If you’ve written a nonfiction book that is a biography, autobiography, or memoir, or a creative prose or essay, please use the following guidelines to apply the final formatting touches to your book. Please read each guideline carefully to be sure your book complies.

Table of Contents: The Table of Contents should be a list of your chapter names only. Chapters should not be numbered unless there are not chapter titles. If there are no chapter titles, then chapters should be numbers only, and there should be no Table of Contents. Please do not include page numbers (since these will change) or Xs to hold the place of future page numbers. This will be taken care of at a later stage in production.

Narrative Breaks: If your book contains narrative breaks—a symbol and space between paragraphs to signify a scene change within a chapter—replace these breaks with five Xs (XXXXX) on their own line. Our graphic designers will search the manuscript specifically for five Xs and replace with the appropriate design element.

Xs should only be used when there is a scene change without reasonable transition. For instance, a new paragraph that begins “The next morning…” does not need a narrative break before it. “The next morning” is a sufficient transition and does not constitute a scene break. Scene breaks are needed for abrupt transitions or when the point of view is changing within the chapter. An example is provided below.

Karen knew John didn’t have long. She knew she needed to say her goodbyes while she still could.

XXXXX

John lay in his hospital bed thinking about the long life he’d led and how much happiness he’d had. He knew he was ready to let go, but he was trying to hang on for Karen. He didn’t want to slip away before she got to say goodbye.

Endnotes: If your book needs an endnotes section, endnote references will be located at the end of the text, but the numbering should begin afresh each chapter.

To insert endnotes into your text using Microsoft Word, select the Insert pull-down menu, followed by Reference, followed by Footnote. When you select Footnote, a small dialog box will appear for footnote/endnote formatting. Under Location select Endnotes and “end of document” from the adjacent pull down menu. Under Format: Numbering, select “restart each section” from the adjacent pull-down menu.

We cannot use footnotes. All footnotes must be converted to endnotes. To convert existing footnotes to endnotes, select the Insert pull-down menu, followed by Reference, followed by Footnote. When you select Footnote, a small dialog box will appear. At the bottom right of the section titled Location, click the box that says Convert. Once converted, be sure your endnotes are formatted according to the above paragraph’s specifications.

BACKMATTER

The term backmatter refers to the text that will appear on the back cover of your book. This always includes a short teaser about the book and an author bio about yourself. Sometimes this can include endorsements, but endorsements are never necessary. Please be aware that because of limited space available on the back cover, backmatter must adhere to specific word count limits depending on the length of the manuscript. Typically, these are what those limits are:

Manuscript length: 0–20,000 words → Backmatter length: 200-250 words

Manuscript length: 20,001–80,000 words → Backmatter length: 225–275 words

Manuscript length: 80,001–up → Backmatter length: 300–325 words

Teaser: Your teaser should be a short paragraph that immediately hooks the reader by providing a small amount of information about what can be found in the book. A teaser should include the name of the book at least once and may or may not include the author’s name. In the editing phase of production, your editor will work with you, using the teaser you provide, to revise and refine it. Your editor may only use elements of the teaser you submit to make the back cover as marketable and intriguing as possible while adhering to the word count limit.

Sample Teaser:

Love and tragedy, betrayal and redemption, success and failure, prison and parole, king and country, terror and triumph—all are vital parts of Leeman’s saga of eight generations of his family. They won’t quit; they live and die to touch the sands of the golden shore—America. For Everything a Season teaches readers when to cling, when to let go, when to fight, when to mourn, when to rejoice, and when to relax, but there is never a time—not for this family, anyway—to give up. For Everything a Season chronicles the fictionalized history of the fierce survival and intense hope of one steadfast family, a family just like a million others, whose dream it was to find freedom in America.

Author Bio: Your author bio should be a short paragraph that provides information about yourself as the author. This can include but is not limited to: work experience, field experience that pertains to the subject matter of the book, education experience and achievements, current place of residence, and family information. Your editor may also work with you to revise the author bio to make it relevant and interesting and, again, adhere to the backmatter word count limits.

Sample Bio:

Barbie Root spent many years in the service industry before leaving her job to stay home and care for her terminally ill husband. After his death, she turned to her passion for writing. She now spends as much time as possible with her family. She has four children, two others who call her Mom, nine grandchildren, and three honorary grandchildren.

ENDORSEMENTS

Endorsements are never necessary, but if you have one or two to include, please click the Endorsements link and follow the guidelines provided there. If your endorsement(s) cannot meet the criteria set forth in the guidelines, please revise it or omit it.

Congratulations! You’ve finished the last formatting step! Please proceed by clicking the Submit Your Manuscript link at the top of the page.