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Classic Manuscript Format
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The only differences are font and a few minor formatting elements.
If a publication specifically asks for “Shunn Classic” format, they mean you should use a Courier font, as below.
William Shunn (he/him)
about 1,500 words
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Proper Manuscript Format
by Bill Shunn
No one knows how many good stories are passed over because
the manuscripts containing them are poorly formatted. We can be
certain, however, that editors will more eagerly read a cleanly
formatted manuscript than a cluttered and clumsy one. Here are a
few suggestions for giving your manuscript that critical leg up
on the competition.
Start with a fresh white page, no color, no decorations.
Set one-inch margins all around--left, right, top, and bottom.
This is the default for most word processors, but you might want
to recheck your settings just to be safe.
Use black type only, since other colors can make your work
difficult to read. Set your font size to 12 points. For the
Last updated 12 July 2021
“Proper Manuscript Format” by William Shunn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Go deeper with More on Formatting, William Shunn’s look at advanced topics in manuscript formatting. Submit your questions to info at format dot ms. We regret that we cannot respond to all submissions individually, nor can we accept or open email attachments.