Manuscript Formatting Guide for Novelists
A clear manuscript formatting guide covering readable submission basics, consistency, chapter starts and what to check before sending your novel out.
A submission manuscript and a finished book are not the same thing.
A printed novel is designed for readers. A manuscript sent to an agent, editor or competition is designed to be read, assessed and annotated easily.
That is why restrained formatting usually wins.
Follow the recipient’s rules first
Before changing fonts, margins or paragraph spacing, read the submission instructions.
If an agency asks for the first three chapters as a Word document, send that. If a competition requires a PDF with a particular font and anonymised title page, follow those rules instead.
No general formatting guide outranks the instructions of the person receiving the work.
Keep the manuscript simple
Use a readable font, sensible size, generous line spacing and normal margins. Make chapter headings obvious and consistent.
Avoid decorative typography, elaborate drop caps, coloured text and page designs intended to imitate a printed novel unless the recipient specifically requests them.
The manuscript’s job is to make the writing easy to judge.
Paragraphs and dialogue
Choose a consistent paragraph style and use it throughout.
In conventional fiction, new speakers normally begin new paragraphs. Dialogue punctuation should be consistent. Scene breaks should use one clear method throughout the manuscript rather than a different decoration each time.
Consistency makes the page disappear so the reader can concentrate on the story.
Chapter starts
Begin chapters clearly and consistently.
A chapter number or title should be visually distinct from the body text. Do not create chapter positioning by repeatedly pressing Return or inserting dozens of spaces. Use proper paragraph and page-break controls where your software supports them.
That makes later editing and conversion far easier.
Headers, page numbers and identifying information
Submission requirements differ, but many recipients expect page numbers and some form of identifying information in the header or document.
Again, check the recipient’s rules before assuming a universal standard.
If anonymity is required, remove your name from the manuscript and from document metadata where necessary.
Run a consistency check before sending
Look for double spaces, inconsistent quotation marks, missing chapter numbers, accidental blank pages, odd font changes, comments left in the document and tracked changes that should have been accepted or rejected.
Then open the exported file itself.
Do not assume that because the manuscript looked right in the editor it will look right in the file you are sending.
Manuscript formatting is not book formatting
Once the book is accepted or you decide to self-publish, the requirements change.
Now you are thinking about trim size, printed page dimensions, running heads, front matter, page breaks, ebook behaviour and the visual experience of the reader.
That is a publishing design problem rather than a submission-manuscript problem.
AuthorsDrop separates the work of writing and organising a long project from the later stage of preparing it through AuthorsDrop Press.
See the self-publishing book formatting guide or try AuthorsDrop.