Lately, I’ve gotten a lot of manuscripts to edit with incorrect formatting.
Using the standard format for your manuscript for submission to a publisher or freelance editor is important. Do it incorrectly and you immediately tell that publisher you’re an amateur.
Yes, we all start at the beginning, but there’s no need to let the publisher know you’re new at this. You can submit like a pro the first time!
Formatting MS Word for your manuscript isn’t difficult. But for the tech-challenged I’ve made a video of each step. And you can create a template with these settings or make these settings your default.
If you prefer text and know the tech, the standard formatting is listed below the video.
Standard format for book manuscript submission:
- 1 inch margins, all around
- Times New Roman font, at 12 pt
- Left aligned text with first line indent
- Double spaced
Thanks so much for this instruction. I like the idea of templates so I don’t have to start fresh each time. It usually takes me a long time to figure it out. This would work great for blogs too. Thanks again.
Templates are definitely time savers! Glad this was helpful to you.