How to Format Your Manuscript

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As a new author, it can be difficult to figure out what to do for the basics that everyone more experienced takes for granted. When you are submitting your manuscript to agents or publishers, you want to make sure your manuscript looks as professional as possible. You can use this guide to send a manuscript to an editor or designer, but the title page isn't necessary. 

Title Page

When submitting your manuscript, the first page should be a title page with the title, your name and contact info, and word count. The word count doesn't have to be exact, it can be rounded to the nearest 1,000 or 5,000. Your contact info should have an email and phone number, but including your address isn't a bad idea. 

Chapter Headings

Manuscripts should be broken out into chapters, and chapters should have a heading. Make the heading larger, as when you are flipping through the document looking for a specific section it will be easier. Chapters should always begin on a new page, you can manually insert a page break before the chapter. That way, if you edit something that affects the line break you don't have to go and fix the page break. 

Font

Pick a readable font—there are tons of fun fonts, but the focus of the story is on the words themselves. You don't want to get bogged down focusing on the font, and anyone reading the work will appreciate a simpler font. I suggest leaving the font as the default until you are working on the layout of the manuscript. When you are ready to submit your manuscript, stick to a font like Arial, Calibri, Helvetica, or Times New Roman. You should also stick to 12 or 14 point for the size.

Spacing/Margins

You should double or use 1.5 spacing for the document to make it easier to read unless it gets too long and affects the loading process. Leave the margins at the standard size (1" on each side). Indent paragraphs unless they begin a new section.