In this section:
How to prepare your manuscript before you upload it
Once you sign your contract, you need to
Before you do any of this make sure your manuscript is as good as it can possibly be!
How to lay out your manuscript
In order to make the design process efficient, we need you to format your manuscript in a very specific way, and upload to us as a Word file. Here’s how to make sure you get it right:
If you want to see how your manuscript is going to look at the end of the process, click here.
Your manuscript needs to be in Word's Normal Style. Here's how to do it.
Make sure your Normal default document style is set correctly.
For newer versions of Word, click "Home" at the top left.
In the Styles section of the toolbar, right-click Normal and then Modify.
This will show you the default font, size and color. Set these as required (12pt, Times New Roman, black).
We need text without Paragraph Indents. When a Word doc is fed into InDesign (the program the designer uses), InDesign looks for “returns” and puts in an indent automatically. Your paragraphs must have no indents in them. To make sure of this, click Format then Paragraph
To make sure there is no indentation on a paragraph, make sure none in the Special box is selected and Line spacing is single and there is 0pt Spacing Before and After
Now your default style in Word is correct, select all your text and make sure it is in the Normal style.
Note: This process will change the formatting on your document, formatting (what was centered, may become left-justified or your italics may disappear, for example, as well as other changes) so be sure to carefully re-apply necessary elements.
Select the text you wish to indent using the mouse, then slide the bottom manual indent indicator across to where you want it (that is the bit that looks like an inverted pyramid).
After you do the above, you will need to go through and re-check the formatting.
Make sure everything is Normal text and make the font sizes, line spacing and text justification consistent. If you find you change the normal text and suddenly Word labels it something other than normal text, then it means you didn’t successfully disable Word’s nasty auto-format features.
The basic manuscript layout rules
Keep the layout simple as follows:
A carriage return is when you press the return button (⏎) on your keyboard in order to move your cursor the beginning of the next line.
You can see the carriage returns in your document in Microsoft Word by clicking the Show/Hide formatting marks on the Home ribbon.
Our feeling is that it’s best to stick with your preferred style, and confine copyediting to ironing out clear grammatical mistakes and making it consistent.
However, we do have a “loose” house style, which we set out below, and which our editors will work towards unless you tell us otherwise.
Please check that you are happy with this style – we cannot change your manuscript back after editing. If you have an alternative preference, make sure you let us know in the Author Stylesheet box.
Never assume that the Copyeditor or Designer will understand what you want unless you spell it out clearly.
There is an Appendix on more detailed questions of House Style.
Because we publish in both markets, UK or US/International spelling is the single main issue in styling. On the whole, we prefer to publish with American spelling.
There is no easy answer to this question.
Why JHP prefers American spelling
UK readers are more used to American spelling; so if a UK author reads a book which has American spelling, they are less likely to complain.
If an American reader reads a book with UK spelling, they are likely to be more bothered than the other way round.
In addition, most books sold in English-speaking countries like South Africa or Australia tend to have American spelling.
So we prefer American spelling overall (and quite apart from the question of sales, it’s closer to 17th-century English than modern UK spelling is).
Some basic tips on American spelling
Some basic tips on American grammar
When we use American spelling, we also adopt American grammar, which most noticeably crops up in whether quotation marks come inside a full stop or outside it.
House Style: Your book broken down, beginning to end, section to section
The preliminary pages (or “prelims”) are the opening pages of the book.
You do not have to have all of these, but please always provide a contents page for non-fiction.
These consist of (in this order, generally):
Endorsements
It’s increasingly common for the first page or two of a book to be used for endorsements and/or reviews, as these will show up first on the Amazon Look Inside feature.
Which endorsements to choose is a question of judgement. It doesn’t look good having too many pages of praise by people the reader hasn’t heard of before you get to the start of the book, and it’s possible to “oversell.” However, short summary statements from reputable sources are helpful.
Lay out your endorsements like this:
An important and fascinating book about the origin, history and impending demise of the ego – humanity's collective dysfunction. The Fall is highly readable and enlightening, as the author's acute mind is at all times imbued with the higher faculty of spiritual awareness.
Eckhart Tolle, bestselling author of The Power of Now and A New Earth: Awakening to your Life's Purpose
Previous Titles
Provide the:
Half-title (p.i)
Always a right-hand page and carries the title.
Half-title verso (p.ii)
A left-hand page which may list other books you have written, others in the series, or be left blank. Feel free to add other books whether we are the publisher or not.
Title page (p.iii)
A right-hand page that carries the full title and any subtitle, the name(s) of the author(s) and the company logo.
Title page verso (p.iv)
This left-hand page will be completed by us to fulfill standard legal and bibliographical requirements and includes details of the copyright holders. For ease of ordering by individuals or shops who happen to come across the book and are not familiar with the publisher, we also include details of distributors around the world here.
Dedication or epigraph (p.v):
Used for a dedication if wanted, or contents. Sometimes the dedication may be placed on p.iv if we are short of space.
Contents
Pages, generally, begin on a right-hand page and should include:
Check that the chapter titles match those in the text.
Preface
Written by the author to explain the purpose of the book and its target audience. It’s a chance for you to communicate directly with the reader, establish a relationship with him/her. It usually ends with your name or initials. Personal thanks are, generally, included at the end of the preface.
Foreword
Usually written by a renowned expert in the subject at the invitation of the author.
Acknowledgements
Can be listed separately or included in the preface. It is not necessary to ask permission from people to acknowledge them. Acknowledgements for borrowed illustrations and tables should be included in the captions.
For fiction, and certainly for children's/YA, it's better to have Acknowledgements at the back of the book, so that there's less to scroll through on Amazon. Look Inside at the start.
List of abbreviations or acronyms
Any general maps relevant to the whole book
Introduction
This may form part of the prelims or be included in the text, depending on length. Broadly speaking, if it’s short and by its nature stands outside the text, it should be in the preliminary pages; if it is long, it may be better treated as an introductory chapter to the text and numbered accordingly.
Prelims are traditionally numbered in roman figures in the proofs, which allows for last-minute changes without disturbing the pagination of the main text (Arabic numerals starting with 1 begin at the Introduction—if there is one—or Chapter 1 onwards).
We put a page number on the dedication page but not on the title page, contents page etc. It's a design choice – the designer we use thinks it looks better. It is not necessary to number these pages.
This is how your prelims will look in the designed book, although if you have endorsements, these will occupy page i and ii (see below), and the other pages will thus move forward (no need to worry about left/right-hand pages or numbering in your MS):
Most copyediting queries are on the end-matter. End-matter headings should be included in the contents.
This might comprise, in this order:
We include some copy about the imprint at the back of the book along the lines of:
If you have enjoyed this book, why not tell other readers by posting a review on your preferred booksite. Recent bestsellers from IMPRINT are:
LIST OF BESTSELLING TITLES IN YOUR IMPRINT
Find more titles and sign up to our readers’ newsletter at CLUSTER WEBPAGE. Follow us on Facebook at CLUSTER FACEBOOK LINK and Twitter at CLUSTER TWITTER LINK. Most titles are published in paperback and as an e-book. Paperbacks are available in physical bookshops. Both print and ebook editions are available online. Readers of ebooks can click on the live links in the titles to order.
In the ebook, this end-matter also includes live links to bestselling titles, our website and social media.
We review our end matter every year
Every year, we review this end-matter and update which titles are listed. We tend to focus on the strong sellers. We cannot change the selection for different books, or get into discussions about which titles should be selected. It doesn't imply that you are personally endorsing these titles (though they will be from within the same imprint), just that the publisher is promoting them.
END-MATTER FOR STOP PRESS MURDER BY PETER BARTRAM, ROUNDFIRE BOOKS
Many books do not need footnotes. But if it is a reference-style work, it always helps to cite your sources, particularly for reviewers. They often come to snap judgments on books on the basis of the range of reference used. Give credit where it is due.
Do not use your word processor’s footnote or endnote feature
Do not use your word processor’s footnote or endnote feature – it does not translate footnotes or endnotes correctly when we feed the Word document through the design program.
If you send in a manuscript that has used this facility we will have to return it to you for amendment.
If you want to use footnotes or endnotes you must enter them manually.
If you use footnotes, put them at the end of each chapter
Footnotes at the bottom of the page do not work in ebooks – pages show differently on different ereaders, and if you increase the font size for ease of reading, they are no longer at the bottom of the page. Linking notes is too expensive to do. So if the manuscript comes with footnotes at the bottom of the page, we will ask you to resend it with the footnotes at the end of the chapter.
How to present footnotes and endnotes
The position of footnotes in the text is indicated by footnote indicators—superior numbers running serially throughout each chapter.
Present them in the numerical “Vancouver” style. Please don’t use roman numerals. They have to be changed individually, and it takes too long.
Use Word’s Superscript function for footnotes and endnotes
You must enter each endnote number in the text in Superscript to make it the right size. Superscript is on the Word formatting toolbar – it is the button that has x2 on it. To superscript, just highlight the item and click on the button, then type the endnotes in manually at the end of the chapter or the end of the book, in the same size type as the rest of the text.
Check your footnotes/endnotes carefully
Check that there are no omissions and that the number of notes in each chapter corresponds with the number of notes in the notes section.
Help! I used automated footnotes/endnotes and I have to reformat. What should I do?
If you have used automated footnotes or endnotes, here is how to strip them and add manually:
Why we avoid indices as much as we can
We are not an academic publisher bringing out scholarly works. For popular books indices are not necessary. Sometimes, where they might be helpful, they are not worth the time and cost. Reviewers who complain about the lack of an index in a book are usually not familiar with publishing economics.
If you really want an index, we require you to provide it
If you want to use a professional freelance indexer, you can find one via the Society of Indexers (UK) or the American Society for Indexing.
Do consider that, increasingly, most of your books will be bought digitally, where there will be no index, and making an index could be an unsustainable effort in time and cost. Also consider a “Select Index” of a couple of pages; it may be a good compromise, avoiding the need to include everything.
How to create an index by yourself
Important note: when you get the final proofs in the form of a PDF of the book from the designer, your viewing programme may give you two options on how to display pages of the document:
When you search the proofs, go for the second option, as otherwise all the page numbers will be out by the number of the prelims.
We get a lot of these, so many that we don't keep track of them... but here are a couple of recent ones:
And just to let you know that the books have arrived safely and in the most trouble-free manner. I am delighted with the look and the feel of them. I think the cover designer has done a magnificent job, as has everyone else connected with this project. I read the whole book through last night and was positively excited by what I read! The only minor flaws I detected were the repetition of the word 'that' at the end of line 14 on page 38 and my irritatingly unnecessary and gramatically faulty writing of the words 'far more' at the end of the last line on page 63. Otherwise it is all perfect - well, pretty close to that! I shall save the world yet, I tell you!!! Please forward this e to John Hunt, Trevor Greenfield and Denise Smith, and have a good day and a wonderful weekend. Regards, Richard.
Richard Oxtoby Trouble with Christianity (on receipt of books)
Could I just say how impressed I am by John Hunt Publishing. The cover of the book is brilliant and the speed of the publishing process puts other companies to shame. David Sunderland - These Chivalrous Brothers
I wanted to take a moment to say thanks to Dominic, Maria, Catherine, and the rest of the staff and management of Roundfire Books for everything they've done to make my new novel Fragile Brilliance become a published book. Everyone involved was so supportive of the book/manuscript from the beginning and I appreciated it so much. Everyone has treated me so well and treated me like a real author, which is something that really makes me feel special. I could not be more pleased with how the book looks and how it was marketed and distributed. My entire experience with you all has just been awesome! Eliot Parker - Fragile Brilliance