I would like to share with you a little bit of research I had done for getting my first book ready. It concerns a more basic, more intimate part of the writing process that new authors (or maybe seasoned ones as well) would not think about: framing your manuscript to a standard.
Imagine you’ve gone through the list of contenders who would publish your novel, short stories, poem, whatever. You read up on their submissions requirements, and they all say the same thing: standard manuscript format. That is a grand idea: a basic set of rules that publishers abide to, allowing you to submit to various publishers in the event of a rejection, and little effort has to be made to send it to the next. Sounds great, doesn’t it?
Except, it isn’t.
From what I gather from a majority of sources, standard manuscript is as thus:
- 1″ margins all around the page.
- Double-spaced lines.
- Times New Roman font, 12 point.
- Underline words meant for italics, as they show up upon reading.
- Title your chapters and book and page numbers in the header at the top.
- A title page with your name, address and contact information, and number of words.
- If submitting through the mail: white 24lb paper, single-sided.
This makes perfect sense. The 1″ margins provide a standard frame to make editing and reading easier for the publisher, to make notes (for themselves), and correctly interpret emphasis in the correct spots. You would think this would be the backbone, right? Well, based on my research, I would agree as your basic manuscript template.
Reading several manuscript guidelines for submitting via e-mail (as a PDF or Word document) or the traditional way, in a paper box with your pages all piled neatly and shipped via courier, this seems to not be the case at all:
- While most places I found suggest the 1″ boundaries across all sides, some have suggested 0.5″, or even 0.75″ margins.
- Instead of Times New Roman font at 12 point, use Courier New or Courier at 10 point.
- Page numbers should go at the bottom, either in the centre, or in the corner.
- Indentation preferred on paragraphs at a specific tab stop, sometimes not at all.
- Various guidelines on the space between paragraphs and/or lines.
I find it interesting that submission guidelines have varying rules about the formatting of manuscripts, and yet still refer to it as standard manuscript format. Now, I comprehend that various publishers also publish other genres, and they attempt to use a universal standard for everything, but I still do not understand why it’s called a standard, when the requirements change all the time.
The standard, as anyone can correctly guess, comes from the days when authors would type their manuscripts on a typewriter. Some still do, either because it connects them to the story through the hammers, or it provides a more surreal experience, opposed to the clammy clicking of a membrane computer keyboard. With typewriters, you only had one font anyway: courier pitch, and probably 10 point anyways. Furthermore, you could not properly italicize words, so you were forced to underline anyways. The double spacing and one inch margins would give editors and proofreaders the space to suggest corrections.
But even then, I assume some publishers back in the day never followed those guidelines anyway. What gives? Maybe no one has a solid answer to this question, and it’s just an error that passed down through the years.
The moral of the story: Do your research!
Here’s a good idea: note the submission guidelines for each potential publishing candidate. If you think you will have to submit to multiple publishers (hopefully not at the same time), then I think creating a basic manuscript template of your story is in order, so at least it’s in some standardized form. All you have to do is copy your file to an new one, and make the adjustments to suit the publisher in question.
I feel sorry for anyone who manually types up their manuscript, only for the formatting to be completely wrong. Then again, this won’t happen, because you would have done your homework, right?
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Have you come across any oddities or conflicting guidelines or words of advice that seem to confuse the hell out of you? Share your thoughts and experiences!