Manuscript formatter
Upload a .docx and get a Shunn-standard manuscript back — 12pt Courier, double-spaced, 1" margins, page numbers. Free preview with a small footer; $5 to unlock and remove it.
What you get back
- 12pt monospaced type, double-spaced — the format agents read in, with room to annotate.
- One-inch margins and page numbers on every page.
- Chapters on fresh pages, titles set about a third of the way down.
- Scene breaks normalised to a centred marker, so they survive a page break.
- Punctuation tidied — curly quotes, real em dashes, no doubled spaces.
- Both PDF and .docx, so you can send whichever a submission asks for.
Questions
- What is standard manuscript format?
- The convention most literary agents expect: 12pt monospaced font, double-spaced, one-inch margins, a half-inch first-line indent, page numbers, and each chapter starting on a new page. It is often called Shunn format, after William Shunn, who documented it.
- Does this change my writing?
- No. It changes layout and punctuation style — curly quotes, em dashes, consistent spacing. Your sentences are never rewritten, reordered, or edited.
- What file types can I upload?
- Word .docx files, up to 25 MB. You get back both a PDF and a .docx.
- What does it cost?
- Formatting is free. Free files include a small footer line on the PDF, allow three adjustments, and are kept for 24 hours. Unlocking one file costs $5 once — no subscription — which removes the footer, lifts the adjustment limit, and keeps the file for 30 days.
- What if it gets my chapters wrong?
- It asks before guessing. When something is genuinely ambiguous — an interlude, a part divider — you are shown the text and asked how to treat it. Answering costs nothing.
New to this? Read how to format a manuscript for agents.