Stop The Madness
I’ve seen some version of this question 3 times this week. I’ve hit my limit. Disclaimer: This isn’t going to be nice or even slightly politically correct so if you’re one of those "I only like warm, fuzzy blogs" types, stop reading now. Come back Monday. I’ll have some good news then. Well, good for me but probably won’t matter to you much. Until then, it’s time to start messing with people.
How do you figure out word count and does the font you’re using matter?
Here’s my new answer: You actually have to count each word. Every damn one. Then you have to count the punctuation and spaces, do an excel spreadsheet setting out the number of each, have it bound and attach it as an exhibit to the end of your submission. If you don’t, the editor will automatically reject your manuscript. Also, there’s a rumor that some published folks are blackballing other writers. This is one of those issues that may lead to blackballing. At least, that’s what I’ve heard.
On the topic of font, I defer to a higher power. I call him Professor Tod. Wendy calls him husband. Booksquare is in his class so she may have more profane names for him. If so, she’s not talking. In response to a similar issue being raised on my blog eons ago (that’s about 6 weeks, in case you’re wondering), Professor Tod had this to say:
What font should I use/what should the margins be/what goes in the header? Sweet christ on Easter Sunday, I’ve heard this question 100 times and its always asked by a man or a woman wearing a mou-mou and carrying around a dog eared copy of their own velabound novel. Times New Roman, people, Times New Roman. Unless you want to take up space, in which case Courier. Unless you’re a serial killer, then its wingdings all the way.
Now, he’s a writing professor, is multi-published, has been nominated for all kinds of awards and - here’s some free promotion - has a short story collection called Simplify coming out in September. And, yes, he’s one of those literary writers. They’re supposed to be smart and cool and stuff.
So, listen to him. Or, go buy a book that sets this stuff out. Or, check one of 3 million websites out there that answer these questions. Or, exercise some common sense. Those are your options.
May 7th, 2005 at 9:43 am
Well, I’ve written all 25+ of my published works in Courier New. So there.
Though lately I’m loving Bookman Old Style. *g*
May 7th, 2005 at 11:36 am
That question pops up on my writing loops too. Strikes me as the least important thing to worry about. Mostly though, it makes me wonder why the people asking don’t own a current WRITER’S MARKET? It’s a fabulous reference with several pages that discuss formatting: what to do, what not to do. WM suggests Times New Roman.
May 7th, 2005 at 11:43 am
The original reason for using Courier was that it’s a proportional font. TNR is not. And a proportional font was said to give a more accurate calculation of space (not words) used in typesetting. I have no idea if this has changed, but I still write in proportional for that reason.
A couple of good explanations of that process are:
http://www.sfwa.org/writing/wordcount.htm
http://www.pammc.com/count.htm
http://www.hackman-adams.com/articles/wordcount.htm
May 7th, 2005 at 1:28 pm
Actually, courier new isn’t a proportional font. It’s a fixed font where each character uses the same amount of space. Where TNR is proportional and space is assigned by the letter width. Just type out five m and five i in CN and TNR and that will give you an accurate demonstration.
WRITER’S MARKET suggests TNR because it’s professional looking (as opposed to wingdings or braggadocio), but then so is CN.
Either way Alison, I suspect you’re in print because of your writing, not the font you choose.
May 7th, 2005 at 2:20 pm
Right. I got it backwards! LOL!
May 7th, 2005 at 4:14 pm
Wow - I go away for a few hours and look what happens. Ladies, I think you proved the point that there are a few “right” answers on this and that answers can be found without asking this same question a billion times on the writing loops.
Wendy, if you use wingdings for anything, our relationship is over. I am getting too old to decipher that crap.
For the record, I use Dark Courier because anything else prints too light on my printer for some reason.
May 7th, 2005 at 5:14 pm
I tend to “write” in all sorts of fonts, usually at a VERY LARGE SIZE since I’m going blind in my old age!
But I do submit like a proper professional!
May 7th, 2005 at 5:24 pm
My short answer—it depends on who you’re submitting to. For example, if you submit to EC, you submit in Book Antiqua; computer count. If you’re submitting to one of H/S’s category lines, you use Courier New, 25 lines/page; page count. Unless it’s out of London, then they want TNR. But Karen Templeton doesn’t use Courier New, so you don’t _have_ to use it for Silhouette.
I think the reason this question doesn’t die is that there are always newbies, and they ask this question and there isn’t a right answer, and all the people who have an answer then debate said answer. Then they do it again two weeks later when a newbie joins the list/group/board.
What frustrates _me_ is when somebody working on a ms for Silhouette asks the word count, and somebody who writes for Silhouette explains it, and everybody’s happy, and then somebody who writes single titles will jump in and muddy the waters unnecessarily.
It just depends. *g*
May 7th, 2005 at 5:50 pm
Shannon, that was amazing. Really. This is not me being a smartass (as usual). This is me being impressed with what you know about this subject. Okay, it’s official. I am now going to send anyone who asks to you. You are the woman in the know.
And, just so I know, wingdings is never the right answer, correct?
May 8th, 2005 at 8:15 am
I’m with Shannon. Depends on who you’re submitting to. I always write in Courier New because I got used to it when I started formatting for the the 250 word per page crap, but because Harlequin M&B uses actual computer word count, it doesn’t matter. So to save on postage, I used TNR 14 and cut out 40 pages. Drove me nuts, though, because TNR 14 looks HUGE! *g*
May 8th, 2005 at 5:53 pm
Oh My Lord! I was just so excited he said I could use Wingdings!!
*ggg*
May 8th, 2005 at 6:02 pm
Larissa - M&B uses actual word count? You’d think at the very least the folks at H/S could come up with consistent guidelines. It’d also be nice if the London office would consider email submissions since the postage must be horrifying, but I guess they don’t do that either.
Sasha - If you write a book in wingdings, send it to me ’cause I want to see what that looks like.
May 10th, 2005 at 8:48 pm
I’m a Courier chick, but it’s a long story. Plus I like the way it looks. Would now be a good time to mention that I have emotional problems?
Also, I believe we were all required to sign forms on our first night of class. Something about referring to Tod as all-knowing, all-seeing, and right about everything. I’m not saying anything, but it was really hard to type that with a straight face.
May 11th, 2005 at 8:26 am
Yeah, rumor has it Tod tried to get Wendy to sign the same type of agreement when they got married. She balked and he realized he would NEVER do better than Wendy and dropped the demand.
May 13th, 2005 at 11:53 am
Thanks for the chuckle!! I often give a workshop called Breaking the Myths of Publishing, and I like to tell people than whenever I go to NY to visit my editors, I invariably interrupt them measuring the margins of each page of all submissions with their Official Margin Rulers . . . then tossing the ones that don’t have exact margins directly into the recycle bin, unread.
You’d be surprised at how many people take notes on this, before they catch on.
Alesia