You should also bear these general points in mind:

• Timing
• File Types
• Formatting
• Reference Material
• Artwork Brief
• Artwork Types
• National Curriculum
• Writing to Length
• Identifying your Manuscript
• Permissions
• Amending your Manuscript

Timing

It is essential that you keep to the dates agrees with your publisher for the submission of draft and final manuscript. At draft stage, there will be reviewers waiting to receive your manuscript, often working to tight deadlines. If you are late delivering a manuscript, you will eat into the time others have to consider and comment. At final manuscript stage, the editor will have booked busy freelance copyeditors and proofreaders in advance who will be well-suited to the particular job. Late delivery may well mean a copyeditor will not be able to do the job, the schedule will be affected and the materials will be published late. This will almost certainly affect sales as products are scheduled to arrive in the market when they are most needed

File Types

Check with your publisher or editor that the file format you plan to use is compatible with our editors' and designers' computers. WORD files are generally acceptable.  It's a good idea to check that your files will be readable. Always provide a hard copy of your manuscript as well as a digital version unless your editor says this is unnecessary.

Formatting

• Keep the formatting of your manuscript pages simple. Charts, boxes, illustrations and diagrams will normally have to be stripped out before the      material goes to the designer. If you need to include diagrams or charts, it's a good idea to attach them separately.
• It is acceptable to include tables in your sample pages as it is very helpful to the designer to indicate what your intention is.
• Range all text to the left.
• Use only ONE character space at the end of a sentence.
• Don't indent paragraphs using a space. If you need to indent use TAB.
• Please make sure that all automatic features, such as automatic numbering, are turned off. The numbers can be read as different characters when the file is read into another package.
• Please use upper and lower case for headings. Never use all caps. If you want to make a heading stand out, use bold. DO NOT underline.
• Number each section and chapter clearly.