Proper Manuscript submission format

KarmaChameleon · May 9, 2013

Hi,

I realize that this won't make or break whether an agent chooses my work but I've seen a lot of conflicting opinions about proper manuscript submission. Some things seem to be universally accepted like (double spacing, page breaks for chapters, etc...) but some things are unclear like:

Do I have a header in the upper right hand corner with my name, title and page number?

If your submission is only a partial do you write "the end" at the end? (Some posts seemed to indicate this)

I'm kind of OCD when it comes to proper formatting so I want to make sure that I get this right.

Thanks all!

amschilling · May 9, 2013

FWIW, I put my header in the upper left. No idea if it matters, but I've never been called on it before.

As for "The End," unless it's the end of the book I wouldn't use it. Again FWIW, I never have and it's never been an issue. But I could see some getting confused about why there's something indicating the end of a story if it's really not the end of the story...

Drachen Jager · May 9, 2013

Page number should be upper right corner. I've never seen any agent get peeved about exactly where the rest of it goes (and I've only ever seen one who mentioned the page number, she likes it that way so she can riff through the pages to find a page number).

Remember, an agent wants to like your manuscript. They're not going to throw it away for petty reasons (most of the time).

Susan Coffin · May 9, 2013

Karma.

This website should help you with the basics.

I think the only difference is that the standard has become to use one space after sentence end punctuation, and Times New Roman is an acceptable font to use.

Proper Manuscript submission format

KarmaChameleon

amschilling

Drachen Jager

Professor of applied misanthropy

Susan Coffin

Tell it like it Is