Indent all new paragraphs except for the first paragraph of a new scene. The hash symbol ‘#’, an asterisk ‘*’ or a few dashes ‘-‘ are all acceptable markers of a scene break. In a finished novel, this indicator is often just a couple of blank lines, but in a manuscript you should make a specific marker, so the agent or publisher knows there’s a deliberate jump, not a continuity or formatting error. ![]() in time or place) you should indicate it. Leave space around the chapter header, two or three lines above and below it is fine.Ī scene is a part of the story that all takes place at one time and place.Separate the parts of the header with slashes, like this: / /. You should place the header on the top right-hand side of the page, so the literary agent or publisher can easily find their place in the manuscript. It gives the publisher or literary agent room to make notes. You should lay out the text of the novel itself out using the following rules: MarginsĪ wide margin is good – 1 inch/2.5 cm on all sides is a reasonable amount. Begin numbering with the first page of the actual novel. Below your writing name, the number of words in the manuscript, rounded to the nearest thousand.ĭon’t number the title page.the name you want the novel to be published under. Below the title, your writing name, i.e.The name of the novel in the middle of the page.Your contact details in the top left-hand corner.Nowadays, most literary agents and publishers have moved to electronic submissions and often copy them onto their Kindles – so they won’t see any ‘fancy’ formatting, anyway. If your novel requires any unusual typography, then that’s something you can discuss with your editor after they’ve accepted it for publication. For example, don’t use any of the following to emphasise portions of the text: Italics are OK in text itself, for emphasis, thoughts, etc.Īpart from that, keep the text plain.Bold is OK for the name of the novel and the chapter headings.‘Fancy’ fonts like Comic Sans, are not acceptable.Monospaced fonts like Courier are acceptable, but not required.Times New Roman at point size twelve is the default choice, but any plain readable font should be acceptable.Use a basic font, one that anyone who is reading your novel will have on their computer. Use the same font throughout the manuscript. Print the text on one side of the paper only. Make sure there are no stains or other marks on the pages. If you are sending a physical copy, you should: Almost all literary agents and publishers expect electronic submissions in Microsoft Word format (.doc or. ![]() Plain white is the only acceptable colour.A4 is the standard size for novel submissions. ![]() This is that one time you don’t want to stand out from the crowd! Manuscript Format: Paper size, colour and binding Give yourself the best chance by making it tidy, presentable and professional looking by using the proper manuscript format. So, don’t give the literary agents or the publishers a reason to reject your manuscript without even reading it. ![]() The first and easiest excuse is that the manuscript doesn’t look professional. That’s true in the end, but authors swamp literary agents and publishers with more manuscripts than they can possibly consider. They get hundreds of unsolicited novel manuscripts every day-so many that they call the mountain of submissions the ‘slush pile’.īecause of this, and because a lot of the novels in the slush pile aren’t very good, they’re often looking for any excuse to move on to the next one. But surely it’s about how good my story is? Manuscript format: get your novel ready for submissionĪspiring authors often seem to think that manuscript format isn’t that important when they submit their novel to agencies and publishers.
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