Book Manuscript Format Guidelines
How You Could Format E-Book in Word And Pdf
Author: Gracy Brett
An e-book could be written easily! Many believe that it is a difficult task but on the contrary, anyone could write it. Mainly people write it for promotional purposes, for instance to spread information regarding website, products or services. For any author, who is unable to get his work published the traditional way, e-book serves the purpose. Usually an online publisher is the one to handle formatting troubles but when you do not have one then what could be done? Fortunately, preparing a manuscript for its distribution is a simple process. Many make use of Microsoft Word and then use converting tool like word to PDF converter to convert it into pdf format. A major fraction of e-books are put on sale in Acrobat's file format but the designing at first requires to be done in Word.
There is no dire need to make use of Adobe Acrobat for conversion but also if you own one then it would let you make addition into new features of your e-book like URLs, pages, etc. that are imported from various other tools. The quality perks up with this. It is important to pay attention to the design and structure especially if you do not wish it should give a cheap impression or look unprofessional. The paper formatting feature in Word makes the work easy. In general the page size ranges somewhere between 5×7 and 6×9 or if you wish to use a different size then the page set-up menu in word is the feature to be used in order to customize it. In case a header or footer is to be included you could set the top and bottom margins by keeping them a bit large than the standard size. Mirror Margins option in that case could be turned off.
For a lot of individuals a header at the top serves as the book's title and page number. There are many combinations in which you could set it. It would be wise to use a small font that is in italics or bold or something unique. The Border command could be used to create a line in between text and the header which in turn would lend it an even and organized look.
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Self publishing a book then selling it to an agent?
So this new article on Yahoo made me curious about self publishing. Say I’m writing a comedic book (maybe I am, maybe I’m not) on a certain subject, similar in tone and format to books like Jon Stewart’s book and Stephen Colbert’s I Am America (and so can you!) except applied to a different subject than politics – you could call it a fake textbook. A book like this relies a lot on pictures and diagrams, which won’t show up in a manuscript. So to me it would seem sensible to publish the book myself in the perfect format that I have in my own mind, and then let an agent take a look at it.
My guess is that the bastards would just throw it out the moment they saw that it didn’t fit with their strict formatting guidelines. What do you think? Specifically, those of you who know what you’re talking about.
Thanks.
Use Harvard, to cite your sources it’s the acceptable international standard, or Oxford.
There are no manuscript guidelines per se, but you should follow good intellectual reasoning, and make it as interesting as possible. I would get a few books on your subject area, and see have they have dealt with question of format etc.
Format for non-fiction manuscript?
I want to write a non-fiction book. Where can I find manuscript guidelines to follow? I have no specific publisher in mind. I’m a rookie at this. I am also interested in knowing which format I should use to cite sources in my bibliography? MLA, Chicago, etc? Any insite is appreciated. I’m doing my research and eager to start the writing process. Thanks!
All manuscripts should be typed in a simple font like Courier or Times New Roman, 12pt, double line spacing. Keep the margins wide and number the pages.
For a picture book manuscript, simply the type the story. Although in the finished, illustrated book, there would only be a sentence or two on each page, when you submit your manuscript, you don’t format it like that – ie, don’t start a new page every time a new page would start in the printed picture book.
When they say ‘exclusive’, they’re talking about submitting to other agents. If your submission is ‘exclusive’ it means you haven’t submitted to any other agents, and do not intend to do so until you’ve heard back from Adams. A non-exclusive submission would be one where you have submitted or will submit to other agents before you get a yes/no from Adams.
Self publishing might be the way to go, but there is no guarantee that an agent or publisher would be interested after that, even if it was extremely popular among the small market you would be able to reach doing it on your own…
I would see about talking to agents, myself. Just to see if I could generate some interest in publishing it as it is meant to be… Like a text book farce, complete with pics, graphs, charts etc. Personally, I think it sounds like a wonderful idea…
Feedback of this literary agency…?
I’d like to send my children’s manuscript to a literary agency called Adams Literary. It seems legitimate, and it solicited some books I have heard of (many of Margaret Peterson Haddix’s novels, the Newberry Honor book “Rules”) though I am a little confused on some things. On the submit section of their website http://www.adamsliterary.com/submitnow/submitnow.php when I look at the submission guidelines they don’t seem that specific enough so I can make my manuscript look more “professional”. I am very unsure if there is a certain way of having the format of a children’s book for younger readers (like how picture books have a sentence per page?). And on the same page of the link I have given, I am also confused when they say “exclusive”. Can someone briefly clarify these guidelines to me, this is my first time sending off my manuscript.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AoSNcT6q2Ug_2H6DtiXw9XPsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20100923153329AA7Wax8 if you would like to answer my other question (about my character)?