General Presentation Guidelines
Language
We publish books written in British English.
You're welcome to use colloquialisms from other languages as appropriate to your story, but please spell check your manuscript against a British English dictionary (for example in your word processor).
Your other documents need not be in ‘British’ English, but our abilities in other languages are limited!
Images
Images in books are a specialist subject, and if you're intending to use them, please talk to us as early as possible. The biggest issue with first-time illustrators is the lack of quiet space around the image.
If you use anything other than text in your manuscript, please indicate this clearly in your cover letter.
File Types
We can accept many file types, but MS Word (.doc or .docx) or Libre Office (.odt) are the most reliable.
Word Processor formats like .doc and .odt tend to produce different results on different machines, so if layout is important to you submission, then .pdf may be a good choice for your initial submission, but for later editing, we will need the text in .doc, .docx, or .odt format.
Font Face
Some common fonts are: Arial, Times New Roman, Liberation Sans, Helvetica, but any standard font is fine. Please do not use a script font or a courier-like monospace (typewriter) font as these are more difficult to read on a screen.
Here are some examples of good and bad fonts.
| Good Fonts to Use | Bad Fonts to Use |
|---|---|
| Arial 12pt | Monospace fonts such as Courier (Typewriter) |
| Times New Roman 12pt | Script or Cursive fonts such as Apple Chancery |
| Liberation Sans 12pt | Heavy fonts such as Arial Black |
Document Headers and Footer
Please don't use a document header. It takes up space for no good reason.
Please create a document footer and put only the page number in it. Centered is easy.
Page Numbering
If you've ever dropped an unbound 300 page manuscript on the floor and then tried to re-assemble it, then you'll understand the usefulness of page numbering.
Putting a simple page number in a document is easy. On our word processor it's as simple as clicking in the footer section, choosing to add a footer, pressing tab to center the cursor, and choosing 'insert page number'.
In a real book, page numbers don't appear on certain pages, and sometimes numbering restarts again from page 1. Please, do NOT be tempted to try this in a Word document, you will make the results painful for everyone. In your manuscript, page numbers are just an aid to editing, they are not a work of art. Simply insert page numbers in the footer and then leave them alone. The first (possibly title) page will then have the number 1, and each successive page will have the next page number. Simples.
Styles
Before experimenting with styles, it's a good idea to take a backup of your manuscript in case anything goes wrong.
It's a sad fact that most authors will write 100,000 words in a document without understanding what Styles are, but without styles,you're making your writing and editing life much harder.
A style is just a group of text attributes. For example one style might have bigger and bold text, while another might change fonts to italics to emphasise a quotation.
A style has a name to make it easier to refer to those attributes. Styles are shown on the top left of Word in a drop-down box. Word comes with a collection of built in styles such as 'Default', 'Text Body', 'Heading 1' or you can make your own.
There are two ways to make all your chapter headings the same. Firstly (and NEVER do this), you can highlight the text and choose a bigger font, and bold. The better way however, is to highlight the text and apply a style to it.
So, for example, to apply a style to your chapter headings, highlight the heading and then select the 'Heading 1' style from the style drop-down box. Repeat for each heading - all your headings will then look the same.
HOWEVER, if you've previously added text attributes to your text without using styles, they can override your styles and you won't see the effect of the style. Luckily, there's a way to remove such attributes: highlight the text and right-click on it, and choose 'Clear direct formatting' (your Word Processor may differ slightly).
Why bother with styles?
Firstly, styles are neater. If all your Chapter Headings use a style named 'Heading 1', then they will all look the same.
Better still, you can change the attributes of the style (maybe make the text color red), and all your Chapter Headings will adopt those attributes as if by magic.
The most important reason to use styles is that when we edit text, or process text for type-setting, the attributes of the text are dealt with separately to the text itself. We can extract a list of styles from your manuscript, and even search your manuscript for places where you've used a style, and so there is less chance of missing important attributes.
This makes your life easier too when you edit or proofread the text we send to you.
