Content Formatting
Most of this has been covered in 'Initial Manuscript Formatting' but here's a refresher.
There are some simple rules to follow when producing your initial manuscript. Get them wrong and you won't impress. There's not much to learn.
The rules
- Keep things simple. Do NOT use a fancy font. Stick to a simple serif style fonts such as Times New Roman
- Chapter headings must be in 'Heading 1' style. This is particularly important when later producing an ebook.
- Do NOT use the Enter key to space your work vertically. Never use three or more consecutive 'Enter' presses. Again this helps when producing an ebook. If you don't know how to space documents vertically in MS Word, here's how.
- Do NOT double space between sentences. That practice went out with typewriters.
- Do NOT use the 'Tab' key to indent each paragraph. Configure the 'Normal' style of your word processor to produce a 0.5 cm indent at the start of each paragraph. Note however the convention is to not indent the first paragraph after a heading or text separator. Your word processor styles can be set up to do this automatically.
- Avoid bold and underlined text. Use italics sparingly. I use italics inside speech marks for the remote side of telephone conversations and italics without speech marks for thoughts if the story is being narrated in first person or third person omnipotent viewpoint.
- Do not mix points of view in your manuscript. Stick to first person - that's where 'I' relate the story as though I was a character in it OR third person - where you are an observer of the story OR third person omnipotent where you relate the story as an observer who knows the thoughts and feelings of all the characters.
- Chapter 1 of your content must be on the right hand side of a two page spread. If your story is short, less than 40,000 words then you can start all chapters like this by ending the previous chapter with a 'Section Break (Odd Page).' Buyers feel cheated if they pay for very thin books and this, together with a slightly larger font pads out the book a little. Longer books can have chapters start on left or right hand pages.
- It's a good idea to keep chapters fairly short so that they can be read in a 15 minute coffee break. Most people read at about 200 words per minute so a chapter length of about 3,000 words is idea.
- After headings or section breaks the next line of text should not be indented. The next paragraph should be indented. Word styles can be set up to do this automatically.
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