How to Format a Manuscript

Lissywrites/ May 16, 2014/ Uncategorized/ 4 comments

There are plenty of guides on how to do this. Plenty to be found on the internet, but a lot of them, I have found, don’t have examples, which I will be sharing with you all today. If you didn’t already know, there is a general consensus on how to format a manuscript, and this has been done since typewriters, which explains why things are formatted a certain way.

First off, let me disclaimer: Not every publisher will follow these guidelines.

I feel like this is the main problem a lot of people have. They think everyone will follow the same format, but that is just not the case. The majority will use this format, but you should still read their guidelines before sending anything in.

The number one reason for rejection is disregard for the general submission guidelines! Remember that!

Anyway, on to the list and example (which will be at the end)!

First off, if you have Scrivener, a lot of this will be done for you and is set up as default, so you may not have to worry about this. For those of you who don’t, Courier (any of its varieties), is the most accepted font. Times New Roman, Arial, and Garamond are also very popular so make sure to check the submission guidelines. So,

• FONT
  Most common: Courier (any varieties)
  Other possible: Garamond, Arial, Times New Roman

• COVER PAGE
  Name (Real, unless otherwise specified)
  Address (Mailing preferred, billing may be requested later, unless otherwise specified)
  Email address
  Phone number
  Agent’s name (Omit when necessary)
  Agent’s address (Omit when necessary)
  Title (Formatting example at the end of post)
  by Name (Pseudonym here if applicable, formatting example at the end of post)

• PAGE NUMBERING
  In the top right corner on the second page, put the following in formation in the format:
  LastName / StoryTitle / Page#
  This should appear in the header portion of the manuscript.
  Not every publisher will want this, as some prefer anonymous submissions to promote a fair review, so once again, check the submission guidelines before submitting. On the first page, in the same spot you placed the LastName / StoryTitle / Page#, you’ll put your approximate word count.

• END PAGE
  At the very end of the manuscript, skip a line, then put: <<<< >>>>
  This will signify the end of the manuscript.

Now for the example PDF: This is an Example

I hope that helped! Did it? Is there something else you’d like to know? Anything that didn’t make sense or that you wish I had covered? Let me know, and comment below!

Thanks for reading.

-Lissy

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