Agents and editors will often ask for your manuscript to be formatted to certain style standards. There are a few reasons for this ranging from professionalism to simply making their/our jobs easier.
While it may look boring to some, standard formatting is familiar and comfortable, keeping the professionals reading your manuscript from being distracted by fancy or cluttered visuals.
How does standard formatting help?
For agents or publishers, a properly formatted manuscript makes finding key information easy and lets them know you understand the industry standards.
For editors (especially copy editors and proofreaders), standard formatting means our eye may more easily catch little typos, such as extra spaces, a rogue capitalized letter, or other similar issues that may not be as obvious with non-standard typefaces.
Shunn Format
The most common formatting guide you’ll come across is the Shunn format. Publishers, agents, and editors will likely request you to use Shunn or a variation of it. (IF THEY REQUEST A VARIATION then follow their guidelines! If they don’t specify a formatting style, follow Shunn.)
The basics of Shunn formatting:
- Page size: Standard (8.5 x 11 or A4 depending on region)
- Margins: 1 inch
- Font Type: Times New Roman or Courier New (books); Courier (screenwriting)
- Font Size: 12
- Alignment: left (exceptions noted below)
- Line spacing: double (exceptions noted below)
- First line indent: set to 0.5” (do NOT use tab to indent)
- Include:
- contact info and word count on the first page (single spaced)
- header with last name, title, page number (right-aligned), separated by forward slashes
- title and byline (centered)
- Other notes:
- Start your chapters anywhere from a few lines to about halfway down the page; exactly how much doesn’t tend to matter (unless specified), but be consistent
- Use the pound (or hashtag) symbol to indicate an intentional break in the story
Read the full details of how to format to Shunn standards here, visuals included. (Yes, read through each of the five pages! Hover over any highlighted bits for details.)
Editing with Kayleigh
When an author engages me for a potential developmental edit or beta read, I request they submit a properly formatted manuscript to me. For the most part, I request Shunn. If they’re up for it, using Word (or Google Docs) headings styles is also great as it allows me to quickly jump between chapters. (Note that this is not part of Shunn formatting request—and if someone doesn’t do it, I’ll do it myself when I get the manuscript to make my life easier!)