Use Times New Roman font, at 12 point size. (I.e., don’t set your text to be justified.) This is usually already the default setting in Word, but double check on your computer to make sure.Īlign text to the left the right hand side should remain ragged.
Set a margin of 1 inch (2.5cm) on all four sides of your manuscript. But if they just ask for “industry standard manuscript formatting,” then these are the rules you want to follow to the letter: If they do, then you should of course follow their requirements. Some of your recipients might have their own special rules that they’d like you to follow when formatting your manuscript. Luckily for you, correctly formatting your book manuscript can be summarized in just a few bullet points.
#NOVEL MANUSCRIPT EDITING HOW TO#
You don’t want that! How to format a book Manuscripts that don’t follow these industry-standard formatting rules are much more likely to be discarded unread, because not only does it waste the reader’s time, but and it also suggests that the writer is an amateur. This makes it easier for them to read through the tens and hundreds of submissions they get every week. When submitting your manuscript to agents, editors, and publishers, they expect your writing to be formatted in a specific way. The words and sentences themselves haven’t changed, only how we present them-that’s formatting. The same text could have a larger or smaller font it could be set in Times New Roman, or Courier, or another font it could be on a white page, or a cream page the page size, or the size of the margins could vary and so on. Manuscript formatting is the way in which the text of your book or novel is presented on the page. They get way too many submissions, and they’ll simply move on to the next one without giving your manuscript a second look. They won’t spend time with an author that hasn’t done the necessary preparation. The professionals that do this work will charge more if your manuscript format doesn’t adhere to industry standards, because that means they’ll need to re-format your manuscript before they can start their work.įor authors going down the route of traditional publishing, correct manuscript format is also an important step-the agents and publishers you submit your writing to won’t even look at your manuscript if it’s not formatted according to the industry standard. It doesn’t matter if you want to be an independently published author or a traditionally published author-submitting a manuscript that follows the industry-standard manuscript formatting rules is critically important for getting your work read.įor writers wanting to be independent published authors, this process will cut down your costs when the time comes for manuscript assessment, proofreading, editing, and typesetting.
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