Manuscript Format

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“For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, . . . Let all things be done decently and in order.”

1  Corinthians 14:33, 40

What’s one way publishers and editors can spot an inexperienced author in less than five seconds? Formatting.

A manuscript should be formatted the way it will look in print, right? Actually, no.

So what is the right way to format your manuscript? There is a standard for manuscript formatting. Editors and publishers will expect to see your manuscript in this format. 

The point of manuscript format is ease of reading and correcting. Making your book pretty and nice to look at comes later, during the publishing process.

If you want to have a professional looking manuscript and a better chance of having your book noticed and published, use manuscript format. 

Note: Keep in mind that different publishers have slightly different standards so it is prudent to take a look at the publisher’s submission guidelines before printing of a manuscript for submission  

So what is manuscript format?

Word Processor

What word processor should you use to type your manuscript? Microsoft Word. 

Microsoft Word is the industry standard. Don’t use Google Docs, Apple Pages, or any other word processor because the formatting will not transfer properly to Microsoft Word.

On the subject of word processors a question comes to mind. Should you use pen on paper or a word processor on a computer? Really it’s up to you. 

Some writers find the words flow better when they’re writing by hand on a sheet of lined notebook paper. There’s a certain feeling to putting down words with pen on paper. 

Personally I like to write on a laptop. I like the ability to move a section of my story via copy-paste or go back and insert a section I missed.

However if you do decide to write your manuscript by hand, you will have to transfer it to the computer before submitting it to an editor or publisher. A voice-to-text feature can be very helpful for this. Never, ever submit a handwritten story on notebook paper. No one will read it so don’t waste the time and postage.

Page Setup

Page size: Letter (8.5 by 11) is the standard manuscript page size. 

Margins: Set your margins to one inch on every side. Remember one of the purposes of manuscript format is to make your manuscript easy to read. Nothing is more difficult to read than text running from one side of the paper to the other, top to bottom. 

Alignment: Always left-align. Don’t justify. 

Spacing: Double-space between lines. Don’t single-space. Don’t triple-space. Double spacing leaves space for editorial corrections and comments. 

Adjust the settings in your word processor  so there is no extra space before or after paragraphs.

Example:

Indentation: The first line of every paragraph should be indented half an inch to the right. If you don’t indent your paragraphs editors and publishers will scratch their heads trying to figure out what you mean. Is this sentence part of the last paragraph or is it in a new one? 

Hyphenation: Don’t hyphenate words unless they are normally hyphenated. When you come to the end of a line and a word doesn’t fit, move it to the next line instead of hyphenating. Most word processors allow you to turn off auto hyphenation as a preference for the whole document. 

Header: Place a header on every page except the first. The header, which will print approximately half an inch from the top of the page, will consist of your last name, a dash or slash, your novel’s title or a keyword from the title, another dash or slash, and the page number. The text in the header should be right-justified; it should print in the upper right-hand corner of every page. 

Examples: 

Robinson – An Inquiry into Novel Formatting - 28

Smith / How to Format Your Memoir / 769

Text

Font: Use 12-point Times New Roman or Courier New. 

Don’t use anything else. Most especially don’t use any of the fun and exotic fonts that came with your word processor. 12-point Times New Roman or Courier New may look boring, but your book isn’t. You must let the words themselves carry the story. Using fancy fonts creates the impression that your story isn’t interesting by itself. Fancy fonts are the hallmark of amateurs.

Besides, Times New Roman and Courier New are easy on the eyes, and you should make reading your book as easy as possible for anyone who takes the time to pick it up and read it.

For many years, the Courier font family was preferred for manuscripts. This is because Courier is a monospace font and the font most often used for typewriters. Monospace font means all the letters take up the same amount of space. This may seem wasteful, but it makes editing much easier, and gives a more consistent word count per printed page. However, in the past decade, Times New Roman has become an acceptable alternative to Courier New, even though it is not a monospace font.

Italics: When using Courier New, indicate italics by underlining the word, like this. When using Times New Roman, use the italics version of the font, like this.

The convention is to italicize thoughts, however this can vary by genre and may change in the future. Do your own research on when to italicize words and when not to.

Color: Always use black text on plain white paper. Don’t use anything other than black ink on white paper. Black ink. White paper. 

Dialogue

Paragraphs: Start a new paragraph anytime a new speaker says something. Running dialogue together in a single paragraph is a very common mistake. 

Example:

Long Sections of Dialogue: If a section of dialogue is long enough to split into two or more paragraphs, use a quotation mark at the beginning of each paragraph and omit the quotation mark at the end of the first paragraph(s). Place a quotation mark at the end of the quote.

Example: 

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. 

“We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. . . .” 

Quotation Marks: Use smart quotes (“example”) not straight quotes (" example" ). Smart quotes make dialogue easier to read. 

Example: 

Quoting quotations in dialogue: When quoting text inside of a quote, use double quotes inside of single quotes inside of double quotes and so on. 

The best way to understand how this works is by looking at an example: 

Jim asked, “Didn’t that book say, ‘The king announced a “lessening of taxes” for those who live in the city’?” 

Cover Page 

Title: Type the title around one-third of the way down the page. Center it on a single line. Use all caps if you want, though this is not necessary. 

Author: Two lines below the title, type “by” and then your name. Notice that in manuscript format you use the word by; the word by will not appear on a professionally designed book cover. 

Contact info: In the lower third of the cover page type your name, address, telephone number, and email address. Each of these should be placed on its own line, except the physical address which will take two lines.

This is the only area that will be single-spaced. All of this personal information should be left-justified, but tabbed either to the center of the page or to the right-hand side.

Example: 

Donald Carlton

123 Street

City, ST 12345

(337) 123-1234

youremail@address.com

Chapters 

Title or number: The first page of every chapter may look different from the other pages of your book. Place the chapter title or simply (“Chapter One”) a third of the way down the page. Skip a line and then begin your chapter. 

Date and location tags: Use date and location tags to quickly orient your reader to when and where your story takes place. Place date and location tags at the beginning of a chapter or scene. Left justify the tags and do not indent them. You may bold or italicize tags if you wish. 

Example: 

Chapter 3

September 13, 2007

Boston

Gary drew his pistol . . .

Indentation of first line: If you have date and location tags, don’t indent the first line of your chapter, otherwise indent half an inch as usual. 

Printing 

Print only on one side of the page. Never submit a double-sided manuscript unless asked to do so. 

Example of Manuscript Format 

Here is a sample manuscript you can use as a reference for manuscript format: 

A Tale of Two Cities

by Charles Dickens

Dickens – A Tale of Two Cities – 1

Chapter 1: The Period

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way–in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face, on the throne of England; there were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face, on the throne of France. In both countries it was clearer than crystal to the lords of the State preserves of loaves and fishes, that things in general were settled for ever.

It was the year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five. Spiritual revelations were conceded to England at that favoured period, as at this. Mrs. Southcott had recently attained her five-and-twentieth blessed birthday, of whom a prophetic private in the Life

Dickens – A Tale of Two Cities – 2

Guards had heralded the sublime appearance by announcing that arrangements were made for the swallowing up of London and Westminster. Even the Cock-lane ghost had been laid only a round dozen of years, after rapping out its messages, as the spirits of this very year last past (supernaturally deficient in originality) rapped out theirs. Mere messages in the earthly order of events had lately come to the English Crown and People, from a congress of British subjects in America: which, strange to relate, have proved more important to the human race than any communications yet received through any of the chickens of the Cock-lane brood.

France, less favoured on the whole as to matters spiritual than her sister of the shield and trident, rolled with exceeding smoothness down hill, making paper money and spending it. Under the guidance of her Christian pastors, she entertained herself, besides, with such humane achievements as sentencing a youth to have his hands cut off, his tongue torn out with pincers, and his body burned alive, because he had not kneeled down in the rain to do honour to a dirty procession of monks which passed within his view, at a distance of some fifty or sixty yards. It is likely enough that, rooted in the woods of France and Norway, there were growing trees, when that sufferer was put to death, already marked by the Woodman, Fate, to come down and be sawn into boards, to make a certain ~ movable framework with a sack and a knife in it, terrible in history. It is likely enough that in the rough outhouses of some tillers of the heavy lands adjacent to Paris, there were sheltered from the weather that very day, rude carts bespattered with rustic mire, snuffed about by pigs, and roosted in by poultry, which the Farmer, Death, had already set apart to be his tumbrils of the Revolution. But that Woodman and that Farmer, though they work unceasingly, work silently, and no one heard them as they went about with muffled tread: the rather, forasmuch as to entertain any suspicion that they were awake, was to be atheistical and traitorous.

Conclusion

Properly formatting your manuscript will give you a much better chance of getting your message out to those who need to hear it. As Christians we should use our writing to make an effect on both believers and unbelievers, sharing the hope found in the gospel with the unsaved and encouraging believers in their day to day life.

I hope this blogpost will help you get your message into the hands of the people who need it.