Written by A. A. Bell | 29 November 2010

A question arises regularly at writers' workshops and lectures about the "right" way to format a manuscript for publication whenever submission guidelines aren't specifically available from the publisher. (As far as there can be a "right" way about anything in writing, and considering that some people can be hindered creatively in their first rough drafts unless they use a format with which they're personally very comfortable). However I've noticed that there's one point that's nearly never mentioned in submission guidelines, even though it's something that makes your work shout "novice" from the very first line. Before we get to that, though, we need to start with the basics.

NOTE: All formatting will be edited thoroughly by the publisher in accordance with house style and a combination to suit your specific story/book/series. But that's different. You're not formatting with that in mind. You have to format to get your work in the door in the first place.

What is the "right" way to format a manuscript for publication?

1) If a publisher/agent/competition supplies their submission guidelines on their website, or advertises them in their newsletters/magazines, then always use those guidelines, paying the strictest attention to every tiny detail. Failure to do so is often equivalent to stamping "reject" on your own work. (Reason: If you can't follow basic instructions during submission, how can you cope with the more complex stages to come? You might as well stamp your work "Sloppy", "Idiot" or "Egotist" while you're at it.)

2) If no submission guidelines are available, use the following industry standards for Must-Dos and Big No-Nos, while taking note of the differences for fiction and non-fiction where applicable:

Must Dos (which have a little flexibility built in):
a) All pages must either have your story's title and/or your name, and/or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it in your headers or footers (or the story & author info in the header with contact details in the footer). Don't crowd your info. Make use of white space.

b) Titles, headings etc., must all have simple formatting. (e.g. capitals or italics or underlined. Choose one and stick to it. Don't use combinations. Note: a slightly larger font than the rest of the text can be acceptable for headings.)

c) Fonts for all text should be standard fonts (usually Times New Roman, Arial or Courier depending on what country/publisher you're submitting to, although some small presses have other preferences depending on their particular editors at the time. Usually, however, font headings are always consistent with the font used for the main body of text. The exception is second drafts of magazine articles/short stories where the house style is supplied specifically to the approved author and often doesn't work with Word or other publishing houses anyway (Typically all the lifestyle magazines). Basically, if a publisher wants you to use a special font, they'll supply it to you via special codes in the edited pages.

d) Margins must be generous on all 4 sides of each page: between 1.5cm to 2.5cm wide, with 2cm as the most common. Reason: white space works. It improves the readability of your work and gives editors room to make notes on their hard copies. Generally, all margins are the same on the page, but if you must squeeze more onto one page, try playing with the bottom or right margin before you mess with the all-important left and top margins. Better yet, edit your text to make it shorter and punchier.

e) Justification: Set your defaults to left justify the main body of your text, while titles/headings can be left justified or centred. Most editors prefer it if the manuscripts aren't both left and right justified. (Special text such as quotes for illustration and/or breakout box subtext can be centred or right justified on their own lines.)

f) Indents: all paragraphs (except the first paragraph in each new scene or chapter) must have the first line indented by at least 0.5cm and, at most, 2cms, however the most effective indents for readability fall within the range of 0.75cms and 1.25cms. Note: for the first paragraph of each new story, scene or chapter, see the First Line Rule below. Warning: set your indents using the horizontal ruler (or right click and format the paragraphs that way). Don't use the Tab or 'increase/decrease indent' buttons or you'll indent the whole paragraph instead of just the first line). Also note: hard tabs inserted using the Tab button can play havoc with typesetting and other programs.

g) Scene breaks (inside chapters) are shown using one of the following:

i. 3 to 5 blank lines between scenes

ii. 1 line that is blank with a centred symbol. (In such cases the symbol is usually # or ***)

iii. 1 to 3 blank lines, then a line with a symbol, then another 1 to 3 blank lines. In such cases, the symbol can be anything, but common symbols include: # or *** or <<<>>>, or a wingdings font that provides an image suitable to your specific story (e.g. a pirate story might use the image of a skull 'n' cross bones, a horse story might use a trio of horseshoes). Therefore this third option is more common when submitting children's fiction or non-fiction.

h) End of Manuscript/Extract should be declared in an obvious way, such as by the use of the words "End of Manuscript", "End of Extract" or symbols as discussed above. Or combinations such as : – end manuscript – (centred at the bottom/middle of the last page)

Must dos (with no flexibility):
i) Numbering: all pages must be numbered.
j) Title and/or author's name must be on every page.
k) First Line Rule: The first line of each new story, chapter or scene is not to be indented, despite standard Word/Mac formatting, which tries to make it the same as all your other paragraphs, so a manual over-ride or programmed template is required for the first line of each new scene or chapter.

The big no-nos include:

• no double spaces after full stops
• no fancy fonts or headings (unless supplied by the publisher)
• no single spacing of lines (except in headers for title, author, page number etc)
• no margins smaller than 1.5cm or larger than 3cm
• no extra spaces between paragraphs (except for some non-fiction, such as this style of article or industrial report, and some styles of uni theses/exegeses). Handy hint for non-fiction: if it's complex, make it look easier to read by adding more white space. Note: if your word program adds an extra line space automatically for your fiction, over-ride manually using the line spacing icon, or change your defaults manually using a right click and the format paragraph menu, or set up a blank document template for all your own fiction manuscripts.

Handy hint: write the way you need to write to get the story out of your head, then edit, using the edit/find function, and edit/find & replace function to hunt for occurrences of the big no-nos. But beware of 'replace all', which can replace more than you intended.

Ironically, it's the First Line Rule that is rarely mentioned in writers' workshops or how-to articles, even though it's one of the first things that scream "novice at work here" (Pick up virtually any commercially published book within the last 150 years and check for yourself).

Conclusion:
It's the simplest things that speak loudest. So play it smart. Be professional and double-check your formatting checklist before you submit to any other industry professional, including your next manuscript assessor.

AA Bell is the author of the fantasy thriller Diamond Eyes.

She has also authored 29 other best-selling, award winning and popular titles and over 170 articles under 3 other pen-names across 7 other genres and multiple countries in 12 years – all without the benefit of an agent, though she is still looking.