How to Prepare Your Manuscript for an Editor

April 24, 2026
How to Prepare Your Manuscript for an Editor

Are you ready to prepare your manuscript for an editor?

When it comes to strange formatting in book manuscripts, I’ve seen it all. Strange or awkward fonts, inconsistent font sizes, and even inserted text boxes have all made their appearance in manuscripts landing in my inbox.

What’s a book editor to do? 

Hi, I’m Kaitlin, a freelance editor for indie romance authors. Follow these tips below before submitting your manuscript and your editor will thank you!

A disclaimer

Let me start by saying this: Editors don’t expect your manuscript to be perfect! 

However . . . (There’s always a “however,” isn’t there??) 

It’s very refreshing when an author takes the time to clean up the formatting and other little details before submitting their manuscript, which allows us to jump right into editing the big stuff. 

“But Kaitlin, I’ve definitely sent a manuscript full of these things to an editor before. Did they hate me?”

Nope! Our job is to edit, and if that means taking care of the little things as well as the more significant things, that’s totally okay. We won’t think less of you if your manuscript isn’t in perfect shape. It’s just a considerate gesture toward your editor and starts your professional relationship off on solid footing. 

Bonus: Freeing up your editor to jump right into editing means you’ll get your edited manuscript back sooner! 

Make sure your story is finished

This tip seems like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how many authors submit a manuscript they haven’t actually completed. 

Here’s the thing: Editors can only edit what’s on the page. There’s not much we can do until the entire document is on our desk. If you’re hiring a copy editor, line editor, or proofreader, do them a favor and finish your manuscript before sending it in!  

A developmental editor, on the other hand, is a slightly different story (no pun intended). This type of editor helps you polish your storyline, character development, and other big-picture elements of your novel. However (that pesky however again!), your whole book should still be completely written, even if it’s still a little rough.

Make sure you've done extensive self-edits

This also seems like a no-brainer, but again, you’d be surprised. Editors don’t want to read your first draft (sorry not sorry). If there are punctuation mistakes, misspellings, or other typos that you can easily spot on your own, go ahead and take care of them. Basically, get your manuscript as polished as you can by yourself before sending it to your copy editor. 

Why? 

This helps us focus our time and mental energy on finding and correcting real issues, not tiny errors you could have handled yourself. We’re human just like everyone else, and we’re more likely to miss something if we’re focused on tense changes or fixing every dialogue tag. 

Basically, this is an easy way to help us help you! 

(It’s your lucky day—I wrote a whole blog post with self-editing tips here.)

One final note on self-editing: Once you’ve prepared and submitted your manuscript for copyediting, do not make any more changes until you get it back from your editor! If you change things during our editing process, we’ll have to edit that section all over again, which means more time and potentially more editing fees. It’s not worth it, trust me!

 

Skip the fancy formatting

Special fonts and text boxes or bubbles are fun, but they often make your editor’s job more difficult. All those special fonts and indents you have set up? They will all disappear when I put the entire document into Normal Style for editing. Afterward, I’ll have to go back through the original document, search for all the different styles you used, and change them in the edited document one by one. Needless to say, this can take forever.

My suggestion: Save the fancy fonts and formatting for later, after copyediting is complete. That way, no one—either you or your editor—runs the risk of unnecessary work. 

Basic formatting rules

Remember all those papers you wrote in college? Same basic formatting standards apply here. Nothing fancy needed! You’ll want to use a 12 point font in Times New Roman, use 1-inch margins, and double space the entire document. And no, you don’t need two spaces between sentences!

Other (optional) formatting tasks:

If you want to go the extra mile, here are a few additional formatting tasks that streamline your editor’s process and make their day.

  1. Remove all tabs. Tabs at the beginning of your paragraphs often mess with formatting software, so they need to be removed before publishing. To do this, set your first line indents to 0.5 and then set to “Normal.” Follow this guide if you need help.

  2. Format your chapters. Of course, your editor can do this, but it’s nice when it’s already taken care of! Highlight your chapter numbers and titles and change them to Heading Style. This makes it easier to to jump around and check something. It also allows us (and you!) to quickly see if your chapter numbers are incorrect—which happens more often than you think!

  3. Add page breaks. Inserting these at the end of each chapter, and removing all the extra line breaks, is a simple yet necessary task that must be done before formatting.

  4. Insert page numbers. A tiny task with big rewards when referencing things in your document later on.

  5. Create a title page and ending page. Including these elements communicates a finished piece—and clarifies your flow, especially if the first chapter dives straight into the action, or if you’ve written an unexpected ending.

Run it through spell-check one more time

Don’t forget this quick final step before sending your manuscript to your copy editor. Sometimes in the midst of your own editing and reformatting, words are accidentally misspelled or character names end up with transposed letters. Catching these errors before your editor receives your manuscript can save them some time and allow them to focus their attention on more complex revisions.

Did this help you prepare your manuscript for an editor?

Taking the time to polish your manuscript as best you can before submission is a simple but thoughtful investment into your professional relationship with your editor. It saves them time and helps get your manuscript back into your hands sooner rather than later. On behalf of book editors everywhere: Thank you! 

And if you’re looking for a copy editor for your novel, send me a message! I would love to help you strengthen your story and make it the very best it can be.

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