So, don’t give the literary agents or the publishers a reason to reject your manuscript without even reading it. The first and easiest excuse is that the manuscript doesn’t look professional. That’s true in the end, but authors swamp literary agents and publishers with more manuscripts than they can possibly consider. They get hundreds of unsolicited novel manuscripts every day-so many that they call the mountain of submissions the ‘slush pile’.īecause of this, and because a lot of the novels in the slush pile aren’t very good, they’re often looking for any excuse to move on to the next one. But surely it’s about how good my story is? don’t staple or clip them together).Manuscript format: get your novel ready for submissionĪspiring authors often seem to think that manuscript format isn’t that important when they submit their novel to agencies and publishers. If you are printing your manuscript for submission, use white paper. To signify the end of your manuscript, insert an asterisk (*), a number sign (#) or the words ‘The End’ on a blank line after the final line of text. Remember to begin a new paragraph each time a new character speaks. Ensure that each page has a sequential number. Indicate scene breaks within a chapter by inserting an asterisk (*) or the number sign (#) on its own line.īegin numbering your pages on the first page after the title page. Skip two to four lines and then begin the text. ‘Mary Goes Home’) about one-third of the way down the page. Left justify your text don’t justify it or centre it.īegin each new chapter on a new page. Underline text that you want to highlight don’t use bold or italics. Your text should be black, and you should use 12-point font. Use an easy-to-read font, such as Arial or Times New Roman. Include a header on each page except the title page with the name of your book (this can be abbreviated if your title is long), your name and the page number.ĭouble space the entire text with no extra line spaces between paragraphs. Contact information for your agent (if you have one) under your contact information insert one blank line between your information and your agent’s information.Your contact details, including your name, mailing address, phone number and email address, in the top left corner of the page (if you use a pen name, provide your real name here).The word count for your manuscript centred under your name, with one blank line between your name and the word count.Your name centred underneath the title, with one blank line between the title and your name (if you use a pen name provide it here).The title of your book, centred halfway down the page.Your title page should include the following information: Note that some publishers have their own formatting requirements, so you should check their submission details before sending your manuscript package off. You can either follow these guidelines from the start or go back when you’re done writing and make any necessary changes. Here, we present some standard guidelines for formatting a book manuscript. However, it’s important to format your book manuscript to ensure that it gets the attention it deserves. Formatting a book manuscript Once you’ve written your book, whether it’s nonfiction or fiction, you may think you’re ready to send it off to publishers.
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