You want a book thats got some substance and thickness to it. The rules are strict and different than prose, but easily mastered. Do the same for any credit text you have at the beginning of the book by selecting the text and then clicking the centred style. When many firsttime selfpublishers consider the design elements of their book they only think of the front cover. Well walk you through the steps to format your word document for printing a book that is a 5. Before sending your novel out to potential agents and publishers, be sure its sent in the standard manuscript format by following these guidelines. In the standard format, section text is doublespaced, leftaligned, and set in a 12point courier font. Standard manuscript novel template for microsoft word. The header of every page should have your surname, the books title, and the page number with this standard format. We also offer professional inhouse book cover design and text designformatting services. Below are steps that will take you through how to format a nonfiction manuscript and make it industry standard.
Kdp standard book sizes include most standard book dimensions, but they exclude the mass market paperback size. Manuscript format for fiction writers, the way the professionals do it. Standard deviation is one of those novels where not a ton happens, but the yes, thats exactly how it is writing and spoton commentary about marriage, introverts and extraverts, and parenting carry the story. How to format a manuscript the specifics guidelines you need. Please note that many agents and publishers have a preferred format. Id shoot for at least 200 pages, and not more than 350 pages. The right way to list book references in apa format. When formatting my manuscript for fiction, do i use justified margins, or the typical left side margins. How to format a novel manuscript writing academy scribophile. But the design of the pages inside those covers have just as much impact and require the same amount of careful consideration. Naturally, the quality of the content of your book is the number 1 priority. Click size more paper sizes and set the document to 6x9 or your book size. Ensure you take the time to explore the different options available for formatting your manuscript because a clean design is a vital part of publishing success. Free book design templates and tutorials for formatting in.
First, lets start by looking at the standard apa format for writing a book reference. If youve followed all of these bullet points, then congratulations. The examples below demonstrate how to properly format dialogue in various situations. Proper manuscript format for a novel first manuscript. Diy formatting and layout guidelines printready means that you give us your book pdfs once theyre final. If you have decided to format your book yourself without using templates, you may probably be making poor design selections along. For one thing, a novel manuscript requires a separate title page. The book sizes and dimensions listed on this page and throughout most of our site are rounded measurements. How do i format my manuscript to the industry standard. Check out the images below for an example of what a correctlyformatted manuscript looks like.
Here are the basics steps on formatting your manuscript in microsoft word for self publication. Picture book format and how to format your manuscript. A standard us paperback novel is typically printed as a 6 in. In most cases, the changes required will be minor tweaks. You may decide to format your manuscript when you start or you may choose to do it. Book size youll need to start by choosing a book size.
If your intentions are to submit your manuscript to a publisher or an agent, please check their guidelines first as they may vary. How to format a book in microsoft word with pictures getting started. The editor also provides four popular trim sizes for formatting 4. Created by hugo and nebula award nominated author william shunn. Then change the style of the first chapter heading. Bformat books are probably the most widely circulated in the uk, being the industry standard for most paperback fiction. Learn what it takes to create a bestseller on our comprehensive, free advice pages. Estimate your page count book designer linda parke. Standard manuscript format news newspapers books scholar jstor november 2015 learn how and when to remove. List of book sizes standard sizes for all different self. The directions below are for ms word 7 and 10 the most. If you are a selfpublishing author who wants to know how to typeset a book, there are plenty of tools and resources available to you. From book cover to structuring of content and internal page designs, these are perfect to give you an ultimate book published. Fiction authors should use indented paragraphs without full paragraph breaks.
If you want to experiment with book sizes and the way they might impact your typesetting choices, the reedsy book editor allows you to do so for free. Even with the advent of desktop publishing, making it possible for anyone to prepare text that appears professionally typeset, many publishers still require authors to submit manuscripts within their respective guidelines although there is no single set of guidelines. Many writers use ms word for ebook formatting but this shouldnt be your choice by default. From our experience, most authors make the same mistakes when with their book format.
Typesetting the pages for your own book can be a complicated and expensive exercise. Understanding book layouts and page margins describes typical margins for a standard 6 inch by 9 inch trade paperback, including createspace book layout specifications. Book template free book templates book layout template. Picture book format and how to format your manuscript picture book manuscript format flummoxes a lot of aspiring childrens book writers because there is so much potential variety. If youre creating collateral pieces like custom envelopes to go with your finished book, please refer to the. The margins are set so that there are 25 lines per page, with each line having a maximum of 60 characters. Moira allen is the editor of, and has written nearly 400 articles, serving as a columnist and regular contributor for such publications as the writer, entrepreneur, writers digest, and byline. Choose your book size, upload your manuscript, create your cover, set your price and press publish. About 12 the way down the page, centered, enter the full manuscript title all caps or mixed caps. Standard manuscript format is a formatting style for manuscripts of short stories, novels, poems.
The basic rules for formatting a novel manuscript are detailed below. However, i did use double spacing, ms word, and the correct paragraph indent. But when you format your book, the layout of your content, structure and readability is just as important as the content itself. How to format your novel manuscript the editors blog. Standard book sizes, dimension, and specifications blurb. This sample novel excerpt shows some of the ways in which novel format differs from short story format. The book templates listed on this page represent our standard trim sizes but we do print and bind most trim sizes up to and including 9 x 12 in both softcover and case bound formats. Best way to get a book format on writer ask libreoffice. Kelly hart is a proofreading contractor for book cover cafe and has been a slush reader for. Trim sizes in this post were updated on january 30, 2015 as soon as you get serious about selfpublishing a book, you are confronted with the choice of what size your book ought to be for instance, if you want to get a price on how much a book will. There are over a hundred things that can go wrong with your book formatting, and if we wrote about all of them youd be reading from sunup till sundown. Its the online formatting guide more editors point to than any other. Make sure to apply to the whole document instead of this section.
How to format your word document for book printing on mac. Whether you are writing a short story, full novel or anything in between, the way you format dialogue is the same. The first line of a paragraph is indented one half inch, or 5 characters, from the margin. These sizes are only guidelines to approximate sizing, and should not be used in order to design an actual book or magazine.
The basic structure of a book reference should list the authors last name, first initials, publication year, book title, and publisher. Page numbering begins with 1 on the second page of the manuscript the first page of actual text, and each chapter begins on its own page. A properly formatted manuscript is easier to read and tells your. Books at this size usually come with a tiny typeface and spine flexibility ranging from minimal to moderate. Calibri style in microsoft word, and now want to switch to a standard format. Today, a manuscript refers to a preliminary draft of a novel, short story, or nonfiction book. Readability is an interesting topic, and there are a number of readability formulas that can be used to test the readability of text. The standard size for a mass market paperback is around 4. In my career, i have seen hundreds of examples of picture book format. New writers often struggle to properly format dialogue.
How to format a nonfiction manuscript book editing services. This is the technique that was used back in the days before computers could instantaneously count the number of words in a document. Create your book in five steps with our easytouse online tools. Standard manuscript novel template for microsoft word by mike, on january 28th, 2012 hey folks, im putting up some templates for ms word that make heavy use of styles and make it easy to put your manuscript into the standard manuscript format that most editors and agents request. These steps include including setting up the correct trim size, setting up the correct margins, formatting the text, and numbering the pages. Build your book format a paperback manuscript word for mac build your book format a paperback manuscript pages for mac once you have set up your manuscript file with the correct bleed settings, set your interior to bleed when you choose your print options during your paperback content setup. Download our free guide to typesetting and uploading your book on completelynovel. Be sure to tailor your submission to meet their preferences. Standard manuscript format is a formatting style for manuscripts of short stories, novels, poems and other literary works.
Typesetting and formatting your book completelynovel. Whether you hire someone to help you or format the book on your own, here are some helpful guidelines. One of the first challenges a writer faces is how to format a manuscript. This handy interior pages template for paperback books cuts out the tricky technical stage and allows you to create a professionalstandard design which is stylish and a pleasure to read. Having some reallife examples at your side, you should get a better sense of. The reason for this is because it will depend on your finished books page size. However, an appointment diary is quite different from a novel or nonfiction book, and i would probably reduce the margins to about. An awardwinning writer, allen is the author of eight books, including starting your career as a freelance writer, the writers guide to queries, pitches and proposals, and writing to. Now, select an area of text, such as the title in the image above, and then click on the style and your text will be changed to the new format.
For books that originally appeared at an earlier date and that have been republished at a later one, insert the original publication date before the publication information. Your manuscript should be clean and professionallookingafter that, its your story that will make or break your submission. You now have a manuscript formatted to the industry standard. One of the things writers tend to obsess over is the proper format for submitting their manuscripts to agents and editors. Almost all literary agents and publishers expect electronic submissions in microsoft word format. How to format your book for self publication bookstand. The standard way of calculating word count, aside from simply using the word count feature of your word processor, is to format your document in standard submission format and then multiply the number of pages by 250. Check the documentation for much more useful information especially about headers, footers, page numbering, chapter numbering, manual page breaks, index, table of contents, references and automatic blank pages. This tutorial uses settings and options from the latest version of microsoft word, for mac or a pc. Calculate the number of pages using your current word count and the appropriate formula below, calculate the number of pages you can expect in your finished book. Youve written, edited and proofread your book, and youve formatted it to look the way you want. The list below shows standard book sizes but remember that books can be almost any size you wish, and portrait, landscape or square format. If youre unsure about which size to choose for your book, bformat is a pretty safe bet.