Copyright © 2007 Faith Bicknell-Brown
All rights reserved, Wild Child Publishing.
The ancient historians gave us delightful fiction in the form of fact; the modern novelist presents us with dull facts under the guise of fiction.—Oscar Wilde.
By now, you might be wondering about the peculiar subheading of this chapter. Well, any good editor can tell you that the various bizarre formats that manuscripts arrive in are enough to make us go blind.
There is a basic format that 95% of all publishers use. That rare 5% are the ones who don't care as long as it's in readable font, but I have to be honest and say that such a policy only sets them up for more work later when the time for formatting the actual e-book or print version arrives. As for me, I have seen single-spaced prose, curlicue fonts, calligraphy, two-column formatting such as you find in magazines, and graphics inserted into the text. I've even seen a submission typed in bright eye-searing colors to offset which character or POV (point of view) a reader is in, but it gave me such a headache just glancing over it that I reached for the bottle of aspirin that I keep on my desk. And, God help me, a manuscript actually penned in longhand with crayon! Although wicked, myself and the editor-in-chief of this particular print publication had a good howl of hysterics over that one.
Although formatting guidelines might vary slightly from publisher to publisher (or agent to agent), for the most part, the formatting is the same. I have discovered that the most commonly used formats are the ones I've placed in this e-book; however, please realize that the preferences of some editors, literary agents, and publishing houses will vary. Read their formatting guidelines carefully (when they're available in print or online.)