Hopefully by now I’ve convinced you of why this article is worth your time. If you ever change your mind about any element of your manuscript format, you can easily change it and apply it to the entire manuscript and any future documents you write using that Style Set. E.g., if an agent wants italics to instead be underlined, you can easily make this change as part of that one-click reformatting operation. If you use things like italics, bold, and small caps in your manuscript, you can use these easily and even change them easily. There is no limit to the number of these Style Sets that you can have. You can also save that Style Set for later use in case you come across those format requirements again. You’ll be able to easily set up the new Style Set and switch your novel over with a single click. If you come across an agent who wants a format you’ve never seen before, it won’t be a big deal. There’s no need to go through it looking for mistakes from the reformatting process. When you do change the Style Set of your novel, you can not only do it with a single click, but you can have confidence it worked and created no new errors or formatting issues. This means you don’t have to write and read your novel with ugly Courier font, even if that’s what your agent or editor wants you to submit. For example, you can have the Style Set you use to write and edit the novel, a different Style Set for alpha and beta readers, and a different Style Set to send to editors. You will be able to have multiple “format setups”, called Style Sets in Word, for your novel, and you’ll be able to switch between them with a single mouse-click. How can I be so confident, you ask? Well, let me answer that by pointing out some of the things this setup will allow you to do: But I’m going to make it easy for you to learn, and I promise you: Once you learn these few tricks, you’ll never go back to your old way again! It may require you to learn a few things, namely some features of Word you may be unaware of or how to use. What I’m going to show you today is a better way to set up your Word document for a novel manuscript. If you’re highlighting chunks of text to change the font, font size, line spacing, etc., there is a better way! Many writers go about this in a very inefficient way that can lead to a lot of errors, which requires going over the novel with a fine-toothed comb to find any mistakes introduced by the reformatting. So you may find yourself in the situation where you need to reformat your novel. These format requirements also differ from what you would prefer to see on your screen while writing (and reading) your novel, as well as the format you would like to use when giving it to alpha and beta readers. Although there are some industry standards-Courier font, 12 point size, double-spaced, etc.-individual agents’ and acquisition editors’ requirements may, and often do, differ. Unfortunately, there is not a universally-agreed-upon format for novel manuscripts. Many may not know that there is a much more efficient, and easier, way to approach formatting a novel. There are many who approach formatting their novel manuscripts in a very inefficient way. Manuscript formatting may not be the most glamourous topic to discuss, but as novelists it is a skill we need to have.
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