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How to Put Together a Manuscript

Putting together a manuscript is as simple as organizing your book. Though each publisher has specific guidelines that must be followed, you can use these general assembly techniques to prepare your work, and cut down on the amount of time it will take to implement your publisher's specifics. Because publishers use different layout and design tools, you will need to remove formatting before submitting your final work. Microsoft Word is great for works in progress, but your publisher will probably want the manuscript in Rich Text format or even plain text.

Things You'll Need

  • Completed manuscript
  • Index
  • Bibliography
  • Table of Content
  • List of Illustrations or Tables
  • Preface and Acknowledgments
  • Appendix(es)
  • Endnotes
  • Glossary (if applicable)
  • Author Biography
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Instructions

    • 1

      Organize your front matter. The title page, dedication (optional), table of contents, list of illustrations, foreword, and preface are all considered front matter. Sometimes a publisher will want these as separate files. Create your table of contents after everything else is completed.

    • 2

      Insert your main text, chapter by chapter. In general, publishers want chapters labeled, but they do not always want the pages numbered. Chapters are organized into topics and subtopics, and each is sequentially numbered. Indicate where in the main text your illustrations, tables and figures should go, but save them as separate files.

    • 3

      Attach your end matter. The appendixes, endnotes, glossary, bibliography, index and author biography may need to be sent as separate files. Your publisher will offer specifics for each of these parts. Generally, you can put each of these parts on a new page, instead of including them as a running text.

Nonfiction

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