Standard Submission Format

Literary agents and editors expect a manuscript to look a certain way: Times New Roman, double-spaced, with a running header on every page. Most agency websites don't spell this out because it's assumed. Standard Submission Format is a Word document (.docx) built around that convention, so you don't have to track down the details yourself.

Where to Find It

Open the Exporting Manuscripts wizard and pick Standard Submission Format from the list of formats. The first time you pick it, Penpoint sets it up with its own defaults automatically. Pick it again later and it opens with whatever you last left it at.

What It Sets

Standard Submission Format sets (this only affects the exported copy; your book inside Penpoint is untouched):

• Font: Times New Roman
• Line spacing: double
• Scene breaks: a centered "#"
• First-line paragraph indent: half an inch, on every paragraph, including a chapter's first line
• Margins: one inch on all four sides
• Paper size: US Letter
• A title page with your contact details and an approximate word count, rounded to the nearest thousand ("about 92,000 words")
• A running header reading "Surname / Header Title / page number" on every page except the title page (for example, "Smith / My Book / 12")
• Chapter subtitles (any extra text typed under a chapter title) turned off
• No subtitle printed on the title page

The file is deliberately plain: every line is black, 12-point, and never bold, in the title page and chapter headings alike; italics in your own prose stay. That plainness, together with the indent on every paragraph, is what separates a submission manuscript from a typeset book: other formats leave a chapter's first paragraph flush left, the way a printed book does; Standard Submission Format indents it like every other paragraph.

Fill These In First

A few fields feed directly into the result:

• Contact name: your legal name, for the title page
• Contact block: address, phone number, and email, for the title page
• Header title: a short keyword version of your title, for the running header
• Your surname: for the running header

Its Own Formatting

Standard Submission Format keeps its formatting separate from Word, PDF, and every other format: change a setting here, like the font or a margin, and only this format's export changes. Nothing is locked: every field stays editable, and you can mix these defaults with your own adjustments freely.

Reset formatting to defaults puts every setting back to Standard Submission Format's own defaults, including hiding the subtitle again, without touching anything you've typed, like your title, author, or contact details.

When an Agency Says Otherwise

If an agency's own submission page states a different requirement (a different font, single spacing, no header), follow their page; a specific instruction always wins over the general standard.

Some agencies want your manuscript pasted directly into a submission form instead of an attached file; see Pasting Your Manuscript Into a Form.