Layout, Proper Spacing, and Format - Your Finished Product

Your manuscript's final presentation to your editor is much like a resume or an interview suit; you want it to look its best to win the heart of your client or editor. New nonfiction writers often make the mistake of sprucing up their manuscript with various and fancy fonts, sizes, spacing, and format features in their final product. While it is easy to understand the intention, most editors and clients want the finished product delivered in a very plain form. The reasons have to do with publishing rather than your manuscript's content.

The editor and publisher must work with typesetters and printing press operators after fully editing your manuscript for publication. The more of the special features that you use in your program, the more they have to pay the typesetter to clean it up and the more likely it will need numerous proofreads to make sure that the formatting was properly removed and replaced for the final layout. So, rather than helping the editor with these cool ideas and exhibition of your computer skills, you are actually creating more work for the editor, typesetter, and press operator, thus adding cost to the manuscript's production expenses.

Here are some basics for preparing your finished manuscript for your editor:

1. Always know what your editor or client prefers. Hard copy or electronic copy? Accommodate accordingly, and if he asks for a hard copy, then be prepared to also send him an electronic copy (a CD with a MS Word file on it or on some other mobile storage device).


2. Use a standard program for preparing your manuscript. The most common on the market for several years now is Microsoft's Word program. When using MS Word, make sure you prepare and save it as an .RTF file (rich text file format). You will want to ask the editor if they want it in a .DOC or .RTF format. The reason for this is that some publishing houses (mine is one of them) use multiple systems and pass electronic manuscripts between various computer systems. The .RTF file is the only one that can be read on all versions of Microsoft's Word program. So, an editor will want an electronic version of your work in a form that can easily pass between his staff members and so the .RTF file makes this possible.


3. Do not change fonts in your manuscript. The publishing industry standard font is Times New Roman. Verdana and Arial are also popular because the lettering is a little broader, making the text easier to read for middle-aged and older readers. Do not use a fancy font or a hard to read one, such as a cursive font. Editors want to see one font and they don't want to have to strain their eyes to read it.


4. Do not use more than two font sizes in your manuscript, one for headings and one for text. Again, this becomes an annoyance factor for the editor and his staff. The typesetter knows how to handle the content of your article or book in order to make it visually effective. You do not need to prove that you can do his job for him. Simply write well.


5. Traditional practice dictates that the font size on a manuscript should be either an 11 point or 12 point font. Larger fonts are considered by editors to be a vain attempt on the part of the author to appear to produce more content than he or she did in fact produce. Larger fonts can also be interpreted by the editor to be a sort of unspoken condescension that implies the editor is old and needs the larger font. You don't want to unwittingly insult your editor, so don't. Smaller fonts are considered to be a sign of an uptight personality on the part of the writer; a control freak or a perfectionist. Smaller fonts are also uncomfortable to editors regardless of the editor's age because an editor spends his entire day on the computer reading text and often deals daily with eye strain.


6. If you learned how to type in school before 1990, then there is a good likelihood that you learned to place two spaces behind the period at the end of the sentence before beginning the next sentence. On the old Smith-Corona, this was correct. With today's computer programs, it is incorrect. Much of the typesetting is automated by systems which convert text. One space is all that is needed between the period of a sentence and the capital letter that begins the next sentence.


7. Whether electronic or hard copy, your manuscript should have standard one inch margins all the way around the page and the page should be a standard 8.5 X 11" format.


8. The standard line spacing for a manuscript is double-spaced on the vertical lines. In the MS Word program, this setting exists under the "Format/Paragraph/ Line Spacing" section in the top bar. Some editors prefer a line spacing of 1.5 which is somewhat more compact than a double spaced page. Normally, a double-spaced page will average 300 to 400 words, depending on titles and subtitles and other variants. Be prepared to double-space your content unless your editor tells you otherwise. When submitting a hard copy, always double space the content.


9. In a non-technical way, running heads are the headings across the top of each page in a manuscript. Usually, the running heads change with each chapter in a book and these are not something you need to concern yourself about. You don't need to add running heads to a manuscript unless your editor asks you to add them. If she or he wants you to put running heads in your manuscript, then insert them into the Headers/Footers section so they appear in the top one-inch margin of your pages. To do this correctly and effectively, you will need to refer to your style manual. Warning: Inserting running heads when you have not been asked to by the editor is not a good idea.


10. The page justification on all manuscripts should be Left-Justified, that is, flush left with a ragged right near the margin. There are numerous reasons that editors do not want you to Block-Justify, so don't unless you are specifically asked to.


11. Bolds and underlines should be generally avoided in the content of the manuscript. In most instances, these features add too much computer code into the document for the editor and typesetter to handle the file with ease. If you want to emphasize something in the content, then italicize the word or phrase.


12. Watch hyphens and word breaks. If you use the MS Word program, then it will automatically break the words when they run off of the margin. When a hyphen or break occurs in a website address, then move the entire address to the next line if possible.