Standard manuscript format: the settings editors expect

Standard manuscript format is the plain, conventional layout most editors and agents expect a submitted manuscript to follow. In practice it means a readable 12-point font, double line spacing, one-inch (2.5 cm) margins, indented paragraphs, a header with your name, title and page number, and each chapter starting on a new page. Nothing about it is clever. Its whole job is to make your book easy to read and easy to handle, so that the person reading notices the writing and nothing else.

There is no single law behind it. Publishers vary, and when a publisher's own guidelines say something different, the guidelines win every time. But the conventions below are close to universal, and if a publisher says only "standard manuscript format", this is what they mean.

Why standard manuscript format still matters

Editors read a great many manuscripts, most of them on screen, many of them late in the day. A familiar layout lets the eye settle. Nobody rejects a strong book because the margins were slightly off. But an unusual font, single spacing or decorative headings make the reading harder, and they can suggest a writer who has not looked at how submissions work. Clean formatting is a small courtesy that removes a reason to stop.

It also helps once a book moves forward. Double-spaced pages leave room for notes, page numbers make it easy to refer to a passage, and a consistent layout converts cleanly when the text goes to a copy-editor or typesetter.

We wrote about what we pay attention to in an opening in what an editor listens for in the first ten pages. Formatting is the floor under all of that: it should be invisible.

The page settings

These are the settings to fix before anything else.

Font: a plain serif such as Times New Roman, or a clear alternative such as Garamond or Georgia, at 12 point. Some publishers prefer Courier; follow them if they say so.
Line spacing: double, throughout the text. Not 1.5, not "exactly 24 point" squeezed tighter.
Margins: one inch (2.5 cm) on all four sides.
Alignment: left-aligned, with a ragged right edge. Do not justify the text.
Paragraphs: indent the first line of each paragraph by about half an inch (1.27 cm), using your word processor's paragraph settings, not the Tab key or spaces. Do not add an extra blank line between paragraphs.
First paragraphs: the first paragraph of a chapter or scene can be left without an indent. Either way, be consistent.
One space after a full stop. The double space is a typewriter habit.
Page size: A4 in most of the world, US Letter in the United States and Canada. Use whatever your country uses unless asked otherwise.

The title page

Your manuscript opens with a simple title page. Put your name, email address and phone number in the top left corner. Some writers add a postal address; it does no harm. In the top right, give an approximate word count, rounded to the nearest thousand for a novel.

Halfway down the page, centred, put the title in capitals or bold, and below it "by" and your name, or the name you write under. If you write under a pen name, the contact details carry your legal name and the byline carries the pen name.

That is all. No images, no dedication, no epigraph on this page. If the book has an epigraph, it goes on its own page after the title page.

Headers, chapters and scene breaks

The running header. Every page after the title page carries a header, usually in the top right: your surname, a short form of the title, and the page number. For example: Okafor / THE SALT YEAR / 47. If the pages are ever separated, anyone can put them back in order.

Chapters. Start each chapter on a new page, using a page break, not a run of empty lines. Drop the chapter heading a third of the way down the page, centred. Keep the heading simple: "Chapter One", "1", or a chapter title if your book uses them. Then begin the text a few lines below.

Scene breaks. Inside a chapter, mark a change of scene with a centred symbol on its own line, usually a single hash (#) or three asterisks (* * *). A blank line on its own is easily lost, especially where it falls at the bottom of a page.

Italics and emphasis. Use italics for italics. The old convention of underlining words to show italics belonged to typewriters, and you only need it if a publisher asks.

The end. Some writers type "The End" or "END" centred after the last line. It is optional, but it tells the reader the final page has not gone missing.

A worked example: the first page of chapter one

Here is how the opening of a manuscript looks once the settings are in place. Imagine it on a double-spaced page with one-inch margins.

Okafor / THE SALT YEAR / 2 (header, top right)
(about a third of the way down the page, centred)
CHAPTER ONE
The ferry was late, which on the island meant nothing at all. Ada sat on her suitcase at the end of the jetty and watched the gulls work the harbour.
(first line of the next paragraph indented, no blank line between paragraphs)
She had told nobody she was coming.

Notice what is missing. No coloured text, no drop capital, no decorative font for the chapter heading, no images. The page looks almost bare, and that is the point: the only thing left to look at is the sentence.

Small things that cause trouble

A few habits come up again and again in submissions. None is a disaster on its own, but each is easy to fix.

Tabs and spaces for indents. They shift when the file is opened on another computer. Set the indent in the paragraph settings.
Manual page breaks made of empty lines. Edit one page and every chapter opening moves. Use a real page break.
Tracked changes and comments left in the file. Accept or reject every change and delete comments before you save the submission copy.
Several fonts. One font, one size, from title page to last line. Headings can be bold, but not in a different typeface.
Odd file names. Name the file so someone can find it again: your surname, the title and the word "manuscript" is enough, unless the guidelines ask for something else.
The wrong file type. Most publishers ask for .docx or PDF. Send what the guidelines name.

Standard manuscript format for poetry and picture books

Poetry is the main exception. Poems are usually single-spaced, with a blank line between stanzas, and each poem starts on a new page. Your line breaks are part of the poem, so check they survive in the file you send. Keep the same plain font and margins.

Picture book texts are short, so many writers send them as a single document laid out like prose, sometimes with simple notes about page turns or illustrations where the text alone cannot carry the meaning. Keep those notes few. Publishers' guidelines for picture books vary more than most, so read them closely.

Short stories follow the same rules as novels, except that the title and byline usually sit on the first page of the text rather than on a separate title page, with the story starting a few lines below.

Before you send

Run through this checklist with the submission copy open.

I have read this publisher's guidelines, and where they differ from this page, I have followed them.
12-point plain font, the same throughout.
Double spacing, one-inch (2.5 cm) margins, left-aligned text.
Paragraph indents set in the paragraph settings, no blank lines between paragraphs.
Title page with contact details, approximate word count, title and byline.
Header with surname, short title and page number on every page after the first.
Each chapter starts on a new page, using a page break.
Scene breaks marked with a centred # or * * *.
No tracked changes, comments, images or coloured text.
File saved in the format the publisher asks for, with a clear file name.

Formatting will not make a book, and a small slip will not break one. Get it right once, save the settings as a template, and you will never have to think about it again. Then the reading can begin with the first sentence, where it should. When the manuscript is ready, write the query letter and the synopsis that go with it, and send us your work.

How we work: editorial standards and corrections.