professional, which could put you through the gatekeepers of a publisher to have your words read and considered for publication. And if you’re going to self-publish your book, a properly formatted manuscript will save your designer time and frustration and possibly save you some money, as well as making you an author you’ll be willing to work with again.