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MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION
To
show you how long I’ve been pontificating on this subject, my first article
about it cautioned the writer who used a pin-feed printer to burst the pages and
tear off the side strips. There’s still a lot of outdated advice floating around
the ‘Net about this and other matters related to manuscript preparation and
submission, and some that’s just plain goofy. Some publishing industry
conventions are as longstanding and venerable as Stonehenge. If you don't follow
them, your submission will look amateurish. Others are either evolving or have
always been more flexible.
Caveat #1. Writers tend to get foam-spewing dogmatic as regards the minutiae of
manuscript format, maybe because it’s one aspect of the subjective and
nerve-wracking business of novel submission that we can control. There are
people who will read this article and start sputtering about how margins have to be precisely one inch all around, and how, in the name of all that is
holy could she not know that?! (Yes, they will punctuate that sentence
with both a question mark and the dreaded exclamation point, because they’re
really not as smart as they think they are.) What I do know, after two-dozen
plus books in print, is that everybody’s got an opinion, but the only ones I
really care about are those of the editors who are going to be reading my
manuscripts. If that’s what you really care about, too, read on.
Caveat #2: These guidelines apply to manuscripts for novel-length works of
fiction—not short stories, articles, or nonfiction—that are being submitted to
traditional print publishers, either via email or hard copy. (The manuscript
should look the same either way.) I would love to include advice for sending
work to electronic publishers, but a) I am really not hep to that jive, and b)
it’s my understanding that e-publishers have their own preferences, which are
usually posted on their websites. When submitting to e-publishers, you’re best
off formatting your manuscript exactly the way they want it, regardless of
whether it contradicts my inspired and authoritative counsel.
The Title Page: The first page of a novel manuscript is always the title
page. Center your title and name—your real name or your real name and your
pseudonym, not just the latter—about halfway down, like so:
http://www.louisaburton.com/fictioncraft/manuscriptformat.html
Also include on the title page—in any corner that
screams out to you, single spaced—your name, address, phone number, email
address, word count, and in certain cases only (see below), a copyright notice.
If you have an agent, the contact information should be his or hers.
The Word Count: Calculate the word count the way editors still do, by
multiplying the number of pages in your manuscript by 250. Don't worry about
partial pages, how many lines are on each page, what your word processor's word
count is, yadda yadda. Just multiply by 250 and round up to the nearest
thousand.
The Copyright Notice: Most authors prefer not to include a copyright
notice on their submissions, thinking it makes them look like clueless wannabes.
They’re right. It does. Assuming you’re sending the manuscript to a recognized
publisher or agent, you can dispense with the notice. Legally, you own that
bundle of rights called the copyright the moment you create the work, notice or
no notice. It’s true that, in a legal action, your interests are better
protected if the notice is there, but as a practical matter, if an editor with a
legitimate publishing company wants your novel, he’s not going to steal it; he’s
going to offer you a contract. In any case, it's usually unnecessary to send the
manuscript to the Library of Congress for official copyright registration; your
publisher will copyright it in your name before publication. The exception to
all that would be if you’re sending your manuscript, or a chunk thereof,
unsolicited to a contest or book doctor or other unknown and possibly sketchy
individuals, or if copies are being widely disseminated for some reason. The
correct format of a copyright notice is: Copyright © 2007 Louisa Burton.
The Header:There should be no header or page number on the title page.
At the top of each page thereafter, have your word processer print a header,
which consists of the title or an abbreviation thereof, your real last name, and
the page number. You can include your pseudonym if you wish. There is no hard
and fast rule for how a header should look, but I think it’s a good idea to make
it both unobtrusive and easy to distinguish from the text. I like to put mine on
the right rather than the left, so that it’s not the first thing the eye jumps
to when turning the page. Position it about half an inch from the top of the
page, and leave at least another half inch between it and the text. I used to
print the header in italics, but now I use one of Word 2007’s stylish header
templates, albeit a simple, professional-looking one.
Speaking of Style: The left, right, and bottom margins should be about
1¼ inches; you can vary that by as much as a quarter-inch either way. Your top
margin should be whatever looks right with the header. If you can get exactly 25
lines on a page, great, but it's not the end of the world if you go over or
under by a couple of lines.
When the last line of a paragraph from the previous page gets stranded all by
its lonesome at the top of the next page, that’s a “widow.” The first line of a
paragraph appearing by itself at the bottom of a page while the rest spills over
onto the next page is an “orphan.” Don’t listen to Word’s help menu when it says
widows and orphans are contrary to “a professional-looking document.” We like widows and orphans in the novel-writing biz. They give us nice, uniform pages
with the same number of lines on each page. In Word, the default is to prevent
them, so this should be turned off by unchecking that option. You should also
uncheck the “keep with next” and “keep lines together” options. The first is
meant to avoid page breaks between paragraphs, the second to avoid paragraphs
from breaking onto two pages. None of this this odd, anal-retentive formatting
belongs in a novel manuscript; it just creates irritating gaps in your document.
Most writers turn off the hyphenation, too.
Always, always, always double space your text. Never, never, never try to fool an editor or agent into thinking your manuscript is longer or
shorter than it is by deviating just a little bit from double spacing; they know
that trick, and they will sneer and say rude things about you behind your back.
Paragraphs must be indented, with no line spaces between. These things
are not optional; trust me on this. Scene breaks should be indicated with a
double line space. In addition, editors find it helpful if you center a symbol
in the line space, such as a pound sign (the old typesetting symbol for a
space), as follows:
The purpose of this is to draw attention to the scene break if it falls at the
top or bottom of a page. For this reason, it’s not necessary to put the pound
sign at the end of a chapter. It will just confuse the editor. Never confuse
someone who’s in a position to make important decisions about your career, if
you can help it.
Each chapter starts on a fresh page, and chapter headings should be centered
about a third of the way down. The decision about whether to use numerals, spell
out the chapter numbers, title your chapters, or whatever, is a matter of
personal taste. Follow the chapter heading with three double line spaces and
then begin your text.
Okay, Fonts. Here’s where people tend to get just a little bit crazy. Traditionally, editors have preferred nonproportional fonts (where each letter
takes up exactly the same amount of space) like that sturdy old warhorse,
Courier, and its effete cousin, Courier Lite. I mean Courier New. Yes, it is a
butt-ugly font. We all know that. The reason it has long been the font of choice
for manuscripts is that a) it’s easy to read, which is a big deal if your job
involves reading 24/7, and b) it’s easy to edit, because there’s enough room
between the characters to insert other characters using those little wedgie
marks called carets. I’ve heard editors say they prefer Courier, and I’ve heard
them say they couldn’t care less; they just want a great story. The bottom line
is that it’s always a good idea to make your manuscript as readable and
professional-looking as possible.
The most readable fonts are those with serifs, so if you choose not to go with
Courier, back away slowly from Arial and do not make eye contact. I also
recommend a font that prints LARGE in 12 point, which is the only size in which
you should ever print a manuscript, period. It’s common sense: larger fonts are
easier to read. To illustrate this, try typing the same sentence five times,
each on its own line, using the following fonts in the following order: Courier
New, Bookman Old Style, Georgia, Times New Roman, and Garamond. Not only do the
sentences shrink dramatically from top to bottom, but the spaces between
characters get all squished up. Garamond is my all-time favorite font. It’s
elegant and beautiful, especially in italics. I use it for letters and
promotional materials—but never for manuscripts.
It's best to indicate italics with underlining, not with an italic
font. Not only is it more customary to do so, and therefore more
professional-looking, but if you don't underline your itals, your publisher's
copyeditor will have to do it by hand before the script goes to typesetting. ALL
CAPS and boldfacing are generally not used for emphasis in fiction, but
hey, it’s your creative license; exercise it how you will. I will sometimes
print a word, phrase, or chunk of epistolary material in a different font to
indicate to the copyeditor and typesetter that I want it set that way in the
finished book. Titles, headers, and chapter headings can be in whatever font
your heart desires. Just don’t get too froo-froo. Editors roll their eyes when
it looks as if you’re trying to desktop-publish the freakin thing. It’s the
story itself that should demonstrate your originality and creativity, not the
fabulousness of the manuscript.
“Louisa,” you ask, “What’s all this I hear about putting just one space after a
period instead of two? Back when I took typing, they distinctly told me, blah
blah blah...” The two-space thing is a holdover from the old Smith-Corona days,
when the extra space helped to distinguish one sentence of nonproportional
characters from the next. With the advent of word processing, this custom has
become obsolete and may even, in certain applications, screw up your line
breaks. Most publishers, if asked, will tell you that they prefer one space
between sentences. So what do you do with that almost-finished two-space
manuscript? Either do a search and replace, changing a period with two spaces to
a period with one space, or (gasp!) leave it with two spaces. This one ain’t a
biggie.
Printing: The paper you choose for your working manuscripts is between you
and your God; your submission manuscript is a different critter altogether. You
want the pages to feel substantial in the hand and to read well, with no
show-through to the page beneath. Also, flimsy paper doesn’t hold up or erase
well, a factor in the editing process. So print that puppy on good-quality,
bright white paper. This means 20 or 24 lb., with a number in the high 90’s on
the brightness scale. I like Staples Printing Paper, which is 24 lb., with a
brightness score of 97. (Note to Staples: That was a sincere and unsolicited
plug, freely offered. But I could use a new printer, maybe one of those
multifunction babies that does everything but your laundry. I’m just saying.)
Oh, and use a nice, fresh cartridge that will print BLACK, not almost
black.
So, now that you’ve got that perfectly formatted and printed manuscript, what
are you supposed to do with it? That discussion, cats and kittens, will begin
with next month’s FictionCraft offering, Avoiding Literary Scams and Choosing
an Agent.
Rules for Comma Usage: http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/commas.htm
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