Thanks Bruce.
What I show here is the actual file I have sent to the printer with one caveat. I print using the AdobeRGB colour space, but convert to sRGB when I post here. This means that one does not see the impact of either tone of the paper (all papers tend to be more yellow than what we see on a computer screen), nor do we see how the colours reproduced in print.
No I don't use a template per se, but I have created a custom crop of 9" x 6-1/2" that I use to work the original image; working in the ProPhoto RGB colour space. That becomes my "final" Photoshop file. I do all my print prep on a throw-away file.
I create a new AdobeRGB page that is 8-1/2" x 11" at 360PPI. I take the original file, convert it to AdobeRGB and downsize it to 6-1/2" x 11" at 360PPI. I merge all the layers, cut and paste to my throw-away copy. I do all my final output sharpening at print size and add the title. I just eyeball where the caption goes; I've done this so many times I hit the target pretty well 100% of the time. Once I have successfully printed the image, I convert it to sRGB for posting and then throw it away.