Publishers Love Well Turned Out Manuscripts. Here's How to Prepare Yours

Look at it from a publisher's point of view. You have three trays on your desk. One is called 'These could be OK' and has one manuscript in it. The second is called 'Could be Ok with a great deal of work, possibly' This has a five foot pile of submissions in it. The third contains a stack of dog-eared manuscripts which spill over into a sea of paper spreading to the far corners of the office. Your chances of getting into tray No. 1 are greatly improved with a well presented manuscript.

The point is this: if you please the editor with a first class, well presented offering then your stock will go up faster than the price of oil and you'll have a head start against the other losers.

So let's get down to it. How can you impress the editor or publisher with the presentation of your manuscript?

1. Use double spacing and print or type on one side of the paper only.

2. Put the title of the work only (not your name or any other fascinating information) at the top of every page. This helps if the person reading your novel drops them all over the floor along with someone else's.

3. Number the pages at the bottom. This is an absolute must because if the person reading your work drops them all over the floor (what again?) he/she will know how to cobble them back together again. For a novel number the pages straight through. Don't start afresh at the start of a new chapter. If you put each chapter into a separate document and you're using Word, click on the link below and go to the 'Writers Questions' page if you want to know how to do this.

4. Use a cover sheet which should give: the Title of the work; your name and pseudonym if you use one, address and telephone number, plus an email address if you have one. Also give the number of words, usually to the nearest 1,000 for a novel or 100 if a short story. Finally add the date.

5. Staples are anathema as are any method of binding the pages. Publishers do not like going around with broken finger nails, especially the ladies. You will definitely lose brownie points if you don't adhere strictly to this rule. You have been warned.

6. Enclose a brief (that is to say - brief) covering letter.

7. Keep a backup copy of your work on a CD-ROM, a memory stick or some other device so that you don't lose it through computer breakdowns. And if you are using one of those. er, now what are they called, oh yes, typewriters make sure you get your manuscript photocopied before sending it off. Some publishers have, on very rae occasions you understand, been known to lose stuff.

Finally here's one piece of advice that many lesser writers than yourself fail to follow: get hold of your prospective publisher's submission guidelines and follow them to the letter. They may differ from the above in some way or other, so it's worth doing this. Remember editors and publishers are gods and we wouldn't want to fall foul of their caprices would we? Thunderbolts might ensue?