How to Write a Manuscript

Video Transcript

"Alright folks, in this clip I'm going to teach you how to write a manuscript. Manuscript is basically the physical, tangible, hold it in your hand paper, stack of papers of your book. Whether it be a novel, self help, biographical, autobiographical, whatever it is, the physical, tangible book in your hands before it's been published. That is what a manuscript is. Before it's been shipped off to the printer, got a fancy cover design for it, it is the rawest form of your finished book. Manuscript is basically the step right before it gets published. So in creating your own manuscript you really only need a few things. You need a typewriter or computer, a printer, a really good idea for a book and you're well on your way. A finished manuscript ought to look something like this. It's however long the book actually is, it's got a nice little plastic cover. This is obviously something you can do yourself down at Kinkos. It's protected. It's obviously going to get passed around to different agents, publishers, family members, friends, whatever. This is the earliest, rawest form of the script or the novel or the self help book or the whatever, whatever it is, you're going to want it in packaging that looks professional yet not in its published form. You want to make sure people understand this is a raw, early copy of a book that you're hoping to have published. So make it look presentable, make it look, put it in a durable casing, just make sure that it's clear that this is not your book in its finished form. Most people are not going to have a problem understanding that, but you know. Some people might be like, "Oh, nice book. Looks great". You want to make sure that people understand that this is your manuscript in its earliest form. But make it look nice, neat and professional. Once you've done that, once you've got your book all written out from A to Z, it's on white paper or whatever paper you want to use, it's in clear understandable written form, it's got the professional binding, it's been proofread. That's probably a good thing before the binding. Make sure it's proofread, spell checked, all that important stuff before you go out and get it professionally binded so you can have it passed around to different people. But yeah, once all those steps are done, you've got yourself your very own written manuscript and you can ship it off to anybody, from publishers to agents, family members. And yeah, you've got yourself your very own finished hard copy manuscript of your book."