The form in which you present your manuscript will depend on whether you are writing primary or secondary materials and on the subject for which you are writing. You should agree with your publisher or development editor on the format that works best and on what needs to be included.
Your manuscript should always be complete and all relevant items should be provided. These include:
- the main text
- introductory material such as introduction, contents, preface or foreword
- end matter such as a glossary, answers, index or vocabulary list
- artwork and photo briefs
- details of any material requiring copyright clearance
You should also bear these general points in mind:
Timing
It is essential that you keep to the dates agrees with your publisher for the submission of draft and final manuscript. At draft stage, there will be reviewers waiting to receive your manuscript, often working to tight deadlines. If you are late delivering a manuscript, you will eat into the time others have to consider and comment. At final manuscript stage, the editor will have booked busy freelance copyeditors and proofreaders in advance who will be well-suited to the particular job. Late delivery may well mean a copyeditor will not be able to do the job, the schedule will be affected and the materials will be published late. This will almost certainly affect sales as products are scheduled to arrive in the market when they are most needed.
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File Types
Check with your publisher or editor that the file format you plan to use is compatible with our editors' and designers' computers. WORD files are generally acceptable, but APPLEWORKS, for example, can cause problems. It's a good idea to check that your files will be readable. Always provide a hard copy of your manuscript as well as a digital version unless your editor says this is unnecessary.
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Formatting
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Keep the formatting of your manuscript pages simple. Charts, boxes, illustrations and diagrams will normally have to be stripped out before the material goes to the designer. If you need to include diagrams or charts, it's a good idea to attach them separately.
- It is acceptable to include tables in your sample pages as it is very helpful to the designer to indicate what your intention is.
- Range all text to the left.
- Use only ONE character space at the end of a sentence.
- Don't indent paragraphs using a space. If you need to indent use TAB.
- Don't mix sentences and words across the page. It is very laborious to extract the proper sentence and can introduce errors! For example, these two sentences:
This is a piece of text This is another piece of text
underneath a figure. underneath another figure.
- Please make sure that all automatic features, such as automatic numbering, are turned off. The numbers can be read as different characters when the file is read into another package.
- Please use upper and lower case for headings. Never use all caps. If you want to make a heading stand out, use bold. DO NOT underline.
- Number each section and chapter clearly.
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Reference Material
Make sure that you provide copies of any reference material you have used along with the hard copy of your manuscript. This might include texts and extracts, charts, diagrams and any helpful information about the page layout or the way to go through the material.
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Artwork Brief
You will need to provide a brief for artwork as a part of your manuscript. This might include suggestions for illustrations, photos or realia, and also an indication of where diagrams should be inserted. Use italics to pick out your artwork suggestions and number each piece of artwork in sequence. The first piece of artwork in 'chapter 1' would be described and appear like this:
[A/W 1.1] Photographs (4 - 6) of single-celled protoctists, such as Amoeba, Paramecium, Euglena.
Captions should be included:
Caption: Single-celled organisms
You will also need to list all artwork separately on an artwork brief. Your editor will provide you with an electronic version of this template. Please indicate the size of artwork - in or to help the designer know how much emphasis to put on each piece.
The editor or publisher will tell you roughly how many pieces of artwork have been budgeted into your project. Try not to get overambitious with your artwork requests; lots of tiny cramped pictures are not easy to teach with and not especially nice to look at either!
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Artwork Types
Photos
To request a photo, give a simple, clear description of what is required. Do not include unnecessary detail as this makes photos hard to source. Provide references or the source of any photos you request along with the artwork brief.
Illustration
Keep the artwork briefs for illustrators simple and clear. Avoid unnecessary detail as this will distract from the main focus of the picture and add to the expense. If you need a technical or very specific illustration, include a sketch or a reference and label it with the number on the artwork brief.
Realia
Realia is a piece of text styled to look like a newspaper article or page from a magazine. You will need to request the designer to produce these pieces as realia and you should number them in sequence on the artwork brief. If your request is specific, you will need to provide a reference.
National Curriculum
If it is relevant, make sure your identify the objectives or the part(s) of the national curriculum which you are targeting throughout your manuscript.
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Writing to length
It's a good idea to ask your editor or publisher how many characters or words you should be writing per page, and make sure you know how many pages you have at your disposal. Most authors overwrite and this can mean having to make heavy and unwelcome cuts to the material.
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Identifying your manuscript
Always use headers and footers to identify the manuscript: give your initials; the number of the draft you are working on; and the date. You should also use page numbers.
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Permissions
If you want to include in your manuscript work that has previously been published or an adaptation of previously material, we will need to 'clear copyright' i.e. obtain permission from the original copyright owner to reproduce that material. Examples of that material affected would be:
- Texts or extracts from texts such as poems, stories, newspapers or scientific studies
- Examination questions
- Brand names and corporate logos
- Images or works of art
- Material that comes from the internet
Under current legislation, material is subject to copyright until 70 years after the death of the author or artist. We will apply for permission to reproduce copyright material and if permission is granted, we will normally be charged. Sometimes permission will be denied and it will be necessary to re-write a section of text.
You will need to provide a photocopy of the material in its original location; give us the page and line references for the beginning and end of an extract; and provide the name and address of the publisher or the address of the website. If the material is not in its original published form, you will need to check the acknowledgements page to find out the details of the original copyright holder. This information also applies for illustrative permissions.
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Amending your manuscript
Once you have submitted your final manuscript, and it has been approved by the publisher, you are likely to be asked to make some amendments or cuts. Do not at this stage re-submit the whole manuscript with these changes as this will create confusion for the editor, who will have already started work on the final manuscript you submitted. Send any changes on a new document direct to the editor with details of where they should be inserted or the changes made.
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