Proper Formatting and icky page numbers. What do I do?

xcomplex · Mar 25, 2010

Ok so I am on the verge of querying and I want to have my manuscript properly formatted though I have one issue. According to the formatting and submitting your manuscript book by Writers Digest I have to have the first page as follows...

Approximately 88,000 words

LALALAL

By

XcompleX

1000 Alien drive.

H5379 Mars

Ph: (000) 000-000

But that isn't the nature of the problem. The problem for me is that the first page should begin where the first chapter is not this page and when I insert header or page number in MS word it goes everywhere. Do you guys have any hints on how to get over this issue without separating the documents?

alleycat · Mar 25, 2010

You need to go to File > Page Setup > Layout and put a check in "Different first page". Then insert your header/page number starting on the next page.

This assumes you're using Word 2003, it might be slightly different for Word 2007.

shaldna · Mar 26, 2010

You can do it two ways

Go to insert-->page number --->top page ----->format ---->start at page

Or you can view-->header/footer --> autoinsert--->page number

If you are printing it out then you can just print the first page out seperately

bonitakale · Mar 26, 2010

alleycat said:
You need to go to File > Page Setup > Layout and put a check in "Different first page". Then insert your header/page number starting on the next page.

This assumes you're using Word 2003, it might be slightly different for Word 2007.

Thank you, Alleycat! I spent a lot of time trying to figure that out, not long ago, without success. (I wanted to demo proper format for someone.) Foolishly, I expected the command to have a different header to be with the header commands

, and Word 2000's Help didn't seem to help.

RJK · Mar 26, 2010

That's the first time I saw that kind of format for a title page. I normally start
top left my name top right total words
address
city, state, zip
email
phone

Drop

several

lines

then

center the title

center a novel

center by me

The headers of each subsequent page has the novel name, my last name and the page number at top right.

shaldna · Mar 26, 2010

RJK said:
That's the first time I saw that kind of format for a title page. .

Me too. Mine usually look like:

Name
Address
Address
Postcode
Telephone no
Email

word count :xxx

. title
. name/pen name

. Chapter 1

text text text text texttext text text text texttext text text text texttext text text text texttext text text text texttext text text text texttext text text text texttext text text text texttext text text text texttext text text text text

xcomplex · Mar 27, 2010

It was just out of a book. So maybe I will give a shot the layouts you guys suggested. It makes my life easier.

alleycat · Mar 27, 2010

xcomplex said:
It was just out of a book. So maybe I will give a shot the layouts you guys suggested. It makes my life easier.

You will see slightly different suggestions for the basic page layout. I don't think anyone worries too much about it as long as someone's is using a generally accepted professional layout with the correct information.

Here's one good example that many people use: http://www.shunn.net/format/novel.html

shaldna · Mar 28, 2010

alleycat said:
Here's one good example that many people use: http://www.shunn.net/format/novel.html

Thats sorta what I use. Except I don't have a cover page like that. I just start chapter one two lines below my title.

Proper Formatting and icky page numbers. What do I do?

xcomplex

Fantastic Fantasy!

alleycat

Still around

shaldna

The cake is a lie. But still cake.

bonitakale

RJK

Sheriff Bullwinkle the Poet says:

shaldna

The cake is a lie. But still cake.

xcomplex

Fantastic Fantasy!

alleycat

Still around

shaldna

The cake is a lie. But still cake.