Agent-Ready Memoir Formatting
Budget: $250 – $325 USD
I have a 60,000-word, fast-paced memoir made up of many short chapters, each with its own subtitle. I now need the entire manuscript laid out to strict Chicago Manual of Style standards so it can be sent directly to literary agents and traditional publishing houses—no self-publishing templates, shortcuts, or POD trim sizes.
Scope of the work
• Apply full Chicago style copy-formatting throughout: scene breaks, ellipses, em-dashes, block quotes, citations (where needed), and a clean, industry-standard typeface hierarchy.
• Build a professional front matter set that includes a dedication page and acknowledgements; a foreword section can be left blank but correctly positioned for later insertion.
• Insert an auto-generated, properly indented table of contents that updates if pagination changes.
• Create running headers that alternate as required and carry the author name, book title, and current chapter title without ever colliding with chapter-opening pages.
• Number pages in standard placement: front matter in lowercase Roman numerals, body in Arabic numerals.
Deliverables
1. Fully styled manuscript in Microsoft Word (.docx) ready for agent submission.
2. A clean, print-ready PDF showing exact pagination and headers.
3. A brief style sheet summarising all layout and typographic decisions so any editor down the line can follow the same conventions.
Acceptance criteria
– No widows, orphans, or laddered hyphens.
– All automatic elements (TOC, headers, folios) update flawlessly after a test chapter is added or removed.
– Chicago Manual of Style compliance on every page, verified against the latest edition.
There’s no tight deadline; I value precision over speed. If you have extensive experience preparing traditionally published manuscripts and can demonstrate a meticulous eye for layout, I look forward to working with you.
Scope of the work
• Apply full Chicago style copy-formatting throughout: scene breaks, ellipses, em-dashes, block quotes, citations (where needed), and a clean, industry-standard typeface hierarchy.
• Build a professional front matter set that includes a dedication page and acknowledgements; a foreword section can be left blank but correctly positioned for later insertion.
• Insert an auto-generated, properly indented table of contents that updates if pagination changes.
• Create running headers that alternate as required and carry the author name, book title, and current chapter title without ever colliding with chapter-opening pages.
• Number pages in standard placement: front matter in lowercase Roman numerals, body in Arabic numerals.
Deliverables
1. Fully styled manuscript in Microsoft Word (.docx) ready for agent submission.
2. A clean, print-ready PDF showing exact pagination and headers.
3. A brief style sheet summarising all layout and typographic decisions so any editor down the line can follow the same conventions.
Acceptance criteria
– No widows, orphans, or laddered hyphens.
– All automatic elements (TOC, headers, folios) update flawlessly after a test chapter is added or removed.
– Chicago Manual of Style compliance on every page, verified against the latest edition.
There’s no tight deadline; I value precision over speed. If you have extensive experience preparing traditionally published manuscripts and can demonstrate a meticulous eye for layout, I look forward to working with you.