Publishing a 75-page Flying Publisher Guide starts with an outline: chapter titles, subtitles, paragraphs, tables, figures, and, of course, the length of each chapter. Outlines resemble movie scripts and are at least a dozen pages long. Before writing the first sentence you should know how you are going to conclude your Guide. As in movie scripts, everything is in place before the shooting begins.

The short format of 15,000 to 20,000 words is ideal for treating medical subtopics, single diseases (Malaria, Alzheimer's Disease, various cancer forms, etc.) or treatment recommendations (i.e., Diabetes management, HIV treatment, etc.). Choose an appropriate subject for your Guide.

While working on your script, your future readers – physicians, students, and scientists – should always be on your mind. Some want to refresh their knowledge, but many seek an introduction to a topic they are unfamiliar with. So start your Guide with an introduction to basic concepts and a selection of outstanding web resources. Then accelerate the pace; after all, you have an audience of experienced readers who are at ease with scientific publications.

Exploring new topics means learning new words. In 75 pages, your readers will discover hundreds of words they have never heard before – words from anatomy, physiology, pathology, clinical management, pharmacology, etc. As an author, you know which new words people should remember after reading your Guide. Make an inventory of the words and decide when to introduce them.

The Flying Publisher Guides use Microsoft Word templates that contain all style elements that are needed for the production of a medical or scientific book.

The word count for the Flying Publisher Guides is 15,000 to 20,000. The table of contents, index, and references (see below) are not included in this count.

You may write your manuscript in English, Italian, Spanish, French, or German.

The file type required for manuscript submissions is Adobe Acrobat portable document format (.pdf) with all figures inserted in the same document. In some instances, we may ask the authors to submit the original text document (.doc) or single figures. The accepted formats for pictures, photos, and figures are JPG and PNG.

Number all tables in the order of their citation in the text. Include a title for each table, preferably no longer than 15 words.

All tables have to be created de novo using the examples provided by the template; in no case must tables be inserted as figures.

A table must not be longer than one page. The total number of tables and figures must not exceed 25.

All figures (graphs, charts, illustrations, photographs) have to be inserted in the text file. Number all figures in the order of their citation in the text. Legends (maximum length: 40 words) should be included in the file with the text and should not appear on the figures.

For the print edition, the resolution of figures has to be 300 dots per inch (dpi); for a page width of 9,65 cm (3.8 inch), the maximum width is therefore 1140 dpi. To reduce the size of your manuscript, we recommend that you compress the file size of the figures before importing them. This can be done by using compression software, for example by creating JPG files from pictures and photographs.

The Amazon print edition will be in black and white. When selecting photographs or constructing illustrations, make sure that they are informative after conversion into grayscale.

If a person other than the authors has created a figure, the authors must explicitly acquire all rights to the illustration from the artist in order for Flying Publisher to publish it.

If you use photographs of patients, make sure that the patients are not identifiable. Otherwise, provide a written permission by the patient (or parents or legal guardians for minors) to use them.

All references appear at the end of the Guide, after the last chapter and before the index. Use the format of the New England Journal of Medicine. Examples of reference style:

1. Infante-Duarte C, Horton HF, Byrne MC, Kamradt T. Microbial lipopeptides induce the production of IL-17 in Th cells. J Immunol 2000;165:6107-15.

2. Tsibris AMN, Hirsch MS. Antiretroviral Therapy for Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection. In: Mandell GL, Bennett JE, Dolin R, eds. Mandell, Douglas, and Bennett's Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases. 7th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Churchill Livingstone, 2010:1833-53.

3. FreeBooks4Doctors. Flying Publisher, 2010. (Accessed August 4, 2010, at http://www.FreeBooks4Doctors.com.)

The maximum number of references is 160, the minimum is 60.

In the body of the text, references should come between parenthesis, and should include the last name of the first author and the year of publication, separated by a blank space. Examples: (Infante-Duarte 2000) (Tsibris 2010) (FreeBooks4Doctors 2010)

References to personal communications, manuscripts "in preparation" or "submitted for publication" will not be accepted.

The references are not included in the word count (see above, "Words / Language").

For the use of drugs names, units of measurements and abbreviations refer to http://www.nejm.org/page/author-center/manuscript-submission#style.

Acknowledge other people's ideas or work by including quotations or giving the appropriate citation. If indicated, Flying Publisher reserves the right to use automatic tools to detect plagiarism.

The book template is available for Microsoft Word.
– Download template (.doc; see also the PDF)

— Essential English: For Journalists, Editors and Writers (£7.94), by Harold Evans (Author), Crawford Gillan. Read page 14–90.

— Butcher's Copy-editing – The Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Copy-editors and Proofreaders. 558 pages. Around £40.

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