#Editing manuscripts for publication plus#
#Editing manuscripts for publication professional#

Your lines should be double-spaced, and there should be no extra line breaks between paragraphs.

#Editing manuscripts for publication professional#

Use Reedsy's free book formatting tool for cost-free professional results. Note: if you're looking to self-publish your book, you can just go straight to formatting your final book file. Some editors and agents will prefer sans serif fonts (ones without the curly flourishes) but unless specified by the submission guidelines, stick to good old-fashioned Times New Roman. For example, where on iOS you’ll see ‘Format’ or ‘File’, you’ll see ‘Layout’ on Windows. Professionals can spot this straight away, so don’t do it.Ī quick disclaimer before we go any further: some of these steps will look slightly different if you’re using Microsoft Word on Windows rather than iOS, as demonstrated in this post. Some writers will tinker with the margin settings in an attempt to hide their manuscript’s true word count. This should already be the default setting on both Word and Google Docs.

A4 (210 x 297mm) format for most other territories.

Letter Size (8.5” x 11”) format for the US and Canada and.

Unless otherwise stated in the submission guidelines, use: Tap File > Page Setup and let’s get your paper settings in order. Use 1-inch margins for the manuscript format If you don't want to go through the trouble of setting up your document from scratch, just download our free template:Ģ. Both are native to Microsoft Word and compatible with all mainstream word processors, including Google Docs. Use underscores to separate the words in the file name - this prevents it from being garbled when the spaces get translated as “%20” by some systems.

That way, if you’ve got multiple copies saved on your hard drive, you know which version you actually sent off.

#Editing manuscripts for publication plus#

As such, name your files with those details plus the date that you’re submitting the manuscript. Agents and publishers have a lot of manuscripts to look at so they’ll most likely be searching for your manuscript on their hard drive with only some part of your name or book title in mind. Give it a file name that sounds professional and is easy to search for. Finish formatting the manuscript with ‘The End’īefore you start typing anything, open up your word processor, create a new document, and SAVE the document.