Using Manuscript Format

AKA You Have To Get This Right

Other than following the guidelines of whoever it is you are submitting your writing to, the only other important thing you can do to make your manuscript stand out is to format it correctly – so that it doesn’t stand out.

There are a set of rules (not guidelines) for how a manuscript needs to be presented. Here are three excellent pages that will tell you how to do so:

• the what and why of how to format your manuscript from John Gregory Betancourt
• a bulletted list of how to format your manuscript from Robert J. Sawyer with sample manuscript available as a PDF
• a detailed explanation of manuscript format and word count from William Shunn with sample manuscript available as a web page

uncommonly common

I do most of my writing on my MacBook in Pages and have noticed a discrepancy in how many words Pages thinks my manuscript has compared to how many words Microsoft Word on a PC thinks I have. For now, I’ve been going with the Microsoft Word numbers. I proof and save my manuscript in Word on my PC desktop, saving the file out in the format .doc.

If you are using the “new” 2007 Microsoft Word with the ribbon/icons at the top, the default format it will try and save your file as is .docx. Anyone who does not have the new version of Word will not be able to read that file correctly, so unless it says otherwise, you may want to save your manuscript out as a .doc, just in case.

Now that you know the rules of how to format your manuscript, write the best book you can and send it out.

Barbossa: First, your return to shore was not part of our negotiations nor our agreement so I must do nothing. And secondly, you must be a pirate for the pirate’s code to apply and you’re not. And thirdly, the code is more what you’d call “guidelines” than actual rules. Welcome aboard the Black Pearl, Miss Turner .
- Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Jul 7, 2009

Tags: manuscript format  |  rules

Categories: writing