Hello friends. This is my first post here. So I am just going to say hello and not much more. I have been writing for years but I am now in the porcess of putting together my first book. Is there anything like a good template to use in Microsoft Word to format what a publisher would expect for a book?
Every submission I've done is in the Shunn format (named after the author). If a publisher requests that style, this is what they mean. My submissions were all short stories but I believe the layout works for novels too. Here's a good link to it. You can mouseover the sections on that site and it will describe the positioning of the page element. It doesn't take too long to get a manuscript into that form. The only part that was ever tricky involved dealing with italics and how they should be shown. You should really look at the publisher's site though before you do too much. Sometimes they make strange requests with the formatting. They'll say "you must use this font" and this spacing, that sort of thing. Always save the original unformatted work, it goes without saying.
I can't remember that many places requesting certain formatting, but I have come across a few. If not specified, I just use the standard margins, Times New Roman, 12 pt. and send it as a .docx. But I know a few places want things a different way. It can be kind of a pain and I don't really get why, but I'll do it if that's what they are asking for.
No matter what, always check the respective instructions of wherever you are submitting to. I've never actually submitted anything anywhere, but I know of one agent/press that prefers .rtf format and will delete anything else (the guidelines on their site do clearly specify .rtf format though). Some places get so many submissions so you don't want to give them a reason to reject it before they've even looked at it.
