One helpful hint if you absolutely can't break the 2-spaces-after-a-period habit: You can do a search & replace at the end of your writing/editing, typing 2 spaces in <search> and 1 space in <replace>. Voila!
These are great! I use pretty much the same guidelines myself, and I ask my students to use them as well. I will say that I don’t include my street address or phone number anymore unless specifically asked since I’d rather keep that info out of circulation as much as possible.
Notes from someone who has done editing work for publication, both as a compiling editor doing overall formatting for a periodical or anthology, and as a hired editor.
First, I am going to go against the recommendations for Styles and Templates. While I'm not very familiar with Atticus, what experience I have had is that Styles can be problematic (and I understand the same can be true for InDesign, or so I've been told--I've never worked with it). Templates--the same. Vellum is a bit more robust but any deviation from Normal Style adds to formatting issues.
The use of Styles and Templates when I've received a document for editing is often problematic, with a lot of excess coding that needs to be cleared out.
Second, never, EVER, use tabs. That's what First Line Indent is for, either on the ruler or under Paragraph.
Third, remember that the more formatting you introduce, the more likely it is that it will mess up between multiple computers. I edited two anthologies some years back, and ran into that issue. When someone is trying to insert your short work into a larger body of work, those Styles headers end up causing more work to strip them out (not talking about the header and footer now, talking about those who use Styles for chapter settings, for submission headings, and so on). Depending on the original word processing program (and program version!), that can be easy or it can be simple. But it's still another task that has to be done.
Fourth, if a periodical is asking for very detailed formatting on submission, they're looking to simplify their production work. Keep that in mind.
Mr. Klass, I'm a poet, so prose is mostly a work thing, but I note your comment about not knowing why editors request phone numbers. Robert Nazarene at The American Journal of Poetry was famous for calling contributors to tell them their work had been accepted. It was a great way to create a literary community, and it was fun to get those phone calls. Sadly, no one does that these days.
Most of the dozens of journals I've submitted to and been published by recently have specifically requested that there be no identifying information on the ms. itself.
I'm a copy editor for a scientific journal, and we'll just change any formatting to our style. Some formatting rules might exist to make submissions easier to read, but once something is accepted for publication, it doesn't matter how the author formatted it. We even have programs that do things like change all the double spaces to single spaces, delete spaces before periods, and mark any styled white space (e.g., spaces in bold or italics). Maybe most literary journals don't have the resources or staff and rely more on authors to format their work.
Nov 16, 2023·edited Nov 16, 2023Liked by Erik Harper Klass
The biggest problem we have with prose manuscripts at New Pop Lit by far is with line breaks-- caused I guess by writers hitting "enter" at the end of a line. (Or other causes?) Writers have their manuscripts looking great in a 8.5 x 11 file-- but wordpress, which we use for online work, uses a different size. The manuscript in fact needs to be properly sized for three different screens: to look good on a desktop, on a tablet, and on a smartphone. Which means, paragraph breaks, not line breaks.
Thank you, Mr. Klass. Overall, I felt good about your suggestions and the format I usually use for prose writing. In fact, I was reading along, nodding my head in agreement, saying, "Yeah, I got this; I got this." About that time, some of your suggestions caught up to me. I also am from that group that learned formatting in typing class, lo those many years ago. I thank you for your essay and your suggestions. Best to you.
Nov 16, 2023·edited Nov 16, 2023Liked by Erik Harper Klass
Thanks, Erik. This is enormously helpful. It had not occurred to me to put “approx.” word count on the cover page. I always use an actual word count, thinking precision is required. There are many other great tips, too. Can’t believe I’ve been using Word all these years without knowing you can create a header by double-clicking above the text!
I’m amazed by how few people use the Styles tool on Word to format professional-looking docs. It’s such a timesaver and so useful for editing. Its color coding makes a pass through an MS for consistent style usage a breeze. Tutorials on using it are abundant on YouTube. Well worth an investment of time and practice! Another useful tool is templates. I never start with a blank page. I can start instead with a pre-formatted page that includes my contact details and place-setters for word count, title, and footnote info, including page numbers.
One journal requests 12 pt Georgia font, because they are based in...Georgia. Wonderful publication, but I don't want to mess with my formatting that much.
Consider using styles to facilitate switching easily between various publications’ style requirements.
For example, define two paragraph styles. The first style to be used for the first paragraph of each section: no indent, space before to separate the section from the previous section; second style for other paragraphs: indent, no space before; etc. To ready the doc for a different pub, just edit the styles rather than going through and touching every paragraph to add/delete indenting, etc.
It sounds like you assume these prose pieces are all fiction. Non-fiction almost always has bulleted lists (like your piece does), block quotes, tables, links, etc. These are generally trickier than prose paragraphs to format and who knows what guidelines are typically used. For example, I think double-spacing poetry makes it look like the work of an amateur.
It also sounds like you’re assuming everyone uses Word. Most word processors can be used (eg, Apple’s free Pages), then exported to Microsoft’s .docx file format for submission. Formatting is generally preserved quite well.
Maybe I’m missing something, but one of your reasons for double-spacing paragraphs suggests that editors will print out a copy (or paper submission?), mark it up and mail it back. Does that ever happen? It seems with electronic submission it would make more sense for editors just to use Word’s tracking and comments features and return the edited file. This is the 21st century after all.
Those editors will also want to see all your active memberships on the line under your email (the line where you will also note your PayPal email to make it easier to get paid).
One helpful hint if you absolutely can't break the 2-spaces-after-a-period habit: You can do a search & replace at the end of your writing/editing, typing 2 spaces in <search> and 1 space in <replace>. Voila!
These are great! I use pretty much the same guidelines myself, and I ask my students to use them as well. I will say that I don’t include my street address or phone number anymore unless specifically asked since I’d rather keep that info out of circulation as much as possible.
Notes from someone who has done editing work for publication, both as a compiling editor doing overall formatting for a periodical or anthology, and as a hired editor.
First, I am going to go against the recommendations for Styles and Templates. While I'm not very familiar with Atticus, what experience I have had is that Styles can be problematic (and I understand the same can be true for InDesign, or so I've been told--I've never worked with it). Templates--the same. Vellum is a bit more robust but any deviation from Normal Style adds to formatting issues.
The use of Styles and Templates when I've received a document for editing is often problematic, with a lot of excess coding that needs to be cleared out.
Second, never, EVER, use tabs. That's what First Line Indent is for, either on the ruler or under Paragraph.
Third, remember that the more formatting you introduce, the more likely it is that it will mess up between multiple computers. I edited two anthologies some years back, and ran into that issue. When someone is trying to insert your short work into a larger body of work, those Styles headers end up causing more work to strip them out (not talking about the header and footer now, talking about those who use Styles for chapter settings, for submission headings, and so on). Depending on the original word processing program (and program version!), that can be easy or it can be simple. But it's still another task that has to be done.
Fourth, if a periodical is asking for very detailed formatting on submission, they're looking to simplify their production work. Keep that in mind.
Mr. Klass, I'm a poet, so prose is mostly a work thing, but I note your comment about not knowing why editors request phone numbers. Robert Nazarene at The American Journal of Poetry was famous for calling contributors to tell them their work had been accepted. It was a great way to create a literary community, and it was fun to get those phone calls. Sadly, no one does that these days.
Most of the dozens of journals I've submitted to and been published by recently have specifically requested that there be no identifying information on the ms. itself.
I'm a copy editor for a scientific journal, and we'll just change any formatting to our style. Some formatting rules might exist to make submissions easier to read, but once something is accepted for publication, it doesn't matter how the author formatted it. We even have programs that do things like change all the double spaces to single spaces, delete spaces before periods, and mark any styled white space (e.g., spaces in bold or italics). Maybe most literary journals don't have the resources or staff and rely more on authors to format their work.
The biggest problem we have with prose manuscripts at New Pop Lit by far is with line breaks-- caused I guess by writers hitting "enter" at the end of a line. (Or other causes?) Writers have their manuscripts looking great in a 8.5 x 11 file-- but wordpress, which we use for online work, uses a different size. The manuscript in fact needs to be properly sized for three different screens: to look good on a desktop, on a tablet, and on a smartphone. Which means, paragraph breaks, not line breaks.
I will ruin your formatting; go ahead and send it however you want
Thank you, Mr. Klass. Overall, I felt good about your suggestions and the format I usually use for prose writing. In fact, I was reading along, nodding my head in agreement, saying, "Yeah, I got this; I got this." About that time, some of your suggestions caught up to me. I also am from that group that learned formatting in typing class, lo those many years ago. I thank you for your essay and your suggestions. Best to you.
Thanks, Erik. This is enormously helpful. It had not occurred to me to put “approx.” word count on the cover page. I always use an actual word count, thinking precision is required. There are many other great tips, too. Can’t believe I’ve been using Word all these years without knowing you can create a header by double-clicking above the text!
I’m amazed by how few people use the Styles tool on Word to format professional-looking docs. It’s such a timesaver and so useful for editing. Its color coding makes a pass through an MS for consistent style usage a breeze. Tutorials on using it are abundant on YouTube. Well worth an investment of time and practice! Another useful tool is templates. I never start with a blank page. I can start instead with a pre-formatted page that includes my contact details and place-setters for word count, title, and footnote info, including page numbers.
wow, thanks, some truly important points. (Or "helpful hints.")
One journal requests 12 pt Georgia font, because they are based in...Georgia. Wonderful publication, but I don't want to mess with my formatting that much.
Consider using styles to facilitate switching easily between various publications’ style requirements.
For example, define two paragraph styles. The first style to be used for the first paragraph of each section: no indent, space before to separate the section from the previous section; second style for other paragraphs: indent, no space before; etc. To ready the doc for a different pub, just edit the styles rather than going through and touching every paragraph to add/delete indenting, etc.
It sounds like you assume these prose pieces are all fiction. Non-fiction almost always has bulleted lists (like your piece does), block quotes, tables, links, etc. These are generally trickier than prose paragraphs to format and who knows what guidelines are typically used. For example, I think double-spacing poetry makes it look like the work of an amateur.
It also sounds like you’re assuming everyone uses Word. Most word processors can be used (eg, Apple’s free Pages), then exported to Microsoft’s .docx file format for submission. Formatting is generally preserved quite well.
Maybe I’m missing something, but one of your reasons for double-spacing paragraphs suggests that editors will print out a copy (or paper submission?), mark it up and mail it back. Does that ever happen? It seems with electronic submission it would make more sense for editors just to use Word’s tracking and comments features and return the edited file. This is the 21st century after all.
Guess no one here writes SFF.
Those editors will also want to see all your active memberships on the line under your email (the line where you will also note your PayPal email to make it easier to get paid).