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howto-manuscript-fiction.md

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How to Format a Manuscript for a Novel or Short Story or Poetry

First of all, your agent will inform you what is needed for submission to a specific publisher (and some have their standards posted) but having your story pre-formatted in what is considered a typical manuscript format will get you nine-tenths of the way to the finish line.

It should be noted, that today, agents, editors, and publishers expect an editable document sent to them (a digital document). It is usually passed back and forth over email. In the near future, it is my suspicion (see predictions at the end of this) that editors will begin to accept live cloud documents. If that is the case, some of this stuff gets easier. That being said, there is value in being able to format things appropriately regardless of what tool you are using. The general format doesn't change much.

The Format: generally guidance for English manuscripts in the USA

Thus far, this is the cleanest and most succinct website on the topic: https://format.ms/story or https://www.shunn.net/format/story/. Also check out his Novel and Poetry formatting examples. A good description is here as well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_manuscript_format

In summation, when formatting your short story or novel for submission, you are trying to . . .

  1. Be consistent and readable.
  2. Make it easy for an editor to mark things up.
  3. Avoid formatting that distracts.
  • Page-dimensions: letter-sized (8.5 inches by 11 inches)
  • Margins: at least 1-inch margins (all margins)
  • Font:
    • 12pt. Black.
    • Times New Roman (or it's equivalent). Read more about fonts in On Fonts
    • Some publishers will want Ariel or Courier New (or their equivalents). See the previously mentioned On Fonts document.
  • Spacing: double-ish. 1.5 spacing may be fine.
  • Paragraph alignment: left (ragged right)
  • Hyphenation: turn off auto-hyphenation
  • Paragraph indentation: 0.5 inches or there-abouts
  • Sentence spacing: a single space between sentences. Some agents and publishing houses don't care, but most do, so err on the side of what is standard: a single space between sentences. If you are submitting in courier font, you have an argument to do otherwise, but it is safer to go the single-space route. See also, "The Space Between (sentences)".
  • Electronic copy: If they ask for .docx, ask if they are okay with a .odt (if using LibreOffice), or if you are using Google Docs, ask if they are okay with a link to document. If they are adamant, "Save As..." (LibreOffice) or "Download" (Google Docs). Science publishers may require TeX or LaTeX, but we are talking mostly fiction here.
  • First page (see example PDFs in the Artifacts folder)
    • contact information
    • approximate word count
    • title and byline
    • perhaps audience (category) and genre
    • document version (depending on who the recipient of the manuscript is).
  • Header on 2nd page onward: Surname / Running Title / Page Number
  • Style: Chicago Manual of Style
  • Emphasized text: if you mean to italicize something, italicize it. The days of underlining, just like the days of two-spaces between sentences, are over (unless the publisher says differently).
  • Don't use the tab key or space bar to indent paragraphs. Use styles to properly format the indentation by default.
  • Parts and Chapters start a new page, about one-third of the way from the top, centered. Still 12pt and normal capitalization (unless stated otherwise).
  • Scenes: a single 12pt '#' centered, between two paragraphs.
  • First paragraph after a Part, Chapter, or Scene: pick one: either indented or not indented. Just be consistent. This will likely be spelled out by the publisher. This has been the standard for hundreds of years, but some publishers will say to simply indent it. If it is too hard for you to do, just indent it.
  • End of story mark (the "Thirty"): At the end, include a thirty mark. "###" or "# # #"for a short story and "The End" for a novel. 12pt, centered.
  • Short Story:
    • The story begins right after the byline on the first page. There can be extra spacing between the byline and the story.
    • Page two is really page two and should be numbered as such, i.e., the story begins on the title page.
  • Novel:
    • The novel text begins on the second page a third of the way down the page regardless if it starts with a part or chapter marker.
    • Page two is really page one and should be numbered as such. I.e., the story text starts on the 2nd page of the manuscript.

That's it! That's the summary of how a manuscript is formatted. For LibreOffice specifics, I encourage you to read Using LibreOffice for Manuscript Formatting and Development. For Google Doc specifics, I encourage you to visit Using Google Docs for Manuscript Formatting and Development.