I’m sure many of you are accomplished and/or practicing writers. My question is, seeing as I have just started writing a book, what are the standards?
That is, I’m writing a fiction/horror in Microsoft Word, double spaced, times new roman and at present I have about 215 pages complete. I’m anticipating another 100 pages before I’ve wrapped up the climax and everything is resolved. So that puts me at 315 double spaced pages. How many pages does that translate to in the paperback world? Is it a one for one translation?
Also, as this is something I’m just starting, I haven’t done as much research on getting published as I should have. I’ve read King’s book, “On Writing” and I’ve been to this website:
I think it’s more in terms of word count. A thinnish, romance novel (like Mills and Boon/Harlequin) is around 55,000. Therefore for a decent-sized thickness you’re probably looking at 100k plus.
Also sometimes you have to go through a literary agent to get yourself a publisher.
If you’re doing this in Microsoft Word, click on “Tools” in the tool bar above the document when it’s open. Click on “Word Count” in that pop-up. There’s the number of words. Simple enough, huh?
LiquidLobotomy, these type questions get asked frequently here. I’d recommend a search in GQ going back a year or two. You’ll probably find answers to questions you haven’t even thought to ask yet.
Oh, and per a similar thread I started a while back, you definitely want to stick with Courier, not Times New Roman. That may have the side-effect of increasing your page count significantly. Don’t let that bother you.
Next time try a web search… you would have undoubtedly found the misc.writing page, which answers every one of your questions and then some. Be sure to read their FAQ.
If you still have questions, you will probably get good responses posting to writing-specific newsgroups such as misc.writing and alt.writing.
When the novel is completed. You need to have something ready to send if the publisher wants to see it (and, if you’re lucky enough to find a publisher that reads unsolicited manuscripts – by far the best choice – you’ll need a completed copy).
How well can you write a query letter? An outline? If you can show the publisher something interesting in them, they’ll be happy to read your entire manuscript. New writers get published all the time – you just need to be as good or better than the established writers. That may sound hard, but it is achieveable.
Wow, you all gave me some really good websites to visit- thanks!
As a side bar question, how many dopers are writers? Of those how many are published? I think the StraightDope (as it has been said before) tends to attract more “enlightened” individuals, and as such we are a fairly creative group.
I just submitted a manuscript to Harlequin this week. Here is some obsessive formatting information on manuscripts, according to Romance Writers of America. Don’t use the word count feature of your processor. What publishers (at least the publishers I’m dealing with) are looking for is 250 words per page. This can be achieved with Courier or Courier New, 12 pt, 25 lines per page, 65 (I think) characters per line. I got closest to this by setting the line spacing at an exact count (I think it was 26 pts, but my manuscripts not here to check) and margins at 1.1". Margins should always be at least 1" all around.
Situations vary, but it’s easiest to have an agent, or personal contact with an editor if you’re new and want to stay out of the slush pile. Slush pile= BAD. Requested submission = Good. I got to be requested by going to a writer’s conference, getting an interview with an editor, and pitching a story she liked. If you’re looking for an agent, there are books with titles like The Writer’s Guide to Literary Agents. No one wants to talk to a beginning writer without a complete salable manuscript, so make sure you have a whole book and your best and most polished effort before you submit.
And, in case you’re interested, I’m not published in fiction yet, but did get an encouraging rejection on my last try, instead of a form letter.
Thank you for your advice. What kind of writing did you publish? I’m in DC and I work full time, so I don’t know if I have the time to attend a writing conference, assuming that they meet during the week (I don’t know, I honestly haven’t really heard of them before.
Also, since you’re writing horror, you may want to check out the Horror Writers Association website. They have a “Writing Tips” section you can check out.
I wrote author blurbs for Books in Print, when I was a grad student and sold a magazine article on paperback merchandising earlier this year. Not a huge body of work, but they paid me, so I’m a professional writer!
When it comes to writing conferences, I go to the romance ones, so I cna’t tell you much about other genres. They meet on weekends, so it doesn’t have to interrupt a regular job. Most writers don’t go cold turkey on other employment when trying to sell a book, they’re all busy during the week, too. If you subscribe to The Writer, or Writer’s Digest, they’ll list conferences in your area, if you want to spend money to go to one. Be sure to check prices, speakers, and guests to try to find something that suits your level of experience and genre.
And money is a key thing. They can get pretty expensive. My advice on them, and any other classes, critiques, agents, and writing resources is, be sure to get value for your money. I went to RWA national because it would get me an appointment with a specific editor for a specific line and have plenty of valuable workshops and networking opportunities. If it was pot luck, I wouldn’t have shelled out the bucks. The same goes for agents. I don’t have one yet because I want to choose well. And you should never have to give money to a legitimate agent or editor to look at your work.
Don’t get too hung-up on word count. We use the word count feature in Word and it’s been good enough for every publisher we’ve dealt with. You need to be in the ball park with your word count but it’s not essential that you are absolutely correct because chances are you will be either adding or subtracting text or a mixture of both.
Times New Roman vs Courier isn’t a big deal either. We use Times when we submit. The editor and designer choose a font . Editors are reasonably au fait with how standard fonts behave on the page.
Literary agents are becoming more and more a feature of the writing life. We don’t have one because we don’t need one now but if I were just starting out, I’d be looking for a good agent.
The word count feature in Word consistently undercounts the words as opposed to the traditional method (i.e., 6 characters = 1 word and you use the average mid-paragraph line and multiply it by the number of lines). I don’t know about you, but I can use the extra money.
For example, consider the following exchange:
“I’m pregnant,” he said.
“What?”
Word would call that five words. However, in 12 point Courier, it’s 20. And that makes sense from an editorial point of view, since the one-line paragraphs take up as much vertical space as two full lines of text (editors are concerned with column inches, BTW, not word count).
Of course, an editor would be delighed if you undercounted . . .
Better than the word count is the line count. Word counts lines, and at 12 point Courier, each line is 10 words. Multiple the line count by ten and get the word count.
BTW, I have had a novel and over 30 short stories published.
Well if one is paid by the word, obviously a precise word count is desirable <G>. I’ve never received a contract for a novel which paid by the word though.
We’re up to 14 published novels with two currently under close consideration. I’ve never had an editor ask me to hand count the words in a book and I think I’d rupture myself laughing if they did. It’s obvious that other people’s mileage differs though.
My point was don’t get hung up on word count. Write the book and let the editor sort it out if they contract the book. I just finished doing a final edit on a book which is going to be using Comic Sans as the font. Word count never entered into the discussion at any point in time with that book.
I hope no one minds if I jump in this thread with a question of my own.
Does it really matter which word processing software you use to write? The link in the OP seemed to indicate that “you can’t go wrong with Microsoft Word”, but didn’t say a peep about any other software.
My Dell PC came with Word 2000 preinstalled on it, and I tried it for a while. However, I was missing WordPerfect too much (I used it for years on the Mac), and after Word 2000 drove me nuts with a page numbering scheme I decided I had enough and got WP for Windows.
Now I’m currently writing my book using WordPerfect. I would hate to think that I would miss out on a potential publication if the publisher only wants it in Word format. Has anyone ever heard of any official discouragement against the use of WordPerfect format?
Sorry Atreyu, but yes. MS Word is now the industry standard. You’d be OK at the submission stage but if you were asked to supply the book on disc (which is becoming more and more common) it would need to be in MS word. If you’re doing on-screen editing, you need to be using the same program as your editor and in general that needs to be Word. We’ve been through the nightmare that was writing a book on an Amstrad and getting it converted to Word. What a jolly jape that was.
I’m uncertain about if it is even possible to send WordPerfect files to the typesetter. If you’ve got a way to convert your book to MS Word, then you’d be OK but if you cannot convert easily, you’re in doo doo :(.
LiquidLobotomy, you might check out Critters. It’s an online critique group specialising in fantasy, sf and horror. I’ve been a member for a while and usually get valuable comments. It’s well-run and I haven’t had a single problem in over a year, plus there’s a “library” of articles on manuscript formats and the like.
