Book Manuscripts
Status: Established.
Context
Books submitted to university presses. Seth has full creative control over his working drafts, but publishers may override formatting upon acceptance. The style guide governs Seth’s submission manuscripts — the version editors first see.
Established Rules
- Body size: 12pt (baseline per D-005)
- Margins: 1” all sides (standard); some presses request 1.25” left for binding gutter
- Paragraph style: First-line indent (0.5”), no extra space between paragraphs. This is the universal convention for book manuscripts.
- Line spacing: 1.15 (per D-016). This is the standard for all book manuscripts, including press submissions. Double-spacing is not used for book manuscripts.
Typography
- Body: Crimson Text Regular, 12pt, 1.15 line spacing (D-013, D-016)
- H1 (Chapter titles): Oswald Bold, 16pt (D-015)
- H2 (Sections): Oswald SemiBold, 14pt
- H3 (Subsections): Oswald Regular, 12pt
- Footnotes: Crimson Text Regular, 10pt, single-spaced
- Line spacing: 1.15 (consistent with D-016 and Established Rules above)
Structural Rules
- No stacked headings (D-018): Every heading must be followed by body text before the next heading. An H2 followed immediately by an H3 with no prose in between is a structural error. If a chapter section contains only subsections, write a brief introductory paragraph under the section heading before the first subsection. See
foundations/typography.mdfor the full rule.
Pipeline
Markdown (iA Writer) → pandoc → .docx → submit to publisher
The pandoc reference document must encode the correct fonts, sizes, and spacing so that conversion produces a properly formatted manuscript without manual adjustment.
Compliance Note
Publishers will reformat accepted manuscripts to their own house style. The goal here is to produce a submission that looks professional, intentional, and easy to read — not to dictate the final published appearance.