Just a few minor points:
- The titles people hold are not capitalized;
secretary, chairman, and sheriff are all lower case unless
the title is followed by a name (Sheriff Stokes,
Congressman Wilson).
- Alright is not a word
and should be written as all right. "Alright" is alwrong.
- You and I and You and me.
There's a technical grammatical explanation for
this, but the simplest way to tell which
it should be is to take the You and (or some variation) out
of the sentence and then read it. "He was a good friend to Janice
and I." Take out Janice and and you have "He was a good
friend to I." Nope. Me.
- It is not incorrect to finish a sentence with a preposition (at, about, to, from, etc). As Winston Churchill said when told he should not end a sentence with a preposition, "This is the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put."
- "I and my friends went to a movie." While this sentence is grammatically correct, avoid starting a sentence with "I and"; the "courteous" form is preferred. Write "My friends and I..."
- People
do not talk in numbers. Within the confines of dialogue, spell
out all numbers, times, dates, etc.
- "It’s seven-thirty in the morning."
- "Nineteen eighty-six was a great year."
- "My grandfather lived past his seventy-fifth birthday."
- The titles of longer works are italicized -- books, plays, operas, television series. But the titles of shorter works are enclosed in quotation marks, that is, works that are not published alone but as a part of a bigger work -- short stories, songs, articles, television episodes. The titles of paintings and the names of ships are also italicized.
A second pair of eyes
When you’ve finished going through your manuscript and you're convinced you’ve caught everything, a second pair of eyes is a guaranteed way to find a few more errors. You've looked at your own writing so much you just don’t see the errors yourself. Find a second reader even if you have to pay for the service. Friends tend to tell you what they think you want to hear; look for someone objective.
Ready to print your manuscript?
- Print your book or story out on nice white
paper. No colored paper, please.
- Do not bind it in any way.
- Don't send a resumé with the
manuscript. If the editor requests author information,
she wants to know only about material
published by you which is directly related to the genre
or field in which you’re submitting. Anything else is
unnecessary.
- If you have more than 300
pages, you might want to get SASB (self-addressed stamped
boxes — inner and outer boxes) to protect your
manuscript.
- Put or add sufficient postage
and packaging (your SASE or SASB) for the publisher to
return your manuscript. If you don’t want your
manuscript returned, say so in your cover letter.
(Nowadays a
ream of paper is cheaper than the return postage on a
400-page manuscript). Do not send a check or money order.
- Exception to the rule above: If you’re sending your manuscript outside the US, send either IRCs (International Reply Coupons, available at most local post offices) or a money order for the return postage.
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