Preparing the Final Manuscript

The Essentials

Accuracy Checks
Before you submit your final manuscript:
  • verify facts, including dates;
  • check that quotations are accurately transcribed;
  • check the spelling of personal and place names;
  • check the spelling of foreign-language terms, inserting accents marks as needed;
  • check the accuracy of bibliographic data in your references;
  • ensure that notes and bibliography, if both are present, do not give conflicting information.
Special Characters
The following special characters are available in most software programs: £ ¿ ¡ °(degree) á â à å(overcircle) Å(overcircle) ä Ä æ Æ ç Ç é É ê è ë í î ì ï ñ Ñ ó ô ò ö Ö ß(sharp s) ú û ù ü Ü ÿ. You may use these characters in the electronic files even if your printer doesn’t show them on the printout.

If your manuscript requires any other special characters, use Unicode versions or ask for a list of generic codes.

If there are any special characters that don’t show up on the printout, provide a list of words with those characters.

Notes
Keep your notes embedded (attached to the text they refer to).
Permissions
Put credit lines in your manuscript wherever the rightsholder requires (usually copyright page, caption, note, or acknowledgments section). Use the wording required by the rightsholder.

Don’t pay for permissions until your acquisitions editor has confirmed that the rights granted in the permission are adequate for our needs.

With the final manuscript, send copies of all required permissions forms and an inventory of the permissions (see Permissions).

Illustrations
Send final illustrations with the final manuscript but in separate files. Do not paste illustrations into your text files or draw them in your word processor.
Callouts. If illustrations will be scattered throughout the text, indicate where each illustration should be placed by inserting a “callout” line in the text, between paragraphs (for example, “<insert map 1 near here>”).
Captions. Provide captions and source/credit lines as a separate captions file. Don’t make captions part of the artwork or part of the main text. Make sure illustration source lines and footnotes are separate from chapter notes.
Numbering. Divide illustrations by type (for example, Maps, Figures, Tables) and number them within each type.

Tables. Please submit your tables as original word-processing files.
Table Submission File Type Examples
Good extension Bad extension
Word Document .doc or .docx Adobe PDF .pdf
WordPerfect Document .wpd TIF .tif
Excel .xls or .xlsx JPEG .jpg
Give each table a title and provide sources and notes as needed, separate from the chapter notes.

Electronic Files
Submit your electronic files in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx), Rich Text Format (.rtf), or WordPerfect (.wpd) if possible. If you are using another program, send us a sample file so we can check to see if we can convert your files. You may submit the text as a single file (but see Captions above under Illustrations) or broken into chapters.

Make sure you provide only one version--the most up-to-date version--of each element of your manuscript.

Printout
Please provide an unbound printout of your manuscript unless otherwise instructed. The printout should exactly match the electronic files you submit.
Anthologies and Edited Collections
Collections including work by multiple authors require a few additional tasks. Please see Anthologies and Edited Collections.

Please see Final Submission Checklist for other essentials.

The Extra Touches

We can address the following issues in copyediting, but a manuscript that comes in well prepared in these ways will move more smoothly through editing.

Organization
Aim for an overall organization that is logical, balanced, and consistent.

Part and Chapter Titles. Aim for similar construction and length (shorter is better). Are some titles long and others short? Do most chapters but not all have subtitles? Are some titles straightforward and others meant to be evocative?

Use title-style capitalization (This Is an Example), not all caps (THIS IS AN EXAMPLE) and not sentence-style capitalization (This is an example).

Sections within Chapters. Make sure subheads (section titles) or untitled breaks are helpful to the reader without fragmenting the text.

Subheads should be of similar construction and length (preferably concise). Use title-style capitalization. Avoid numbering.

Treat each level of subhead consistently with others of the same level and differently from the other levels. We suggest the following styles:

  • first-level subheads centered and on a separate line;
  • second-level subheads flush left and on a separate line;
  • third-level subheads flush left and underlined, with the following text beginning on the same line;
  • for untitled breaks, three asterisks on a separate line.

Epigraphs. Use chapter-opening epigraphs consistently (in all chapters or none). Aim for manageable length (shorter is better) and number (one preferred, two at most).

Please do not use epigraphs or block quotations immediately after subheads or untitled breaks. If a quote is vital to, a section, work it into the text by putting some of your own words before the quote.

Mechanical Style
Our house style is based on but does not rigidly adhere to The Chicago Manual of Style on matters of punctuation, capitalization, hyphenation, number treatment, and so forth. If another style (MLA, APA, etc.) is more appropriate to your discipline, please don’t hesitate to check with us about using it.
Spelling
On matters of spelling we consult Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed. (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 2003).
Quotations
In general, a prose quotation of fewer than 100 words should be run into the text unless the quote consists of more than one paragraph. Verse quotations of one or two lines should generally be run into the text, with a slash ( / ) separating two lines. Longer quotes should generally be set as block quotations.

Indent block quotations from the left margin (change the paragraph indent).

If you seek further specific guidance on matters of mechanical style and spelling, see UIP General Style Sheet.

Automatically Generated References
If you use EndNote, RefWorks, or other software that automatically creates or formats a bibliography, remove field codes before finalizing your manuscript. Check your software’s instructions for how to do this.
Notes
Start note numbering anew for each chapter. A general chapter note (for example, a chapter acknowledgment or an explanation of a chapter title) should be unnumbered and should precede note 1 for that chapter.
Numbering and Naming of Illustrations
If your book has few illustrations, use a single numbering sequence for each type (e.g. figure 1, figure 2, figure 3, map 1, map 2, table 1). If your book has many illustrations, you may number them consecutively in each chapter (for example, figure 1 in chapter 2 would be figure 2.1; map 3 in chapter 1 would be map 1.3).

Include illustration numbers in file names for all digital art (for example, Map01_Springfield.ai).

Tables
For tables, you may use the table feature of your software or use tabs to separate columns. Please do not use your software’s columns feature. If you use tabs rather than the table feature, be sure the printout shows data properly lined up.

Number tables separately from other types of illustrations (for example, table 1, table 2). Gather all tables into a separate file rather than placing them in the text and insert callouts into the manuscript (e.g. “<insert table 1 near here>”).

Print each table on its own page.

Additional Multimedia Components
If you are considering including any multimedia components, such as audio or video, please discuss your thoughts with your acquisitions editor. See our general guidelines for multimedia file preparation.