12 Courier Place Pica’s Font, NY 12012 (212) 555-1212 format@shunn.net Active member, SCHWA

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 font itself choose something standard and easily readable, like Times New Roman. Avoid sans-serif fonts, and stay far away from anything flashy or unusual. You want to wow the editor with your content, not your font choice. (Some writers, myself included, still prefer Courier New, a monospaced font that