The Manuscript

Set at least one-inch margins all around. Use a header to put the title and page number in the upper right hand corner of every page.

In the upper left hand corner of the first page, put your name, address, phone numbers, e-mail address, social security number, and the approximate word count of the article. You may put "Copyright c Mary McDonald" (unless your name is something else then use that) so local editors know you're not giving the piece away. It isn't necessary, as everything you write is automatically copyrighted.

You should also indicate what rights you are offering for sale, usually First Serial Rights, or Second Rights if the piece has been previously published. Some editors will want to buy All Rights, meaning from then on they own your piece and can do what they want with it. I try to avoid selling all rights, but have sold out for hard cash in a few cases.

Start the article about half way down the page, with the title and your name centered. This allows the editor room to make notes at the top.

Double space all copy for editorial changes. Put "END" after the last line. And it goes without saying that poor grammar, spelling errors and typos are sure death, because the editor will assume your facts are no more accurate than your English is.