What Is a Manuscript? Meaning, Stages and the Submission Draft

Manuscript comes from Latin and literally means “written by hand.” For centuries that was exactly what it was, and later the word covered typewritten pages too. Hardly anyone writes a novel by hand today, but the term has stayed: a manuscript is the text of a work before it is published.

That covers very different things. The messy draft on your laptop is a manuscript. So is the carefully formatted file you send to a literary agent, and the edited version a publisher sends to the typesetter. Knowing which stage you are in tells you what needs to happen next.

Manuscript, typescript, galley, book

• Manuscript: the unpublished text in any form. It is the everyday industry word, even for a document that never touched paper.
• Typescript: strictly, a typed rather than handwritten text. You will mostly meet the word in archives and literary scholarship.
• Galleys or page proofs: the typeset text sent to the author and editor for a final check. This is the first time the words look like a book.
• Book: the published work, in print or as an ebook. From here on, nobody calls it a manuscript.

The stages of a manuscript

Every book passes through similar stations, whether it comes out with a Big Five publisher or is self-published. The order matters more than the labels, because each stage assumes the one before it is done.

From first draft to revision

How to reach a complete first draft is covered in How to write your first book. After that, the real work on the text begins. Revising in layers tends to work well: first read the whole manuscript in as few sittings as you can and only take notes. Then tackle the big problems, such as missing scenes, unclear motivation or a sagging middle. Only when the structure holds do you work on individual sentences.

Save a version before every major rewrite. Sometimes the scene you cut turns out to be essential after all, and you will be glad to have it back.

After one or two passes of your own, beta readers become valuable. Choose people who enjoy your genre and ask specific questions: Where did you put the book down? Which character left you cold? What surprised you at the end? Questions like these yield more than a request for general impressions, and they show whether a problem bothers one reader or several.

Editing: who does what

At a traditional publisher, your acquiring editor usually handles the developmental and line edit, and a copyeditor and proofreader follow. If you self-publish, you hire these services yourself, usually from freelancers. Rates are commonly quoted per word or per project and vary widely with the type of edit and the length of the book.

Developmental editing and copyediting are different jobs. One asks whether the story works; the other asks whether every comma is right. If you book only one, know which one you are paying for.

The manuscript in self-publishing

When you self-publish, you take on the publisher's role. The manuscript moves through the same stages, but you decide when each one is finished. That is exactly the risk: without an outside deadline, revision can turn into a permanent construction site, or the copyedit gets skipped to save money.

So set fixed points at which the text is frozen. After the developmental edit, change only what the editor raised. After the copyedit, the text goes to layout, and in the proofs you fix genuine errors only, not phrasing. Every larger change in typeset pages can shift page breaks and introduce new mistakes. Layout also adds elements the manuscript never had: front matter with a copyright page, a table of contents, running heads and page numbers.

The submission draft for agents

In the US and UK, most novelists reach publishers through a literary agent. You rarely send the whole manuscript at first. Instead you send a query package, and the agent's own submission guidelines always take priority over any general advice.

• Query letter: one page with a hook, a short pitch of the story, title, genre, word count, comparable titles and a brief bio.
• Synopsis: a summary of the whole plot, ending included, often one to two pages. Our guide on how to write a synopsis shows how.
• Sample pages: often the first five, ten or fifty pages, or the first three chapters, always from the beginning of the book.
• Full manuscript: sent only when an agent requests it.

Sample pages follow standard manuscript format: 12 pt Times New Roman or a similar font, double spacing, 1-inch margins, indented paragraphs and a header with your surname, title and page number. Most agents want a .docx file or pasted text, depending on their submission system.

Frequently asked questions

Does my novel have to be finished before I query?

For fiction, yes, in almost all cases. Agents expect a complete, revised manuscript even if they only ask for sample pages at first. Nonfiction is different: it is usually sold on a book proposal with sample chapters.

How many revisions does a manuscript need?

There is no fixed number. Many writers do two or three thorough revisions before querying. What matters is that each pass has a clear focus, such as structure, character or language.

Can I query several agents at once?

Yes, simultaneous submissions are standard practice. If an agent offers representation, let the others who still have your manuscript know, so they have a chance to respond.