Manuscript Format

Although there are (unfortunately) countless standards and variations for manuscript formats, we’re adding our own addition to the plethora.  Please do your best to follow the format described below:

Manuscript Format: Short Story/Flash Fiction/Nonfiction

  1. Set your margins to be 1 inch (2.54cm) on all sides
  2. In the top left hand corner of the first page include the following information:
    1. Your actual real/legal name
    2. Your street address
    3. Your City, State/Province, Postal Code/Zip Code
    4. Your phone number including area/country code
    5. Your email address
  3. In the top right hand corner of the first page, include the word count of your submission rounded to the nearest hundred.
  4. Below the address block, center the title of the work
  5. Below the title include the “byline” (also centered): “by credited as” where credited as is either your pseudonym, your real name, or a variant of your real name.  If your name is “Richard Castle” but you want to be credited as “Rick Castle”, your byline should read: by Rick Castle.
  6. Below the byline, start the actual text. Ensure that it is double spaced, that new paragraphs are indented (with a tab), there is no extra space between paragraphs, and it is left justified (not full justified).
  7. Indicate changes in scene or point of view (POV) which should be shown by additional white space by including the # symbol, left justified, on a line by itself.
  8. Indicate changes of scene or point of view (POV) which should be shown by some sort of artistic squiggly, by including three asterixes (***) centered on a line by themselves.
  9. Do not use any special mechanism for indicating bold text in your manuscript. If something needs to be bolded, make it bold.
  10. Do not use any special mechanism for indicating italics in your manuscript. If something needs to be italicized, make it italic.
  11. Use a readable font in 12pt for the manuscript, such as Cambria, Constantia or Times New Roman.
  12. Set your word processor to have a header or footer which includes the following information (right justified): Last Name / Title / Page #.  Example: “Abel / Gift Horses / 2″
  13. At the end of the piece on a line by itself: “END” should appear.

If in doubt use one of our templates: .docx, .doc or .rtf

Manuscript Format: Poetry

The Manuscript format for Poetry is the same as that used for Fiction and Nonfiction with the following exceptions:

  1. Do not double space, unless your poem is meant to be double spaced when published
  2. Make sure that the text is formatted as it should appear, line breaks, indents, etc…
  3. Use the font that you want the poem to appear in, and explicitly tell us what it is. If no preference is expressed, it will be displayed in a sans-serif font.
  4. The count should be the number of lines, not the number of words.
  5. Make sure you specify what form of poem it is, even if it’s “prose” or “free verse”
  6. If your poem does not have a title, indicate that in the title area using the following text including the brackets: [This poem is intentionally left untitled]; which means we’ll use the first line as the title.  If you would rather the poem be called ”Untitled”, title it as such.
  7. Do not send multiple poems in one document.  You may send multiple documents in one email, but they must all be properly formatted.