Coached Author Submission Guidelines

First off, congratulations! If you’re reading this doc, it means you’re about to submit your manuscript for editing. This is a big deal, so give yourself some serious props!

The instructions:

Prepare Your Manuscript

In order to start editing., your manuscript must fit some basic formatting conventions. This should take you no time at all:

  1. Microsoft Word: The manuscript you submit for editing must be a Microsoft Word document, with the .docx file extension. If you export from some other format (like Google Docs or Pages) into Microsoft Word, that is fine, but you must go through the Word file and make sure the Word document has retained all of your formattings. To export a Word version from Google Docs here are instructions (if you are reading this on paper, Google “how to export Word from Google Docs”).
  2. Normal Font & Size: It should be a standard font, black, in 11 or 12 point type.
  3. Double-Spaced: We prefer you double-space your manuscript. This is easily done in Microsoft Word; here are instructions (if you are reading this on paper, just Google “How to double space in Word”).  
  4. Chapter page breaks: We prefer page breaks between chapters; please add those in if you do not have them. This is easily done in Microsoft Word, here are instructions (if you are reading this on paper, just Google “How to add page breaks in Word”).
  5. Single space after the period: Please use single spaces between sentences. If you have already written your manuscript with double spaces, you can search-and-replace to fix this in just a couple of keystrokes (here are instructions). If you are reading this on paper, Google “how to find and replace in Word.”
  6. Left justify: You can increase readability of your manuscript by left-justifying it. Instructions can be found here, or find directions in Google by searching “align text left or right.”
  7. Include page numbers: This is easily done in Microsoft Word, here are instructions (if you are reading this on paper, just Google “How to add page numbers in Word”).

Once you have done the above, you can use the form below to submit your manuscript.