Standard Manuscript Format, and What Agents Actually Check
The Shunn manuscript format specification in plain terms: font, spacing, margins, indents, scene breaks, the running header, and the word count that should be rounded.
Blog · Publishing
Publishing
8 posts on publishing, newest first.
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Publishing
Design
Writing Software for Novelists Who Don't Write in English
How to write and typeset a book in Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Hebrew, Hindi, Bengali, Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Russian, Greek or Vietnamese, which typeface each script gets, and what still needs building.
Publishing
Accessible Ebooks and the European Accessibility Act
What the EAA means for a self-published novel sold in the EU: accessibility metadata, what makes an EPUB accessible, the microenterprise exemption, and the large-print edition nobody makes.
Publishing
Galley for Self-Publishing
What self-publishing a novel in Galley involves: a print-ready interior PDF, a valid EPUB, a tuned file per store, and two checks that run before you upload to KDP.
Publishing
Galley for Traditional Publishing
Querying agents or working with an editor: standard manuscript format, the submission package, watermarked beta drafts, and getting an editor's Word comments back where they belong.
Publishing
EPUB, Print PDF, or Both? The Files You Actually Need to Self-Publish
What each publishing file is for (print-interior PDF, EPUB, DOCX) and which ones you need for Amazon KDP, IngramSpark, Apple Books, and Kobo.
Publishing
How to Format a Paperback for KDP (Margins, Gutter, and Bleed)
A plain-language walkthrough of the print-interior settings Amazon KDP checks (trim size, margins, gutter, bleed, and page count) so your paperback passes on the first upload.
Publishing
Do You Need an ISBN to Self-Publish?
When you need an ISBN, when you don't, the difference between KDP's free ISBN and your own, and why the imprint on the barcode matters more than the cost.