How To Format Your Manuscript

Dearest Brilliant Writers,

We have gotten many requests for the proper way to format a manuscript. While manuscript formatting is a somewhat subjective thing there are a few guidelines that seem to be quite universal. Since the formatting is one of the first things a potential editor/agent/publisher sees, we want to help you put your best foot forward. Thusly, we shall try to enumerate the basics for you here.

The basic formatting rules are as follows:

• Use 1 inch margins on all sides
• Double space the body of your manuscript
• On your first page, include the title and author of your manuscript 1/3 of the way down
• In the upper left hand corner of your first page, include your name, address, and contact information
• On pages 2 and on, include in the right hand header of your manuscript the title, author, and current page of your manuscript in this format: Last Name / Title / Page Number
• Use a standard, serif font such as Times New Roman size 12.
• Separate section breaks with a line break followed by the pound sign (centered) and another line break
• Do not indent the first paragraph of a section/manuscript, but do indent subsequent paragraphs 5 characters or spaces

Those are the basic rules that seem to be universal. There are variations of course, but we find that this is the most complete and accepted format for submitting a manuscript to a literary market.

A quick example is below. For a complete example of how the first page of a properly formatted short story should look, click HERE.