Submission formatting
Formatted the way agents expect to see it
You've finished the book and typed it yourself. Now every agent's website is telling you to submit in standard manuscript format, and nobody will tell you plainly what that means. Send me the file and I'll set it out properly — from £40, with a quick turnaround.
Why it matters more than it should
An agent's reader opens dozens of submissions a week. Before a word is read, the document has already said something about you — and a manuscript in Comic Sans, single-spaced, with chapter titles centred in bold pink, has said the wrong thing.
It isn't fair and it isn't about the writing. But standard manuscript format exists so that readers can concentrate on the words rather than the page, and a submission that ignores it marks you out as someone who hasn't done the reading. That's a needless thing to be judged on when the book itself is good.
It's also entirely fixable, usually in an afternoon, and it doesn't need to be your afternoon.
What you get back
What standard format actually means
There's no single official rulebook, but agents and publishers broadly expect the same things, and this is what I'll set your manuscript to unless you tell me an agent has asked for something different.
- A readable serif face at 12pt — Times New Roman unless you'd rather have something else. Consistent throughout, with no stray formatting left over from drafting.
- Double-spaced text, one-inch margins — so a reader can mark it up, on paper or on screen.
- Paragraphs indented, not separated by blank lines — done with proper indents rather than tabs or spaces, which is what stops the layout collapsing on someone else's machine.
- A title page — title, your name, contact details and an approximate word count, set out the way it's expected.
- A running header on every page — surname, short title, page number. Because submissions do get printed and pages do get separated.
- Chapters starting on a fresh page — with real page breaks, so nothing shifts when the file is opened elsewhere.
- Scene breaks marked properly — rather than left as an ambiguous blank line that vanishes at a page turn.
- The underlying mess cleared out — double spaces, stray tabs, manual line breaks mid-sentence, and the dozen other things that make a file behave oddly.
If a particular agent's guidelines ask for something different — and some do — send me the link and I'll follow theirs instead.
What it costs
One price for the whole manuscript, whatever its length. Which of the two applies depends on the state the file arrives in, and I'll tell you which before I start anything.
Typed sensibly in one font, with real paragraphs and nothing peculiar going on underneath. Most manuscripts written straight into Word land here.
Spacing done with the space bar, tabs scattered through, several fonts, chapter breaks made by pressing Return twenty times, or text pasted in from somewhere else carrying its own formatting. All of it has to be stripped out before formatting can be applied properly.
You'll know which before you commit
Send the file and I'll look at it and tell you which price applies, and why. Nothing is charged and no work is done until you've said yes to the figure.
How it works
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Send the file
Word document, or whatever you have. No need to tidy it up first — that's rather the point.
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I tell you the price
£40 or £75, decided by what's actually in the file rather than by guesswork, and agreed with you before anything is done.
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It comes back formatted
Quick turnaround — we'll agree a date that suits you when you send the file. A Word document, and a PDF alongside it if you'd like one.
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You pay on delivery
Bank transfer or PayPal, once you have the file and you're happy with it. No deposit, no invoicing back and forth, no chasing.
Being clear
What this isn't
- It isn't editing. I don't change your words, your spelling or your punctuation. The manuscript that comes back says exactly what the one you sent says.
- It isn't proofreading. If you want the text checked as well as formatted, that's a different job and I'd quote for it separately.
- It isn't a covering letter or a synopsis. Those are yours to write, and agents can tell when they aren't.
- It isn't for handwritten manuscripts. If your book isn't typed yet, you want the typing service — formatting is included in that price anyway.
Send it over
Attach the file, or tell me roughly how long it is and I'll come back to you. You'll have a price and a delivery date to agree before anything is done.