Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript (Writer's Market Library Series) (Paperback)

~ Neff (Author), Prues (Author) "A side benefit for the writer is that preparing the query helps define the project and develop a lead and a strategy for completing the..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, Jack Neff, Los Angeles (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"Perfect margins and ideal spacing won't prevail over dull, poorly written work," counsel the authors of this book. Still, why would you let sloppy formatting obscure an editor's first encounter with your brilliant words? Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript will help you, yes, format and submit articles, nonfiction books, short stories, novels, scripts, poetry, even greeting cards. There's no reason, the authors say, to "mangle or otherwise abuse" your work in order to get it to fit a format, but whenever possible, you might as well give the editors what they want. It's all here: queries (electronic, faxed, and otherwise), sidebars, market analyses, manuscripts, treatments, etc. Each element is handled through the use of examples, submission tips, formatting specs, and "other dos and don'ts." Strewn throughout are words of wisdom from those on the submission-receiving end, among them Robin Dolch, a senior editor at ICON Thoughtstyle. "We can always tell when people are going to be very hard to work with," Dolch says. "It's when they're willing to do very little work up front before getting a contract." --Jane Steinberg

Product Description

Send your letters and proposals like a pro and increase your chances of getting published. Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript makes it easy by featuring full-size examples of how to present virtually any type of manuscript.

Covering every part of the manuscript submission package, this guide shows you the dos and dont's for creating persuasive but professional correspondence and submission materials, including: query letters, title pages, cover letters, tables of contents, outlines, author biographies, cover pages, endorsements pages, synopses and reply postcards.

There are also examples you can follow for submitting by fax or online, in addition to tips from respected agents and editors who help you avoid the mistakes that shout "amateur!" Spend more time writing and less time worrying about your manuscript presentations. With this guide, you'll gain the confidence you need to format and submit your manuscript quickly and effectively.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Writers Digest Books; 1st edition (November 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 089879921X
• ISBN-13: 978-0898799217
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #299,515 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Saved me from embarassment!, March 31, 2000

By	Dee-Ann LeBlanc (Vancouver, BC Canada) - See all my reviews

Because I write a lot of technical materials, I totally misinterpreted what an agent told me about sending in an outline. If I had not gotten this book I wouldn't have known that outlines for novels are very different from technical outlines. I verified this with people "in the know" and have started redoing my novel outline in the RIGHT format.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The end-all be-all of formatting guides., May 21, 2003

By	chemikalguy "chemikalguy" (Durham, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This is probably the best guide to document formatting I've seen yet. Of course, half the staff at Writers Digest magazine wrote it! Most of them are writers or editors as well, so it only makes sense that it would be good.

I looked at several different formatting books in my search for the best. Many of them got great reviews when they were released. The problem is, most of them are more than 5 years old. With the publishing business changing as rapidly as anything else these days, you need an updated resource to follow, especially if you are new to the business of writing - and yes, it is a business. In business, things are expected to be done a certain way, and this book shows you that way.

This book is chock full of full page examples of everything from proposals, cover letters, tables of contents, etc. It's broken down into sections like most of the other books, each one covering a topic such as articles, novels, and screenplays.

If you want a book that is easy to follow when formatting your manuscript and writing the associated correspondence to an editor/publisher/agent, this is the book for you. The example documents even show you how many spaces to leave between lines etc. I don't think they could have made it any easier if they had sent someone to my house and had them walk me through the formatting!

One thing I thought disappointing was mentioned by another reviewer. Personal essays is mentioned on the cover, but after a quick search, I wasn't able to find that topic covered at all in the book, even in the index. My guess is that it's assumed that these documents would be handled according to guidelines from a different section, although which section eludes me.

Overall, this is the best book out there. It's new, and covers the currently accepted formats for a plethora of documentation. If you're searching for a book like this, spend the money, it's well worth it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy, Simple, Great Guideline!, February 21, 2003

By	Jamie J. Bourgeois (Boston, MA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is a great guide for those at the submission process! I would never have known that there were general guidelines to follow when submitting your fiction, etc and probably earned myself rejection letters because of it. But with this guide, I know that at least I used industry standards upon submissions.

This book also has great examples of query and cover letters. I recommend this to anyone new to the submission process of publishing!