How to Prepare Your Manuscript

It’s likely that much of this is common sense, and we’re happy to be as flexible as possible, but you’ll need to make sure you’ve got your work ready to send to us when you get to doing so…

Unless you’d like our help with editing, you’ll need to have your work in good editorial shape.

Unlike most self-publishing companies we offer a free editorial report, as we think it’s important to put out the best possible version of your book. This will not be a substitute for an edit or proofread, but it will give you some things to think about, as well as identifying some common mistakes, typos, etc.

First and foremost…

Your manuscript needs to be in an editable format. While there will be some exceptions (for instance, if we’re helping you to publish a picture book), but in general this means delivering your work to us in a Microsoft Word document. While you can send over your work in Apple Pages, ODT, RTF, Google Docs, etc., the most risk-free delivery format is MS Word’s .doc. Using any other format runs the risk of losing italics, footnotes, etc.

A few formatting tips

Typesetting – the act (or art!) of making your words look good on a page – is not done in MS Word, so there’s no point spending heaps of time on formatting like increasing margins, etc. A lot of writers add extra carriage returns (hit enter) to push new paragraphs on to the next page. Don’t do this, as it’s just extra work for both of us!

Always use carriage returns rather than manual lines (i.e. press enter, not shift+enter), as this makes justified text look very funny!

There’s no need to hit enter at the end of a line like you would on a typewriter. It will flow over automatically. Only use enter to move on to the next paragraph.

Please don’t add manual tab marks at the start of paragraphs, as this duplicates work. Just hit enter and start a new paragraph.

If you have displayed matter – tables or figures – you’ll need to flag this up and we can advise.

If you want to have footnotes, you can enter these via Insert>Footnote. No need to add manual superscript!

Don’t spend time adding headers or footers, including copyright declarations or page numbers – we will protect your copyright, and page numbers are added by our typesetter.

If you’re including pictures in your book, you’ll need to supply these in print-ready quality. As standard this is 300dpi+. Internet quality is usually far lower, at around 72dpi, so it’s likely downloaded pictures will come out blurry or pixellated. You can always ask us to check the quality.

Please bear in mind the presence of illustrations or pictures is important for production decisions – even if you’re using black-and-white (‘mono’) throughout, you’ll need to use a slightly better paper, so that it’s crisper. We can advise on all of this, but bear it in mind.

It’s also possible to print a plate section (a colour section) that gets bound into a mono book – this is more expensive to print, but usually (depending on the length of plate section) cheaper than printing in full colour.

A few editorial tips

First and foremost, copyright – make sure you’ve checked the copyright status of anything you’ve quoted. (We’ve got a bit of advice on that here – things to look out for, how to clear permission.) If you don’t, you run the risk of having to pulp your books.

The English language is fraught with spelling inconsistencies. While you might not have a clear preference, always make sure it’s consistent.

As a first step, it’s always best to set your document language to UK English rather than US English (right at the bottom it will display the language – highlight all text – ctrl/cmd+A – and click this, then select English (UK)).

When you’ve done this you might well notice that Word has changed its mind about spellings, and US spellings are now underlined as errors (e.g. sometime = some time in UK English; alright = all right, and so on).

Choose whether you want to use ‘single speech marks’ or “double speech marks”. Whichever you’re using, if there’s a quote within a quote, use the reverse.

Use either -ise or -ize, not both (e.g. realise/realize, organise/organize, etc.)

Use either -ed or -nt, not both (e.g. burnt/burned, learnt/learned – although be careful, because if you’re describing someone as clever it’s always learned, i.e. a learned scholar, not a learnt scholar)

Get rid of double spaces – it’s easy to use find and replace in MS Word to do this.

Always end with a spell-check, making sure you also check the grammar suggestions.

Editorial resources

While there are various dictionaries around, generally the trade standards are Oxford – so the Oxford Dictionary (if you don’t have a copy, join your local library – you can likely access the OED Online using just your library card), and, if you want to get serious about your grammar, punctuation and funny spellings, the Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors and Hart’s Rules.