LEXINGTON BOOKS

An imprint of Rowman & Littlefield

Final Manuscript Prep Guide

FORMATTING

These are the formatting standards Lexington Books requires its authors to follow. Should you submit
your manuscript in a form that does not follow these standards, your acquisitions editor or their assistant
may return your manuscript and ask that you format it in accordance with the standards laid out in this
guide.

The final draft you submit to your acquisitions editor is what will appear in the book. No edits other than
proofreading corrections can be made after the book is sent to our production team. Text cannot be
rewritten and images cannot be added. All edits must be completed before you submit your final draft.

• All files should be in Microsoft Word .doc or .docx file format.

• The final manuscript must be divided into individual files for each chapter. Front and back
matter should be split into separate files for each component (dedication, acknowledgments,
table of contents, list of figures, bibliography, appendices, etc.). File names for chapter files
should include the chapter number. Note, introductions and conclusions should not be counted as
chapters.
• Files must be submitted via email. Sending multiple emails due to attachment size limits may be
necessary. If you cannot submit via email, please contact your acquisitions editor to discuss other
accepted submission methods.
• All text, including headings, subheadings, endnotes, and block quotes must be double-spaced in
black, 12pt. Times New Roman font.
• Do not add extra spacing, hard returns (pressing the Enter key), or line breaks between
paragraphs, endnotes, and bibliographic entries. Don’t include tabs in the middle of paragraphs
or bibliography entries.
• Pages should be 8½” x 11” with 1-inch margins.
• With the exception of chapter titles and A-level subheadings, all text should be left aligned. Do
not justify or right align text.
• Do not use the space bar to indent the first line of a paragraph. Use a paragraph indent.
• Do not indent the paragraph that directly follows a chapter title, or A-level subheading.
• If you want a blank line to appear between two paragraphs in your book, place the callout
“<break/>” where the blank line should be. Use this sparingly.
• Bold typeface and underlining are against our house style. When emphasizing text, use italics.
No text should be bolded or underlined, not even headings or subheadings.

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 • All headings and subheadings should be title case. Do not use all-caps, small caps, or sentence
case for headings or subheadings. You cannot have a B-level heading, without a preceding A-
level heading and cannot have a C-level heading without a preceding B-level. The chapter title
is not a heading and is separate from the heading structure. Examples of the types of
subheadings can be found below.

A-Level Subheading (Centered, hard return above and below)

First line of text.

B-Level Subheading (Aligned Left, hard return above and below)

First line of text.

C-Level Subheading (Aligned Left and Italicized, hard return above and below)

First line of text.

• Block quotes: quotes of five or more lines, or more than 100 words, should be set apart from the
surrounding text and indented exactly one-half inch from the left margin and not indented at all
from the right margin. Adjust the margins for this or click the “Increase Indent” button located in
the paragraph section of the main Microsoft Word toolbar; do not use spaces or tabs. Let lines
wrap naturally. Include a hard return before and after each block quote. All block quotes should
be double spaced. Block quotes should not be enclosed in quotation marks.
• Do not use hyphens to break words at the ends of lines.
• Images and tables should not be inserted directly into the text. Each image and table must be
saved in a separate file and you will need to submit a complete list of all image and table
captions and sources (even if you’re the source). See the Figures, Tables, and Text Boxes section
of this document or the Tables and Figures Guide for more information.
• Prepare a table of contents: list all parts/sections; chapter numbers, titles,
bibliography/references, about the author/contributors, and appendices. We use this to verify that
we have all parts of your manuscript, so be sure it is complete and accurate.

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 • Make sure chapter titles and author/editor/contributor names are the same in the table of contents
and chapter files.
• Do not include page numbers or subheadings in your table of contents.
• Leave no comments, tracked changes, highlighting, or hidden text in the draft you send to your
acquisitions editor.
• Do not insert headers or footers in the manuscript, not even page numbers. Page numbers will be
added during typesetting.
• Do not use any special formatting in Microsoft Word, such as preset styles or page templates. Do
not use heading styles for headings and subheadings. All text should be formatted as normal text.
• Citations and bibliographies/reference lists should be formatted according to the Chicago Manual
of Style’s formatting guidelines. Authors can choose between using the endnote/bibliography
(not footnotes) or parentheses/reference list style (AKA author/date style) of Chicago-style
citations. A short guide to Chicago-style citations can be found here:
http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html
• All endnotes must be embedded. Please use Microsoft Word’s endnote feature to create
endnotes. Do not simply make a numbered list at the end of your document. You can find this on
the References tab of the Microsoft Word toolbar.
• Endnotes cannot be included in chapter headings or subheadings. Any notes that you would want
to include in the chapter headings should instead be placed at the end of the first sentence
following the heading or subheading.
• Do not put hard returns between endnotes.
• All cited sources must appear in the bibliography, and the bibliography should not include
sources that are not referenced in the text. If there are supplemental sources that you would like
to mention but you do not reference directly, please include them in an appendix named
“Appendix ##: Further Reading”
• Bibliography entries should not be separated according to publication type. All entries should
appear together in one unified, alphabetized bibliography that will be included at the end of the
manuscript (see the edited collection section for information about bibliographies in edited
collection chapters).
• You will not need to submit an index with your manuscript files. Page numbers will change
when the book is typeset and indexing will be completed when you receive typeset page proofs.
• Do not use Wikipedia as a source. We will ask you to replace it with another source.
• Please be sure that every quote and block quote has a clear and full citation.

EDITED COLLECTIONS

In addition to the guidelines listed above, there are some formatting requirements specific to edited
collections. It is the collection editor’s responsibility to make sure that all chapter authors follow these
guidelines and make certain that all chapters follow a uniform and consistent style.

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 • Contributors must approve any and all changes the collection editor makes to their chapters at all
stages of the publication process.
• Be sure to collect completed contributor consent forms from each contributor. For co-authored
chapters we require consent forms from each chapter author.
• Rather than providing one bibliography for all chapters, each chapter must have its own
bibliography. It should appear immediately following the main body of the text. The
bibliography should not be separated by source type and sources must appear in alphabetical
order.
• All chapters must use the same citation style (either author/date and reference list or
endnotes/bibliography).
• Provide a document with brief biographical notes about each contributor.
• Please ensure that all contributor names are spelled correctly and are consistent in the chapter(s)
they authored, table of contents, and contributor bios.

FIGURES, TABLES, AND TEXT BOXES

Lexington Books has specific guidelines for submitting figures, tables, and text boxes. If these
specifications are not met, you will need to resubmit the files in the required format. Note: All art will be
in black and white in our print books. We can include color in the eBook.

• All images, tables, and text boxes should be sent in separate documents, and the file names
should include the chapter number and numbering that indicates the order in which they should
appear. For example, the file for the first figure in chapter 2 should be named “figure 2.1,” and
the first table in chapter 2 should be named “table 2.1,” etc. They should be referenced in the text
according to the same naming scheme as the file names.
• Indicate the location in the chapter where the figure/table/textbox should appear by using the
following tag, with a hard return above and below:

<INSERT FIGURE #.# HERE>

<INSERT TABLE #.# HERE>

• Captions are needed for ALL figures and tables. Captions should include the figure or table
numbers, source information, and accurate credit lines. Credit lines are needed for all images,
even if they were created by an author or contributor. Please submit the captions in a separate file
named “list of captions.”
• All images should be submitted as JPG, TIFF, PNG, PDF, or .DOCX files and must have a
resolution of at least 300dpi and dimensions of at least 1200*1800 pixels (or be at least 4 inches
tall or wide).

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 • All tables and textboxes should be submitted in Microsoft Word files and formatted as text.
Tables must be created using Microsoft Word’s tables function.
• Any content not created by the author and not created before 1926 will require permission from
the rights holder of that content. Please see the permissions section of this guide or the
Permissions Guide for more information.
• Please only use figures, tables, or text boxes if they will be discussed in the chapter. Figures,
tables, and textboxes add length to the book, which in turn increases the final book price.
• Do not send figures that contain watermarks.
• Only submit graphics provided by the rights holder.

See our Tables and Figures Guide for more information.

PERMISSIONS

Books including copyrighted material from a third party cannot be sent into production if proper
permission and documentation for reprinting the copyrighted material is not provided. While some
material may be printed without permission under fair use guidelines, the vagueness of U.S. copyright
law does not set specific standards for what does and does not count as fair use. The following is a
partial list of what Lexington Books considers to be fair use. If you have any questions about materials
that do not appear in this guide, or if you are uncertain as to whether you will need permission for
something, please contact your acquisitions editor.

Quotations from a fiction or non-fiction source: Permission is required to reprint more than 500
words from any one source throughout the entire book. If more than 500 words are quoted, you will
need to contact the publisher/producer of the work to ask for permission or trim your quotes.

Quotations from works less than 5,000 words long: We can only reprint 10% of the material of a
short work without permission. Examples are news/web articles, blog posts, short journal articles, etc.

Epigraphs: Permission is always required to reprint content as an epigraph. We strongly encourage

authors to refrain from using epigraphs and instead suggest that this information be worked into the
chapter text accompanied by a complete citation.

Photos and artwork: Permission is required to reprint any image unless the images were created by the
author or the work is in the public domain. In cases where a photograph depicts other artwork that may
be copyrighted, the author must obtain permission from both the copyright holder of the work (could be
a museum or artist, for example) depicted in the photograph as well as the photographer who took the
photograph.

Personal photos: Permission from all identifiable individuals appearing in photos used in your book, as
well as from the photographer, is required.

Screenshots from films: Two screen shots (not promotional film stills) from a single movie can be
reprinted without permission.

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Interviews: If identifying interview subjects by name or by other identifiable information, written
permission from the interviewees is required. Permission is not required if using pseudonyms or
withholding the interviewee’s identity, but a note is needed in the book stating that pseudonyms are used
or identities are withheld.

Poetry: No more than three lines from any one poem can be quoted throughout the book unless the
poem is in the public domain (typically pre-1926).

Song lyrics: There is no limit to the number of lines from a song that can be reprinted, but only two
lines can appear together and they must be analyzed, unless the song is in the public domain.

Translations of other works: If quoting more than 500 words from a previously published translation
of a copyrighted work, permission must be obtained from the rights holders of both the original work
and the translation. If providing your own translation of a copyrighted work, permission is not required,
though you still need to cite the original work. If quoting more than the above specified limits from a
translation of a work, permission is only required from the rights holder of the translation.

Web-based material: Permissions for web-based materials should be treated like the print sources they
most closely resemble (i.e., photographs found in a blog post should be treated the same as any other
photograph, and an article found on the website for The New York Times should be treated the same as
an article found in the print version of the newspaper). Most content from the internet, including images,
is not in the public domain and will require permission to reprint. Check the website’s ‘Terms of Use’
page first, and if you still have questions, consult your acquisitions editor about whether a web source
requires permission.

Social media: Different social media platforms have different copyright requirements. Please examine
the user agreement for the social media platform from which you are quoting to determine who holds the
rights to the content. Do not assume something posted on social media is fair use. If you cannot
determine who holds the rights to a social media post, please consult your acquisitions editor.

Unpublished material: Guidelines for fair use are even stricter for unpublished material than for
published material. Unpublished material is protected whether its copyright has been registered or
includes the copyright symbol. Anonymous works or works for hire are protected until 120 years from
date of creation. Unpublished works written before 1978 by a named author are protected for the life of
the author plus 70 years.

Contributions toward an edited volume: If you are the editor of a collected volume, you must obtain a
signed release form from each contributor. This form can be obtained from your acquisitions editor. If a
chapter in your collection has been previously published elsewhere, you are responsible for obtaining
permission to reprint the chapter. Only 25% previously published material is permitted to be used in
each book.

See our Permissions Guide for more information.

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THE PRODUCTION PROCESS

After your final manuscript has been submitted and sent to production, you will be contacted by a
production editor. Throughout the production process, your production editor will be your main point of
contact and will provide an estimated schedule for the below tasks.

Proofreading: Once the book has been typeset, you will receive a PDF file of the typeset book pages.
At this time, you will be asked to review your manuscript for any errors. The typeset proofs will also be
sent to an outside proofreader. You will be given two weeks to review your page proofs and submit any
corrections to your production editor. You will only receive one set of proofs and will not be able to
review a second set of proofs. Please note this is not an opportunity for rewriting; only minor edits or
egregious/inaccurate errors will be fixed once the manuscript has been typeset.

Indexing: While you are reviewing your page proofs, you will also be asked to complete an index
according to the indexing guidelines provided to you by your production editor. This is to be returned at
the same time as any corrections you have to the page proofs. If you are interested in hiring a freelance
indexer, consult your production editor.

Cover information: Your acquisitions editor will send you cover copy for your approval. You will be
asked to review this document and return any corrections you may have by the end of the following
business day. The descriptions you provide in your Author Questionnaire are used to create this copy.
Please note: Be sure to review this copy carefully, once the cover proof is created, we do not typically
allow large amounts of rewriting, only minor edits or egregious/inaccurate errors will be fixed.

Cover proofs: The cover design is created using the information from your Author Questionnaire
(template choice, color preferences, and image information) as well as the cover copy you review and
return. You will be shown the cover proof and asked to approve. This is the final opportunity to make
any additional updates or edits, so be sure to proofread very carefully. You will not be able to see
multiple different cover designs. See our Cover Guide for more information.

If you have any questions about the content in this guide, please contact your acquisitions editor for
clarification.

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