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Submission Tips
Cover letter
You've spent all this time working on your book so don't let it get lost in the avalanche of submissions most publishers receive. Explain why the publisher should pick up your book in particular to publish. Be sure to include the following in your cover letter:
- Author Name
- Full Address
- Phone number including area code
- Email address (your original submissions email not get printed so you need to include this in your cover letter)
- Full Title of your manuscript
- Approximate word count (in MS word, click on Tools, then word count)
- A short story synopsis
- The genre or genres that you see your book belonging to
It's important to include a cover letter with each submission. Cover letters in the body of an email do not always get printed off. Besides, a good cover letter entices the publisher to read your book. It's your opportunity to convey why he or she should take the time to read it.
Editing
Send in your best edited copy. Spell check is not editing. If you accept the spellcheck suggestions, words such as 'there' will remain even though you meant 'their'. If your manuscript is difficult to read because of grammatical or spelling errors, it will slide to the bottom of the pile of submissions.
Friends are invaluable! Forums are a wealth of information. Have your friends check your work for grammar, spelling and details of the story line. If your character is floating in the salt water, make sure he's not swimming in a pond. When you proofread your own work you have a tendency to overlook the obvious. Your brain will fill in the missing information. Getting a fresh set of eyes to proofread is vital.
Check for subject and verb agreement, redundancies, clarity, spelling, sentence structure and punctuation. Also check your descriptive words. Overly descriptive adverbs and adjectives can muddle your story. "The most important thing" can become "The critical thing" and "due to the fact" can be changed to "because" without losing the meaning of the sentence. Watch for sequence: if you have a "First", make sure "Second" follows.
Use the Track Changes in Microsoft Word to make your changes. Follow the video below. The next video shows how to hide track changes or remove them.
Changing formats
| Make sure you follow the submission guidelines. Nothing pushes your hard work to the bottom of the pile faster than not following the instructions. We ask for work to be in .rtf or .doc format, so make sure you convert your word processing format to the requested format. If you don't have MS Word on your computer send your manuscript to another computer that does, open up the manuscript, pick the format 'word document' displayed in the window at the bottom of the save screen. |  click on picture to enlarge |
Synopsis
A synopsis will not be on a book flap. A synopsis is sent to a publisher to try to get his/her interest in reading the submission. Give it your best effort. Put the same effort into the synopsis that you put in your manuscript. Make it very compelling so that it grabs the reader's interest. It needs to describe what the book is about but in such a way that the publisher will want to grab your manuscript to read before all the others on his/her desk. The first few lines are the most important. They need to grab the reader's interest and make him/her want to read further. A two to three page synopsis of the story is usually the norm.
Don't Send the Full Manuscript
When you are ready to submit your manuscript and you've checked the submission guidelines make sure that you are only submitting what has been requested. Usually the publisher wants the first three chapters or the first 30-50 pages. At Percheron Publishing we want up to 50 pages. This gives a good idea of your writing style and where you are heading with the storyline.
Make sure you have followed the instructions completely. Only submit in the format requested and the exact number of pages or chapters requested.
Manuscript Set Up
Generally margins should be 1 inch to 1 1/2 inches on all sides of the pages. To set margins:
Click on "File" at the top of the word program you are using, then click on "Page Setup."
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A window will pop up. Click on the "Margins" tab at the top of the window. Under "Margins" is "Top," "Bottom," "Left," and "Right." In the boxes next to each, change the setting to 1. Optional: the "Top" margin can be 1.5 instead of 1. Click "OK." |
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Fonts
Courier is still traditional and still acceptable, but many people prefer Times New Roman as it is easier to read on paper. In an electronic submission a sans serif font like Helvetica or Ariel is easier to read on monitors. The font size used is generally 12 point. Anything smaller is harder to read and you certainly don't want to annoy the editor reading your manuscript.
Page Set Up
The manuscript should be double-spaced and do not put an extra carriage return between paragraphs. Make sure your entire manuscript is left justified. To make any of these formatting changes:
| Highlight the entire manuscript by clicking on Edit at the top of the word program and clicking on Select All. |  |
At the top of the word program, click "Format" and then "Paragraph." A window will pop up.
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| Click on the "Indents and Spacing" tab at the top In the middle of the window on the right side is "Line spacing:" and under that is a drop-down box. If double-spacing the manuscript, click on "Double." Click "OK. |  |
