Last week I wrote about the editor’s nightmare of receiving a manuscript that needs to be reformatted before it can be edited. Today we’ll look at the dream: Guidelines for preparing your manuscript so your editor doesn’t have to hack her/his way through your formatting with a machete in order to give you the feedback you want on your content.

ADVICE TO WRITERS: Keep your editor in a good mood.
HOW TO MAKE YOUR EDITOR SMILE:

1- Submit manipulable text: .doc files.
Do not submit .pdf files for editing. They are pictures of your words which cannot be rearranged. Save your file with the extensions .rtf (which can be read by many programs) or .doc or .docx – which are MSWord formats which most editors are used to using. .docx is the newer, but all files saved in it can also be saved in .doc (though not v.v.). My frustration with MSWord increases with each new version, so I usually edit in archaic Word 2003 for PC (.doc only), though most of my other work is done on a new Mac. I may eventually connect with my clients using Scrivener ($35 at www.literatureandlatte.com), a program specifically for writers that supports both the creative process and the mechanics of publication and ebook formatting. It allows saving as .rtf, .doc, .pdf, as well as ebook formats.

I base my estimates on a page with SPECIFIC PARAMETERS THAT DETERMINE WORD COUNT:

2- Margins. 1” all around.

3- Justification. Left margin only.
Justification is not about giving your inner critic a heyday (most writers don’t need to stoke its fire). It is about setting margins. Please justify only the left margin, except for titles and text that may be center justified. While we all read magazines and books with left and right justification – that is, a line fills the full width allotted with no ragged right edge – when you begin making changes in such a line, every character shifts position with every character you add or delete. This causes the line to be constantly dancing, which tires the eyes and causes editors to transform into raging beanstalk giants. There’s time to justify both margins, but only when the editing is complete.

4- Font. Times New Roman.
Most people I’ve encountered in the publishing industry work with Times New Roman. It is what our professional eyes are used to reading, which makes it easy to absorb. It has nice leading (the space between lines, so named in the days when a line of lead of variable thickness was set into galleys between each line of text), and characters that are neither cramped nor wide (so each character is distinct while the eye can grasp the totality of each word).

Calibri is a dreadful font whether reading online or hardcopy (it looks like it was designed by an engineer on graph paper – with all the nuance of computer-written music). Disaster as the default on newer Word versions, in my visual opinion.

5- Height of font. 12 point.
This determines the number of lines that fit within the top and bottom margins of a page. Standard in the industry is 12 point. Point refers only to height of the line – different fonts of 12 point occupy different widths. (12 points equal 1 pica, for those used to typewriters. 72 pts = 1 inch.)

6- Space between lines. Double spaced.
The publishing industry expects to receive double spaced manuscripts, which allows notes to be made on hardcopy between the lines, as well as to be easier to read on the screen. Maybe in the era of Track Changes this is not necessary, but if I am doing extensive editing, track changes ends up looking like overcooked variegated spaghetti – as impossible to read as it would be to digest. (I work directly in the document using a simple system of color coding those changes that my client might need to consider, which certainly is not every deleted comma or spelling correction that makes TC so unreadable.)

How to: Double space your manuscript using the option in Format/Paragraph in the top bar of MSWord. While you are in Format/Paragraph, also set Indentation/Special to “First Line.” That way, the indentation tells your editor where a new paragraph begins, in case the previous sentence ends at the right margin.

Please do not use the “Enter/Return” key to double space either between lines or between paragraphs.

7- Paragraphs.  Indented.
Please do not use the Tab Key to indent paragraphs. Please go back two paragraphs for instruction in how to set automatic indentation when starting a new paragraph.

If your book designer decides to double space between paragraphs and not indent, it is a few key strokes to make this change for your entire manuscript. If you have line-spaced and indented manually, you are running up your editing or design tab – they will have to be removed, then each paragraph will have to be scanned visually for uneven formatting.

8- Header
Include last name/Abbreviated Title. Insert page number to the right of that. All in Times New Roman 12 pt. At top of page, right justified. If you go over 99 pages, after you insert page number, move it to the right a little or else it will illegibly overlap the title.

9- Space Bar. Do not overuse. Once is enough. Always.
People who grew up in the era of typewriters were taught to put two spaces after punctuation that ends a sentence. This is no longer the standard, either in books (which sometimes eliminate the space completely – which I find hard on the eye) or on computers, which automatically leave an appropriate size space that is easy to interpret as the end of a sentence. This is not an egregious error, but is one that has to be corrected sooner or later.

People also use the Space Bar instead of the Tab Key to indent. Use the settings under Format or Format/Styles. (When you have a moment, open the drop down list under Format and explore at least the top three items. Your ease with them will make your editor appreciate your skills!)

10- Styles and Formatting
I’ll explain how to Format in Styles, as well as give you the editors’ secret to finding when you’ve cheated by creating spaces with Return and Space Bar … in another blog.

In the meantime, delight in the process.

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