Helpful Tips for Formatting Your Manuscript
Agents, editors, and publishers receive thousands of manuscripts. Want to keep yours from immediately landing in the slush pile (known in layman terms as the trash)? Use these helpful tips to show editors, agents, and publishers that you’ve done your homework and that you are a professional author. It could make the difference between a chance to be read and no chance at all.
Use 1” margins all around
Title page only: name/address/phone/email on left side; word count rounded up on the top right side
Put book’s Title about half way down, enter two lines and put author’s name directly under.
Do not put “By”. Do not use fancy fonts or large fonts
Do not use copyright or the symbol. It screams paranoid amateur.
Use a header on the top right hand side with [Last name / TITLE / page number] on every page except the title page
Use key words in the header for long titles: Example: Desert Flowers: Poems of Love and Life becomes Desert Flowers
Use sequential page numbering
Use the # centered to recognize scene breaks--not * * * or a blank line
Use 12 pitch Courier font (because it’s easier to read and find mistakes)
Start new chapters 1/3 of the way down the page
Double space entire manuscript
Indent five spaces (or tab indent) for new paragraphs
Word emphases are underlined or italics, never all CAPS
Do not right justify
Do not put “End” or “The End”
Single sided
Do not use staples or binding when send a manuscript to a publisher or agent
Do use a rubber band or binder clip