Delivering Your Manuscript

Deadlines
Your deadline is nearly always flexible and controlled by you—but you do need to let us know if you need more time. In all but the most unusual circumstances we will extend your deadline. Don’t worry about missing a deadline by just a few days—no need to pay for overnight shipping, for example. If you have almost everything ready, but are waiting on a few final things, do not send your manuscript yet. Wait until you can send an absolutely complete manuscript. We can’t begin any work here until all pieces are in place.


The Manuscript Package
Manuscript may not be delivered by email. The manuscript package should contain absolutely everything making up the manuscript:

  • (1) the final and complete hard copy (all sections and parts)—all pages double-spaced, numbered continuously, printed on one side of the paper, unbound;
  • (2) an electronic copy of the manuscript that matches the printout exactly;
  • (3) photocopies or printouts of all illustrations, numbered in sequence and sent along with a matching caption/credit list; these are needed for placement and identification purposes;
  • (4) all original photographs, maps, drawings or other illustrations we will need to scan at our end;
  • (5) all necessary permissions;
  • (6) the checklist for manuscript delivery;
  • (7) a cover letter with comments on anything we may need to know, plus your full thoughts about a title.

Send your package to the editor with whom you have been working or you may put “Exposit Books” on the package. It will get to the right person. If you are using U.S. Mail, send your package to Box 611, Jefferson NC 28640; if you use another delivery service use 960 Hwy 88W, Jefferson NC 28640.  There is ordinarily no need to follow up on the manuscript delivery. Please allow two to three weeks for an editor to check in your manuscript. We will write you as soon as we have completed the initial inspection.


Electronic Files
We work on both Macs and PCs, so files from either are acceptable. Save your file(s) in word processing software (MS Word is the most popular), not a layout program such as Quark or InDesign, or in a non-text format such as PDF. If you are using Microsoft Works, please save your file(s) in rich text format (rtf).

It is absolutely vital that the electronic file and paper versions of a manuscript match word for word. The best way to ensure that they do is to make the printout at the last possible moment, then make no further changes to the file.

Please use Times New Roman, 11 or 12 points, throughout the manuscript. If you did not originally create the manuscript using this font and utilize any foreign characters or diacritical marks, please carefully review your paper manuscript to ensure these characters printed correctly. If any did not, please flag these pages for production, and write the correct character in clearly.

Authors must not imbed images in files (consult our guidelines for photos).

Exposit Books can accept any of the major disk media: thumb drives, DVDs, CDs, floppies, etc.