Manuscript format?

[Stargazer1976]

I have just written my first couple short stories and wanted to try my hand at sending them to some sci-fi magazines. The only problem is I need to make sure i am submitting them the way they want. In other words I want to make sure I have the right idea as to what manuscript format is.

Any explanations would be appreciated ( possibly you could type the answer in manuscript format )

Thanks

[Circus Cranium]

Most magazines will list specific submission guidelines on their sites; but in general, submit the story in a 12 pt font, double spaced. Put your name, address, email and whatnot on the top right. It's best to put this information on every page. Title halfway down the title page and your name beneath it. One inch margins.

[Stargazer1976]

Sounds to me like the way I already set up microsoft word anyway. Thanks for the help.

[Teresa Edgerton]

I was taught inch and a quarter margins. Not that anyone is actually measuring. Include the approximate word count at the top of the first page, opposite your name and address. Courier is the font you should probably use, but at least make sure that it's not one of those fonts where the typesetter has to puzzle out your I's and your l's. Italics are always respresented by underlining. It's not necessary to put your whole name and address on every page -- after the first page, a header consisting of your last name, the title (or keyword from the title, if it's a long one) and the page number is enough.

[I, Brian]

Hope this helps:
http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~mslee/format.html

[knivesout]

Another good link on manuscript formatting: http://www.speculations.com/format.htm

[Circus Cranium]

(Italics are always respresented by underlining)


Actually, I read an article in a writer's mag recently, that said the old underlining or astericks for italics is outdated, and the reason sub guidelines started asking for this was because of the way they used to format before modern word processing. Now they say italics should simply be italics, unless otherwise specified by the publisher.