We’re talking basic stuff: auto-indenting paragraphs, inserting chapter breaks, inserting automatic page numbers, and so on. (Yes, I know there are other programs, and I know a lot of writers are migrating to Google Docs.) As I scrolled down the comments on Reid’s post, I was amazed at how many writers don’t know how to perform the simplest formatting in Word. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that Microsoft Word is still the number one tool writers use to, well, write. Even more importantly, formatting your work correctly can make you look more professional-and more “serious” as a writer. If you follow standard formatting conventions of font size, margin width, and so on, professional readers (including agents, editors and publishers) have an easier time gauging the pacing of your book. With Courier, it’s more like 4,400 words. In Verdana, the 20-page point will come at about 5,000 words. She went on to note that page 20 comes at about the 6,000-word mark if the text is formatted in Times New Roman. It’s essential that page twenty be about the same amount of words across the board.” If I get to page twenty and I haven’t yet gotten a glimmer of what’s at stake for Our Hero/ine, then I know there’s a problem. “When mss follow a consistent format, it helps me assess the pacing. “I’m reading (as are all other agents and editors) a LOT of manuscripts,” she said. The other day I was reading a blog post by agent-blogger Janet Reid (of Query Shark fame), who had some interesting things to say about the importance of manuscript formatting: “Format guidelines were not instituted to drive you crazy.
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