Standard Manuscript Formatting
There are several websites that provide guidelines, as to the formatting to use, on your manuscript. In general, the rules are:
1-1.5" margins all around
double-spaced
no italics
Courier or Times New Roman 12-pt font
page numbers
5-point tabbed in paragraphs
Chapter heading centered, in all caps...start new chapter at top of fresh page
Page Header in upper right--Last Name/Title/page #
Title Page--title, name, address, phone number, email, and word count
I have never had the pleasure of working with this e-pub, but because they had (and I assume they still have) such a good reputation, I'll use this pub as an example of an e-pub. I will submit the link to their guideline page.
http://samhainpublishing.com/submissions
e-pub is short for electronic publisher. You query through email, respond to the request for additional material by email, and are notified of acceptance (or not) through email -- you may get the contract by email or hard copy. Your work will be placed in an electronic format or e-book. The reader pays to receive a copy of the book, which she will be able to read on her computer. In short, electronic correspondence takes the place of hard paper. Note that the guidelines of what the editors expect heads the webpage. Scroll down and you will see the formatting guidelines. I have heard, but can not verify, that not following the guidelines may interfere with an editors' ability to format your work when it is time for publishing. I don't know if this is true but would love to hear from anyone who can clear up this hearsay.