Format a Fiction Manuscript to Shunn-Style DOCX

Most fiction markets still expect something close to William Shunn’s manuscript layout, and a novel pasted from a notes app rarely matches that standard. Manuscript Formatter turns pasted text or .docx, .md and .txt chapters into a standard Shunn-style manuscript .docx with a title page, contact block, rounded word count and running heads on later pages.

This guide covers one job only: load chapters, enter byline and contact details, preview title and first text page, download .docx, then obey each market’s own guidelines. Draft in Book Writing Toolbox, count with Word Counter, and prepare store HTML with KDP Description Formatter after acceptance. Category: text tools.

What Shunn-style usually means

Times New Roman 12 point, double spaced, 1 inch margins, first-line paragraph indents, a title page with contact details and approximate word count, and a running head with last name / TITLE / page number on later pages. Bold and italics are kept; colours, alignment, images and tables are dropped because standard manuscripts do not use them. Always read the agent, magazine or publisher guidelines—some want different fonts, no contact block, or a synopsis first. Their rules win over any template.

Worked example: 90k novel submission

Jordan uploads chapter .docx files, sets title, byline, legal name, address, phone, email, and word-count rounding to nearest 100. Preview shows the title page and page-2 opening. Estimated pages use about 250 words per page—the real count appears after opening in a word processor. Jordan downloads the .docx, opens it in Word, checks scene breaks, and sends per the agency portal checklist.

Steps on Manuscript Formatter

1. Open Manuscript Formatter.
2. Paste text or upload .docx, .md or .txt chapters.
3. Enter title, publishing byline and legal contact details.
4. Choose word-count rounding (exact, 10, 100, 500 or 1,000).
5. Review chapter detection and total words.
6. Check the title-page preview and first text page preview.
7. Download the manuscript .docx.
8. Open in Word or another processor and verify page breaks and italics.
9. Adjust only what a specific market requires.
10. Export PDF only if the market asks for PDF; many still want .docx.

Common mistakes

• Submitting without reading the market’s unique rules.
• Leaving sample placeholder contact data on the title page.
• Expecting images or complex tables to survive—strip them before upload.
• Trusting the in-tool page estimate instead of the processor’s count after styles apply.
• Sending a file named final-final-v3.docx instead of Title_Author.docx.

Limits and good to know

Images and tables in uploads are omitted. Among FreeDailyPro’s 300+ professional tools, premium applications and workflow products this formatter targets submission layout, not print interior design. Where downloads count toward the daily allowance, expect 2 trial usages for manuscript formatter, then a day pass or monthly options when you need more. Nothing requires an account for the basic flow; processing stays in the browser context described on the page.

Edge cases

Multiple POV parts: keep part titles as chapter-style headings the tool detects. Novellas under 40k: still use standard format unless guidelines say otherwise. Simultaneous submissions: keep identical manuscript bodies; only cover letters change.

After acceptance

Production interiors are a different job from submission manuscripts. Do not send your Shunn file straight to a print-on-demand interior without reformatting.

Market checklist before you hit send

Confirm file type (.docx vs PDF vs RTF), font exceptions, whether a synopsis is separate, anonymity rules for contest entries, and simultaneous submission policy. Name the file with title and author surname. Disable editorial comments and tracked changes. If you use Manuscript Formatter and then tweak margins for a rare guideline, document the exception so your next submission can reset to standard format quickly.

Scene break markers

If your draft uses decorative scene breaks, replace them with a simple # or blank line convention the formatter preserves as text, then verify in the .docx that scene breaks still read cleanly when double-spaced.

Italics, thoughts and emphasis

Shunn-style manuscripts keep italics for emphasis and internal thoughts when your style uses them. After download, search the .docx for leftover ALL CAPS emphasis that should be italics, and for accidental double spaces from paste. Do not add headers with fancy fonts—the running head is enough.

Simultaneous submissions tracking

Keep a simple log: market, date sent, manuscript version hash or filename, response due. When you revise after a rejection, bump the version in the filename so you never resend an old draft to the same editor by mistake.

Before uploading chapters, strip comments, tracked changes and text boxes. The formatter rebuilds layout from text; hidden review clutter can produce odd spacing. Chapter titles should be plain text headings your source already uses so the tool can count chapters correctly.

If a market wants a synopsis as page one, prepare that as a separate file rather than overloading the title page. Standard manuscript format is already doing a lot of work; do not invent a hybrid that confuses first readers.

Do a read-through of the downloaded file

Open the .docx and scroll the first ten pages and the last two. Check that the title page shows your real contact details, that the running head carries your surname and a short title, and that the page numbers continue correctly. Search for stray double spaces and for any chapter that begins in the middle of a page when it should start on a new one. Fixing these takes minutes; a submission with a formatting slip is judged before anyone reads the story.

Next step

Standard format is a courtesy that signals you read the guidelines. Open Manuscript Formatter, build the .docx, and only then bend the template where a market explicitly asks.

Would built-in synopsis and cover-letter pages help your packets? Suggest features at contact.