Preparing Your Manuscript

If your head is spinning from the manuscript rejection feedback you’re receiving while on submission, you’re not alone. Let us help you translate it.

2nd Draft provides a high-level review of your writing, giving specific reasons your work may be getting rejected. You’ll not only learn what’s working in your writing, but what’s not, and—most important—how to fix it.

Trina St. Jean, author of 2015 debut novel BLANK, shares seven tips for cleaning up the messiest of drafts and refocusing your work in progress.

Before sending your novel out to potential agents and publishers, be sure to follow these important formatting guidelines.

There are a couple of places where your manuscript's word count needs to appear. Here they are.

What should writers do when they finish their first drafts? Author Patricia Gussin reveals how to tune your manuscript up so it’s ready for agents and editors.

When submitting a story via email for a contest, how should it be formatted? Here's the inside scoop on what rules to follow.

The goal for most of us writers is to get our work published. We dream of the day we walk through our local bookstore and see our name on the cover of a book. While getting published isn't the only way to validate oneself as a writer, it certainly is one of the most gratifying. It's also one of the most challenging. Here are your top options.

The rules of resubmitting a revised manuscript are pretty simple, but it's important to take a few extra steps to ensure the editor remembers you and your story. Here's what you need to do.

If you are writing a novel for the first time, or simply beginning a new one, From First Draft to Finished Novel can guide you along the process. Throughout the book, you'll discover novel writing tips, get step-by-step instruction, and improve your writing skills with editing and writing exercises.

So you have a great idea for a novel or nonfiction book but you just don't know where to begin? Have no fear: Brian A. Klems devised a pretty simple plan that will help guide you.

Is your manuscript stuck? Take a break from completing your fiction project and diagnose it. Here's how to take your manuscript into its next phase: completion.

When writing your future bestseller you don't want to have to waste too much time wondering if you should be leaving one space or two between sentences or worried that you're committing other style faux pas. Here I’ve collected a writer’s set of FAQs about formatting issues that will help you navigate the basics.

Here’s editor Anica Mrose Rissi’s list of what you can do to increase your book’s chances of making it out of the slush pile and into the spotlight. by Anica Mrose Rissi

At Killer Nashville, a trio of extremely knowledgeable publishing pros held a panel on the most common reasons why a manuscript is rejected by an agent. Here you'll find part two of this post series.