Manuscript

Okay, I'll admit. The perfect manuscript doesn't exist. However, a poorly prepared manuscript is a recipe for instant rejection even before the agent or editor reads the first paragraph. Therefore, there must be some consensus somewhere on what constitutes a good manuscript. My first impulse was to check with Chicago Manual of Style, Strunk's and MLA (Modern Language Association). That only confused me even more. They all disagreed. If the "experts" can't agree on the perfect manuscript can we expect editors and agents to agree? The elements that one editor insists upon are of little or no consequence to another editor. Typeface, font size, header contents and the number of lines per inch vary somewhat from editor to editor.

But after querying three different editors and two different agents I decided upon the following format. While there may be some editors that have other preferences, I can almost assure you there is nobody out there that will reject your manuscript solely upon format. Since I use MS Word, I'll be using their formatting functions and screen shots. However, you can rest assured that WordPerfect and SOT Office (the free word processor that can be downloaded from my Downloads Page, have similar features. The best way to assure that your manuscripts all look the same is to prepare the format as suggested and then same as a document template. I'll show you how to do that at the end of this article.

There are three different places in your word processor that you'll be going to create your manuscript template. In the File Menu, under Page Setup, you'll set page margins and header/footer offset. Font selection and paragraph settings are under the Format Menu and headers and footers are created and formatted under the View Menu. Let's start with Page Setup. Click on File>Page setup as seen in the illustration below.

This brings up the screen shown below.

PAGE MARGINS: Some books suggest 1" and others suggest 1.5". The 250 words per page formula I mention below is based on 1" margins, but some editors like to make notes in the margins and don't think that's enough space. I set my margins to 1.25" and haven't gotten a complaint yet.

HEADER and FOOTER: The default settings of .5" seem to work quite well. Make sure Gutter is set to 0. Otherwise you'll have an unwanted offset at either the top or left margin, depending on the Gutter position setting that is checked. Left is the default setting.

Now we'll move on to the Format menu. Click Format>Font to bring up the next screen.

FONT SELECTION: Here is one area where there is some disagreement. Just what is a font? Some people will tell you its the character set (or typeface) that you use, but they'll only be half correct. It is the character set (such as Courier, Times Roman, or Baskerville) plus the type size in points (10 point, 12 point or 24 point) plus the attribute. The attribute defines whether the letters are standard, italic, bold or bold italic. In the old days, when manuscripts were prepared with a typewriter (see your encyclopedia for a description of this antiquated device), the standard typeface was Courier. Since typewriters didn't offer the option of italics or bold faced type (imagine that!), conventional practice was to underline italics and double-underline boldface. Many editors still prefer this convention. Why? Because they grew up estimating word count of a manuscript by counting the number of pages and multiplying by their personal magic number. That number was usually 250 words per page. You would be surprised how many editors ignore the the word count function of word processors. And there is even rationale behind that practice. One editor explained to me that the word "a" doesn't take up as much page space as "hyperglycemia". As soon as I ran to my dictionary and looked that word up, I had to agree. Yet to the word processor, each counts as one word. Most editors consider a "word" to be seven characters long. Therefore, to appease the vast majority of editors, I suggest using 12pt Courier. Still, whenever possible, check their guidelines. Some editors prefer readability over convention.

Next we'll configure our paragraph settings. Click Format>Paragraph. This brings up the following screen:

ALIGNMENT: This should remain at Left. Publishers and agents HATE fully justified documents.

OUTLINE LEVEL: Keep this set for Body text.

INDENTATION: Keep both right and left set at 0. This setting indicates how far in text will be indented from your default margin settings. At other parts in your manuscript, if you want to set text deeper in the margins, such as in excerpted text, or for whatever reason you wish, you can highlight that paragraph and set each setting to whatever setting you desire.

SPECIAL: Set First line at .5". Later in your manuscript you might find the Hanging option to be useful. This sets the first line of the paragraph flush to the margins and indents all the following so your text looks something like this:

SPACING: This setting determines how much space appears between paragraphs. Here is another area where editors argue. Some insist that there be no spacing between paragraphs at all. Other people want one additional space between paragraphs. My manuscripts compromise. By setting the value to 6, I'm putting half of a space between paragraphs. The purists have yet to notice and the people that want a space are happy.

LINE SPACING: Here is where you come off as a professional. Most people select Double and let it go at that. By setting it to Exactly and then setting 25pt, as seen in the illustration, you have a manuscript that has precisely 25 lines to the page.

CREATING THE TEMPLATE: Of course, you don't want to have to do this every time you start a new story. That's what computers are for. They automate things. Select Save As: and scroll down to Document Template. Name it Manuscript, and from now on, every time you start a new story, you can click File>New and then double-click on the Manuscript icon and all these settings well be the default settings. Note that you're not limited to a single template. My computer books require totally different formatting guidelines than does a novel. I have a template fore each one, as you can see in the illustration below.

The next few steps aren't part of any standardized template, so I saved them for last. Your manuscript needs some rather specific information included in the headers and footers. And you need a cover page.

HEADERS AND FOOTERS: The last step for preparing your manuscript is to set the headers and footers. Click on View and then Header and Footer. You're screen will look something like this, except your manuscript will be there.

In the header, flush to the left margin, put your name. Press <Tab> twice to put the title of your story flush right. Now click the third button to the left of Close to switch from Header to Footer. Press Tab once to move to the center of the page, click Insert AutoText and select Page X of Y as in the illustration below.

This is preferred by most editors and agents over a simple page number, because when they inevitably drop your manuscript and the pages go flying, they have a way of knowing if they recovered all the pages. That also explains the coffee stains, foot prints and blood stains on your manuscript when it is returned.

THE COVER PAGE: The cover page is a bit different for novels than it is for short stories. For a novel, you want to put your name, address and email address in a small paragraph toward the top of the page. Hit <Enter> a few times until you get about a third of the way down the page and type the title of your manuscript. Hit <Enter> twice and type the words "by Michael W. Graves" even if you are the one writing the novel. This rule does not apply to really bad stories. Next put the approximate word count. That's all that goes on the cover page for a novel manuscript. Now, every time you start a new chapter, hit <Enter> enough times to get you about 1/3 of the way down the page, type the chapter number or title and continue as usual. When indicating a break in scene, it is customary to center three asterisk. (asterisks? asteri? asterae? What the heck is the plural of asterisk?)

For a short story all of the above information goes onto the page, except after the word count you'll triple space and start the story. The title should be placed in such a way that approximately 12 lines of type appear on the first page of the manuscript.


	The Perfect Manuscript Okay, I'll admit. The perfect manuscript doesn't exist. However, a poorly prepared manuscript is a recipe for instant rejection even before the agent or editor reads the first paragraph. Therefore, there must be some consensus somewhere on what constitutes a good manuscript. My first impulse was to check with Chicago Manual of Style, Strunk's and MLA (Modern Language Association). That only confused me even more. They all disagreed. If the "experts" can't agree on the perfect manuscript can we expect editors and agents to agree? The elements that one editor insists upon are of little or no consequence to another editor. Typeface, font size, header contents and the number of lines per inch vary somewhat from editor to editor. But after querying three different editors and two different agents I decided upon the following format. While there may be some editors that have other preferences, I can almost assure you there is nobody out there that will reject your manuscript solely upon format. Since I use MS Word, I'll be using their formatting functions and screen shots. However, you can rest assured that WordPerfect and SOT Office (the free word processor that can be downloaded from my Downloads Page, have similar features. The best way to assure that your manuscripts all look the same is to prepare the format as suggested and then same as a document template. I'll show you how to do that at the end of this article. There are three different places in your word processor that you'll be going to create your manuscript template. In the File Menu, under Page Setup, you'll set page margins and header/footer offset. Font selection and paragraph settings are under the Format Menu and headers and footers are created and formatted under the View Menu. Let's start with Page Setup. Click on File>Page setup as seen in the illustration below. This brings up the screen shown below. PAGE MARGINS: Some books suggest 1" and others suggest 1.5". The 250 words per page formula I mention below is based on 1" margins, but some editors like to make notes in the margins and don't think that's enough space. I set my margins to 1.25" and haven't gotten a complaint yet. HEADER and FOOTER: The default settings of .5" seem to work quite well. Make sure Gutter is set to 0. Otherwise you'll have an unwanted offset at either the top or left margin, depending on the Gutter position setting that is checked. Left is the default setting. Now we'll move on to the Format menu. Click Format>Font to bring up the next screen. FONT SELECTION: Here is one area where there is some disagreement. Just what is a font? Some people will tell you its the character set (or typeface) that you use, but they'll only be half correct. It is the character set (such as Courier, Times Roman, or Baskerville) plus the type size in points (10 point, 12 point or 24 point) plus the attribute. The attribute defines whether the letters are standard, italic, bold or bold italic. In the old days, when manuscripts were prepared with a typewriter (see your encyclopedia for a description of this antiquated device), the standard typeface was Courier. Since typewriters didn't offer the option of italics or bold faced type (imagine that!), conventional practice was to underline italics and double-underline boldface. Many editors still prefer this convention. Why? Because they grew up estimating word count of a manuscript by counting the number of pages and multiplying by their personal magic number. That number was usually 250 words per page. You would be surprised how many editors ignore the the word count function of word processors. And there is even rationale behind that practice. One editor explained to me that the word "a" doesn't take up as much page space as "hyperglycemia". As soon as I ran to my dictionary and looked that word up, I had to agree. Yet to the word processor, each counts as one word. Most editors consider a "word" to be seven characters long. Therefore, to appease the vast majority of editors, I suggest using 12pt Courier. Still, whenever possible, check their guidelines. Some editors prefer readability over convention. Next we'll configure our paragraph settings. Click Format>Paragraph. This brings up the following screen: ALIGNMENT: This should remain at Left. Publishers and agents HATE fully justified documents. OUTLINE LEVEL: Keep this set for Body text. INDENTATION: Keep both right and left set at 0. This setting indicates how far in text will be indented from your default margin settings. At other parts in your manuscript, if you want to set text deeper in the margins, such as in excerpted text, or for whatever reason you wish, you can highlight that paragraph and set each setting to whatever setting you desire. SPECIAL: Set First line at .5". Later in your manuscript you might find the Hanging option to be useful. This sets the first line of the paragraph flush to the margins and indents all the following so your text looks something like this: SPACING: This setting determines how much space appears between paragraphs. Here is another area where editors argue. Some insist that there be no spacing between paragraphs at all. Other people want one additional space between paragraphs. My manuscripts compromise. By setting the value to 6, I'm putting half of a space between paragraphs. The purists have yet to notice and the people that want a space are happy. LINE SPACING: Here is where you come off as a professional. Most people select Double and let it go at that. By setting it to Exactly and then setting 25pt, as seen in the illustration, you have a manuscript that has precisely 25 lines to the page. CREATING THE TEMPLATE: Of course, you don't want to have to do this every time you start a new story. That's what computers are for. They automate things. Select Save As: and scroll down to Document Template. Name it Manuscript, and from now on, every time you start a new story, you can click File>New and then double-click on the Manuscript icon and all these settings well be the default settings. Note that you're not limited to a single template. My computer books require totally different formatting guidelines than does a novel. I have a template fore each one, as you can see in the illustration below. The next few steps aren't part of any standardized template, so I saved them for last. Your manuscript needs some rather specific information included in the headers and footers. And you need a cover page. HEADERS AND FOOTERS: The last step for preparing your manuscript is to set the headers and footers. Click on View and then Header and Footer. You're screen will look something like this, except your manuscript will be there. In the header, flush to the left margin, put your name. Press <Tab> twice to put the title of your story flush right. Now click the third button to the left of Close to switch from Header to Footer. Press Tab once to move to the center of the page, click Insert AutoText and select Page X of Y as in the illustration below. This is preferred by most editors and agents over a simple page number, because when they inevitably drop your manuscript and the pages go flying, they have a way of knowing if they recovered all the pages. That also explains the coffee stains, foot prints and blood stains on your manuscript when it is returned. THE COVER PAGE: The cover page is a bit different for novels than it is for short stories. For a novel, you want to put your name, address and email address in a small paragraph toward the top of the page. Hit <Enter> a few times until you get about a third of the way down the page and type the title of your manuscript. Hit <Enter> twice and type the words "by Michael W. Graves" even if you are the one writing the novel. This rule does not apply to really bad stories. Next put the approximate word count. That's all that goes on the cover page for a novel manuscript. Now, every time you start a new chapter, hit <Enter> enough times to get you about 1/3 of the way down the page, type the chapter number or title and continue as usual. When indicating a break in scene, it is customary to center three asterisk. (asterisks? asteri? asterae? What the heck is the plural of asterisk?) For a short story all of the above information goes onto the page, except after the word count you'll triple space and start the story. The title should be placed in such a way that approximately 12 lines of type appear on the first page of the manuscript.

The Perfect Manuscript