How to Format Manuscripts
- 1). For margins, you have two choices: 1 inch all around, or 1 inch left and bottom along with 1 1/2 inches top and right. Either choice is universally accepted.
Note: The body of all manuscript pages must be double-spaced. - 2). The title page of every manuscript must be set up as follows:
Your name, address, phone number and email go in the upper left corner of the page; all single-spaced. - 3). In the upper right corner, put story type (horror, fantasy, children's, etc.). On the next line, enter the approximate word count.
All of the above title page information is single-spaced, and the words are not counted. - 4). Do not number your title page, it's automatically considered page one. Page two is page 2. Don't use the pound sign (#) and never put a period after the number. Always place the number to the far-right margin.
- 1). Your last name and one or two words from your title go in the upper-left corner of page two. Again, the page number (without a period) goes all the way to the end of the right margin.
Drop four blank lines (double-double space). If it's a new paragraph, indent five or six spaces and continue the text.
Note: Always avoid an orphan word in the text content of a new page.
The orphan word is one that is carried over from the end of the last paragraph or sentence on the previous page. To correct the error, revise the last paragraph or line of the previous page.
Three to five words from the page before it are acceptable.
The rest of page two and all subsequent pages should be formatted the same way.
Important: With the exception of the title page, last page in a chapter and the last page of the manuscript, all other pages must have the same number of lines.
You have four choices: 23, 24, 25 or 26 double-spaced lines. Select one of the four and remain consistent. - 2). Write your title page and page two using the format above.
- 3). Check spelling and grammar, then run a test print to see how professional your work looks.