How to : Format a Manuscript for a Children's Book Editor and Agent
The modern publishing world has some generally accepted rules for formatting a manuscript. Fancy formatting tells the agent or editor that you've spent time making your manuscript look good, as opposed to making your writing good. Agents just want to read the great words you've written. If your writing is good enough to send out, then you don't need to wow an agent with fancy fonts or styles. Do not try to make your manuscript look like a book with tighter or justified margins or frayed edges, or landscape format with two wide columns.
Instructions
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1
Open your word processing program. Open your Normal Template to establish the basics for your manuscript.
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2
Set the font to Times New Roman or Arial, 12-point size in black. Do not use bold, italics, underline or any colors.
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3
Set the paragraphs to left alignment based on the body text and the line spacing to double.
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4
Set the margins for the document to one inch on all sides.
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Set the indentation to zero and the first line indentation to a half inch.
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6
Set the spacing before and after each paragraph to zero.
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7
Number your pages. Start with one. Set a page break at the end of a chapter. Don't start numbers over after each chapter.