The Shunn manuscript format is a set of guidelines for writers to follow when submitting manuscripts to publishers. It was created by author William Shunn and is widely used in the publishing industry. Here is a brief demonstration of a tool I wrote to facilitate generating manuscripts in this format.

The Shunn format is designed to be easy to read and navigate, with clear headings and subheadings to help guide the reader through the manuscript. It also includes guidelines for formatting dialogue, block quotes, and other elements of the text. By following these guidelines, writers can ensure that their manuscripts are well-organized and easy to follow, which can help them stand out in a competitive publishing market.

I wrote a small tool to help writers format their manuscripts according to the Shunn guidelines. You can find it here. The tool takes in Markdown, some metadata, and outputs a PDF formatted to Shunn guidelines. It also includes automatic word counting, thanks to a Lua script - my favourite little language.

Here is a small screenshot of the input and output, generated through bin/prepare test/test_input.md: