Submission
Common formatting mistakes that make a submission look amateur
None of these affect the quality of the writing. All of them affect the first impression, before a single sentence has been judged on its own merits — which is exactly why they're worth eliminating.
The usual suspects
- Spacing made with the space bar instead of proper indents. Looks fine until the file is opened on a different machine, at which point it collapses into an unreadable mess.
- A blank line between every paragraph, with no indent. This is how email is formatted, not how a book is formatted — and it's the single most common tell of someone who hasn't checked.
- Two or three different fonts in one document. Usually the ghost of text pasted in from somewhere else years ago, carrying its own formatting along with it.
- Chapter headings in a decorative font. Save it for the cover. Inside the manuscript, a plain, consistent heading style is what's expected.
- A title page with no word count. Small, but it's one of the first things an agent looks for — it tells them immediately whether the book fits the shape of what they're looking for.
- Page numbers that restart at every chapter. They should run straight through the whole document.
- Justified text. Creates uneven gaps between words and rivers of white space down the page. Left-aligned is correct for a submission.
- Double spaces after full stops. A typewriter-era habit that doesn't belong in a modern file.
Why these particular things stand out
An agent's reader goes through a great many submissions, often in a short space of time. Standard formatting exists so the document itself disappears and only the writing is left. When something breaks that pattern, it's the first thing noticed — not because it's a serious flaw, but because it interrupts the reading before the story has had a chance to.
None of these are fatal on their own
A good book with one formatting slip won't be rejected over it. But several of these together create a cumulative impression of carelessness that's genuinely avoidable, and worth removing before it costs you anything.
The full rules, properly explained
This list covers the mistakes that show. For the complete picture of what correct formatting actually looks like — fonts, margins, title pages, running headers — the standard manuscript format guide covers it in full.
Or have it checked and fixed properly
Send me the file and I'll tell you honestly whether it needs a light tidy or a full reset.