How to Correctly Format a Book Manuscript by Algis Budrys

This article is excepted from Algis Budrys' entertaining, concise and very practical, Writing to the Point (available on this web site). Algis is a legendary science fiction author and editor. His workshops and lectures have taught thousands of aspiring writers--many who gone on to successful careers. His advice is well worth reading.

How to Correctly Format a Book Manuscript
From Writing to the Point, Chapter Eight, How to Do a Manuscript

Now, as to the manuscript itself: On the first page, put your check-cashing name and an address in the upper left-hand corner. Put under that you Social Security number. In the upper right-hand corner, put a word count. Not quite halfway down the page, put the title of your story, and your byline. If your byline is different from your other name, I will quickly reason out the you want the story published under the pseudonym and the check sent to your check-cashing name and address.

Start your story halfway down the page, double-spaced--that is, with an open line after every typed line, not with an extra space between words--and done in standard paragraphing. Do not insert and extra line between paragraphs. Leave a margin of about an inch all around. On succeeding pages,m put a key work of the title, the last name of your byline, and the page number, in the upper right-hand corner. It's the easiest to read, and a page number anywhere else is a real annoyance.

Now, here are some tips:

Don't put a copyright notice on the manuscript. You have a copyright, automatically, just through the act of creation. When the story sells, ask the editor to publish a copyright notice at that time. A proper copyright notice contains a date. I know that almost all the stories I see have been seen elsewhere previously just don't want to be reminded of it. And do your really think that I am going to put, say, Copyright (c) 1988, in a magazine published in 2000? I know that some of your are worried about thievery. There really aren't many thieves, as distinguished from incompetents. But do you think a copyright notice on the manuscript is going to stop a thief?

Don't set up your manuscript to look like a printed page. Don't even straighten out the right-hand margin. I don't care how beautiful a job your printer can do; give me a manuscript as close to typewritten form as possible. And that includes not setting any italics; indicate italics by underlining. The reason, again, is that anything else is more prone to error in reading, and in typesetting. And make your characters either 10-pitch or 12-pitch; again, your printer may stand on its head and whistle Dixie, but nobody is going to see that. So, please, give that old-fashioned, clunky-looking manuscript which is, by the way, the easiest to read. And, of course, print it out on one side of white paper. If you are still using a typewriter, by the way, use the cheapest Xerox paper you can buy. Do not, for the love of God, use any of the waxed papers or other fancy presentation stock that people will try to sell you. Please.

And while we're at it--don't place your manuscript in any kind of binder, don't staple it, don't hole-punch it. Leave the manuscript alone; put a paper clip on it, or something equally easy to remove while reading it, if you feel you must. In Hollywood, they dress up their scripts for reading. You're not writing for Hollywood.

And word-counts--if your computer does not give you a word count, count a typical line by character, not by word. Count everything, including the spaces between words. Then divide by six--the number of letters in the standard English word--and multiply by the number of lines in the story. Put that in the form "Approx. 1234 wds." on the manuscript. Don't be exact. Nobody counts words exactly anymore; all we want is a rough guide to length.

To learn the essense of writing fiction that sells, order Writing to the Point by Algis Budrys.

"There are two kinds of statistics, the kind you look up and the kind you make up."
Rex Stout
author

Action Publishing LLC
PO Box 391
Glendale, California 91209
(323) 478-1667
Fax (323) 478-1767

About Action Publishing
Contact us