Next Book

Now that HOW THE WEST WAS DRAWN: COWBOY CHARLIE'S ART is at the printer, I have concentrated on a book for the same series called Frederic Remington's Art.

Once you've a contract for one submission, you can follow the guidelines given you by the publisher for sending the final manuscript as you prepare your next submission.

For instance: Pelican requires Times New Roman, 12. I usually work in Courier New, 12. So I reformatted my Remington manuscript to the new font and size. Pelican also wants the pages numbered a certain way. I followed those guidelines. Each paragraph needs to be indented by a keyboard tab, not individual spaces or a formatted tab.

They want no spaces between paragraphs. All punctuation must be followed by one space, no more. In other words, one space after a period at the end of a sentence. I've been following that rule for several years now. To get used to it, copy one page of a manuscript and place only one space after a period. By the time you've typed the page, it will be a habit.

They want double-spaced manuscripts with one inch margins all around. If your book has chapters, they want all the page numbers from the beginning to the end of the complete manuscript. Even though they ask that each chapter be a separate file, the numbers remain for the whole book, not by chapters.

These guidelines, as well as many more, are for a contracted manuscript. However, some things I applied to my new manuscript submission. Always check your manuscript several times for spelling errors, etc. I usually find something I'd missed. That goes for blogs also! After I write a post, I copy and paste it into a Word document to check spelling. Did I miss anything?

In other words, I sent the manuscript last week. YEA! Now the waiting begins. Should I be positive and begin the process of following the rest of the guidelines like a dedication, chronology, introduction? I guess it won't hurt. No matter who eventually buys the book, I'll need those additional pages.