Some publishers and competitions on the net require the writer to use a certain style guide when submitting work to them. I have the Chicago Manual of Style but I need the New york Times style manual too. Unfortunately I live in Ecuador and if I were to purchase it and then have it shipped down here it'd cost me a frakken fortune! Is there a way I can maybe download a digital short version of this manual for free (legitimately)? Okay on to my next question. Formatting my manuscript. I don't know much about it. Is there a universal way to do it? I know that there's supposed to be 1 inch margins on the right, left, top and bottom and that the text needs to be double spaced. The rest I've been guessing ,: / What font do I use and what size? I THINK it's courier and roman 11-12 point fonts, but I dunno. Is Times New Roman allowed as well? Should I separate paragraphs or jut indent them? How bout italics? are those allowed or are they supposed to be underlined? I know a chapter break starts on the next page, but a scene break is supposed to be spaced by a soft space or hard space or what? Actually I don't even know what soft/hard spaces are lol. I'm guessing a soft space is 2 space bars and a hard is 4 no? eergh! Anybody know the answers to these questions or know a good link with an article (that's not out dated) that has the answers I'm looking for? Thanks
William Shunn's site is the best all-around reference for manuscript format: Short Story Format Novel Format However, also check each individual publisher's submission guidelines, and follow their recommendation whenever it differs from the general standards.
Do the chapter's need to be named and listed Part 1, etc etc or is that for books that use parts to separate acts, or other items?
I knew that, I just didn't know if they had to be named. All chapters need to have Chapter X when you change.
Nah they don't need to be named. I've seen chapters break in five different ways. Chapter One Chapter Two One Two I've seen it done with numerals: 1, 2, 3, etc. I've seen it done with titles. The Dark Forest Blah Blah's Demise And finally I've seen chapters begin simply with a characters name, which is one of my favorite ways! Jack Dave Captain Kate lol Anyways those are all the way's I've seen chapters begin and I like them all except with numerals.
Check the company's websites for specifications. Each site will either say follow the standard formatting, which is what the others posted, or they will produce their own specifications.
You can simply use the heading Chapter to denote an anonymous chapter. That serves to make the chapter break apparent in manuscript.
