Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America

Posts Tagged ‘writing’

Writer and Parent? Tips for Finding Your New Balance

Monday, September 20th, 2010

by John Scalzi

My daughter Athena was born in 1998, and once my wife completed her six-week maternity leave, I was and still am the stay-at-home parent, caring for our daughter Athena during the day. Along the way I’ve also managed to write a dozen books and literally thousands of articles and entries for magazines, newspapers, blogs and online sites. How have I managed to juggle kid-watching duties with writing work? Here are my five secrets to making it work:

1. Schedule: When my daughter was an infant, I would slot my work into the times when she was taking a nap during the day. This required me to be both opportunistic — to take work time when it happened — and also to focus and get as much work done in the time between when she conked out and when she woke up. Later on, my work schedule synced up to my daughter’s school schedule.

(more…)

Tags: business, John Scalzi, Parenting, writing, writing advice
Posted in Building a Career, SFWA Blog, The Business of Writing | 12 Comments »

The Pirate Code of Children’s Literature

Sunday, September 5th, 2010

by Stacy Whitman
Editorial Director, Tu Books, an imprint of Lee & Low Books

There seems to be a lot of confusion in the SFF community among those unfamiliar with children’s literature about just what is children’s literature and what is young adult. Outside of genre circles, when I introduce myself as a children’s book editor, most people assume I edit picture books—and they often also think that means I’m a copyeditor, but that’s another story for another day. Inside of genre circles, “YA” seems to be taking hold as a catch-all term for anything written for anyone under 18, at least for people with whom I get into discussions at cons. Being at cons, sometimes these “discussions” get rather heated! When “YA” SF award nominees come out, the books on the short lists might be either middle grade or young adult—for example, Garth Nix’s Keys to the Kingdom series, solidly middle grade, was nominated for the 2007 Locus Award. Very seldom do these awards have a “children’s” category, so “YA” becomes the default.

(more…)

Tags: business, Children's lit, Publishing, Stacy Whitman, writing, writing advice, ya
Posted in Editors and Publishing Houses, Information Center, SFWA Blog | 5 Comments »

Guest post–Leave the Vomit In or, Learning to Trust Your Voice

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

by Jennifer Pelland

Back in 2002, I was a student at the Viable Paradise writing workshop. I hadn’t been writing original fiction very long, and had submitted a story for critique that was wildly different from anything I’d ever written before — a gritty, post-cyberpunk tale filled with vomiting junkies. I had no idea how it was going to go over with my fellow workshoppers. Needless to say, I was pretty nervous.

The very first day, I had a one-on-one critique with Jim Kelly. I swallowed hard, steeled myself for the worst, and walked in to his room.

“I asked for this story specifically,” he told me. “It’s very similar to the stuff I write, so I understand what you’re trying to do. You’re probably going to have a lot of people this week tell you that it’s got too much puking in it, but don’t listen to them. Leave the vomit in. If you start doubting that, just come back here and I’ll remind you.”

(more…)

Tags: beginners, Jennifer Pelland, writing, writing advice
Posted in Advice for New Writers, SFWA Blog | Comments Off

The Writing Parent

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

by Caren Gussoff

I don’t have children, myself (yet?); I have cats. Demanding, finicky, self-centered, hilarious, brilliant cats. They climb into my lap when I am trying to meet deadlines, mewl furiously when I don’t look up from my keyboard to give them attention, treats or clean the litter box that very instant.

When I consider trying to maintain my writing and care for human children, my head boggles.

Others have done it, wresting time and space while caring for family. I decided to ask a small panel of talented writers and fellow SFWA members about how they did it. The answers I got were honest, terrifying and instructive. Future parents, read and heed the hard-won wisdom. Current moms and dads: shake your heads in commiserating validation (or leave comments about your own experience).

The SFWA parents I spoke with included:
Mishell Baker is a graduate of the 2009 Clarion Fantasy & Science Fiction Writers’ Workshop and now administers the workshop’s official blog at http://clarionfoundation.wordpress.com .  She has been published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies and keeps a personal blog at http://mishellbaker.wordpress.com.

Harry Connolly‘s first novel, Child of Fire, was released by Del Rey last year and was listed on Publishers Weekly’s Best 100 Books of 2009. His second novel, Game of Cages, comes out on August 31st of this year.  Visit Harry at www.harryjconnolly.com.

Sandra M. Odell is a happily married, 42 year old mother of two, an avid reader, compulsive writer, and rabid chocoholic.  Her writing credits include publication in Jim Baen’s UNIVERSE, Brain Harvest, and Ideomancer among others, four honorable mentions from the L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Contest. She is a Clarion West 2010 graduate.  You can find her online at http://sandramodell.com.

Michelle Sagara writes under her own name for Luna and as Michelle West for DAW, but her first four books have been reprinted by BenBella Books as byline “Michelle Sagara West”. However, she is all the same person, and can be found as @msagara on twitter and at msagara.livejournal.com and msagarawest.wordpress.com.

Catherine Shaffer wears two hats: freelance science writer and science fiction writer. Her background is in biochemistry and pharmaceutical research, and she Attended Clarion in 1997 to learn the ropes. She’s published a number of short stories since then and have been poking at her first novel for many years.

Finding time to write, especially at home, is a common issue for parents. Did you encounter this? If so, how did you work in your writing time? 
MB: I used to dive into writing obsessively.  I would disappear into a novel for two weeks at a stretch, barely coming up to eat or shower, consumed by inspiration, and not stop until I got it all out.  The down side is that I then often wouldn’t write a word for months.
My current schedule leaves me always unsatisfied, wanting more.  I long for my characters while I push a stroller up and down the sidewalk.  I puzzle out plot problems while washing out bottles in the sink.  So by the time I get that precious two- to three-hour window of writing time, I am ready to put it to good use.  I am wrenched back to the real world before I’m quite ready to stop writing, and so interestingly, it prevents me from burning myself out the way I used to.  On the whole, my output is actually much greater than it was when I had less to do. 

SO: It was difficult to find time to write at home, not only because I have children but that my youngest son has a number of specific care needs resulting from his diagnosis of Cri-du-Chat.  I am very fortunate to have a husband who supports my writing by encouraging me to go to the local community library at least three afternoons a week so I can write without being disturbed.  I also write late at night when everyone else is asleep.

MS: <cue hysterical laughter>.  When I was pregnant with my oldest son, I told my writer friends that I’d write at home, because I was mostly writing novels on my lunch hour at the bookstore, and how hard could it be to find an hour or two?  They all laughed.  Hysterically, mind.
So, yes, absolutely.
I took three months off when my oldest was born–which was good because he didn’t discover sleeping at night until he had all of his teeth.
However, because I’d been so optimistic about “finding a spare hour”, I was in a position where a deadline was looming and I couldn’t take any more time off than that.  My son could be guaranteed, at this point, to sleep between the hours of 2 and 5 — in the morning.
So, that’s when I wrote.  I honestly do not recommend this.
When that book was done, though, I would wake up early with my husband; he would take the baby, and I would write for an hour and a half before he had to leave to go to work.  That worked better.

Did you find your writing habits changed when you became a parent? >If so, how? For better or worse?
HC: My habits had to become better, because I had so much less time for everything.  Where I used to let my thoughts meander (and would occasionally goof off with a book, TV or website) when I became a father I had to become strict with myself.
That said, there were days it didn’t happen, especially in that first year.  Sometimes that’s the way it’s got to be, and I had to learn to let it go.

MS:  I was vastly more desperate, so I think my use of the actual writing time was more efficient–it had to be, I was getting so little of it.
But I had to block time when my husband could take the baby in order to get the work done.  I didn’t email.  I didn’t web-surf.  I didn’t do *anything* but write during that time.  I didn’t fritter the minutes away because I simply didn’t have them.

For many writers, getting into the work requires a type of disengagement from the every day into the work. Being a parent doesn’t always allow that. Did you find yourself learning new ways to “transition” into work? If so, what were they? 
HC: All I need for that transition is the time to write, something to write with (or on) and the willingness to do it.  Years ago, I had all sorts of little rituals before starting to write, and I’d convinced myself I needed certain types of music and a special pen, tablet, chair, and desk.
But even before my son was born, life conspired to take all that away, one thing at a time. I lost the chair, the privacy, the music, the pens… everything.  Eventually I realized that I didn’t need anything to write except myself, and those external cues were actually crutches.
Now I can work pretty much anywhere.  The only sounds I can’t tune out are my wife’s voice, my son’s voice, and (sadly) the “new email” chime.

SO: Getting out of the house to write whenever possible.  It’s too easy to fall into the “this needs doing” trap of housework and childcare at home, so I gave myself permission to work in an environment where writing is my only focus.  I felt incredibly guilty about this at first, bludgeoning myself with words like selfish and neglectful, but now I recognize that both my writing and my family are better served by my library time.  And for those days when going to the library is not an option, I do my best to focus on what writing I can manage and smile through the rest of the day.

CS: Not so much. No time.

How did you successfully (or unsuccessfully) manage your energy and motivation levels while you juggle/d family and writing?
HC: My energy and motivation flagged when my son was an infant, certainly.  It’s tough to be creative when you haven’t had enough sleep.  One of the things that helped in the first few years was that my wife and I arranged our schedules so we would both be home a lot. She had a terrific part-time job and I was the stay-at-home parent. That let us cover for each other when we were exhausted or sick.

MB: Energy, I still haven’t learned to manage.  I’ve just learned to work despite not having any.  As for motivation, nothing motivates me to write more than parenthood.  It’s not just about the hope of earning money and making a life for my daughter; it’s also about being the person I want my daughter to see.  Children don’t listen when you lecture them about perseverance, about living up to their potential.  What they do is watch you, very closely.  I am deeply motivated to become someone that is worthy of my daughter’s emulation and respect.

CS: Well, I would go with unsuccessfully, by and large. I have pretty consistently failed to have enough energy for parenting, fiction writing, freelance writing, and other obligations in my life. I know this time will eventually pass. I try to practice patience, deferred gratification, and appropriate self-care including plenty of sleep and exercise.

What advice would you give to writers who are just about to become parents? 
MB: You can’t create “low-maintenance” children by forcing independence on them before they’re ready – quite the opposite, in fact.  Children don’t want your attention; they need it, and will find very unpleasant ways to get it if you don’t give it freely.  So go ahead and neglect your writing a bit at first, if you need to, while your children are small.  It will pay off tenfold when they are older.

HC: Speaking from my personal experience, I would say this: Be prepared to give up the things you enjoy, especially for the first few years. I’m not saying new parents who write can’t attend their weekly gaming night, or follow their favorite TV shows.  Some can.  But just be ready to mark certain items on your schedule as expendable.

MS: Plan for six months off.  Having a baby was sooo much more work than writing a novel, for me; it made the writing look easy in comparison.
It’s hard to be the parent at home with the small child *and* get anything else done in the first few months; you really do not need to be castigating either yourself or your infant for the failure to produce new words.
I think we’re all terrified of missing a chance, of being left behind. Having a small child is already isolating, or it can be if you’re not careful; you’re also sleep deprived and your whole world has been irrevocably changed.
Understand that the six months will not sink your career.  That it’s a blip in time and in a decade, you won’t remember it clearly (probably because of the sleep deprivation).

CS: Most expectant parents do not have realistic expectations of what their lives will be like after their child comes. It is a good idea to detach from those expectations a bit and be open to any and all kinds of experience. When you are having a new child is not the time to set overly-ambitious goals. It is a time to hunker down and appreciate the small pleasures. Your writing will most likely take a back seat for a while, but it’s not forever.

–
Caren Gussoff  is a science fantasy writer living in Seattle, and acting pro tem web editor for SFWA. You can read more about her, her publications and her cats at spitkitten.com.

Tags: Caren Gussoff, Catherine Shaffer, Harry Conolly. Sandra M. Odell, Michelle Sagara, Mishell Baker, writing, writing advice, writing and parenting
Posted in Building a Career, Information Center, Keeping At It, SFWA Blog | 8 Comments »

An Overview of Writing for Print vs. the Web

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

by Monica Valentinelli

This month, I wanted to take a break from discussing topics in online marketing to chat with you about what it means to write non-fiction for the web versus writing for a print publication like a magazine. The first thing to keep in mind is that writing for an online medium is night-and-day different from writing for print. Why? Take a moment to think about the core functionality of a print publication. Once an article is printed and circulated, it becomes a product that may be read by the people who might come across a physical copy of it. That publication is now a finite moment in time; the publication doesn’t live or breathe because it’s in a physical form. Readership is dependent upon when the article is released to ensure the highest amount of readers and whatever happens when it hits the secondary market. Publishers can guess how many people might read your article by their circulation numbers, but there really isn’t a definitive way to track who read it and who didn’t.

On the web, not only can a publisher track how many people have read your article, they can also see how many visits it receives, where the visitors originate from, etc. over a long period of time. For this reason, some consider web-based works to live and breathe online. Articles that you may have written two years ago have the ability to become popular again on the web, simply because of how the web functions. Unlike a print publication, mistakes can also be fixed instantly or articles can be changed, which is why some publications have rushed to produce timely content without having all the facts.

In many cases, writing for print allows you to have more freedom and more flexibility with your writing style because you are writing for a captive audience. When you write for the web, you are trying to capture members of a much larger audience. (more…)

Tags: Monica Valentinelli, non-fiction, Publishing, writing
Posted in Building a Career, Networking and Self-Promotion, SFWA Blog | 1 Comment »

Hunting for a Literary Agent

Monday, December 14th, 2009

Written by Chuck Rothman

Index

1. What is an agent and why do I need one?
2. When do I need an agent?
3. How are agents paid?
4. Where to I find information about agents?
5. How do I choose an agent?
6. How do I contact an agent?
7. How do I create an outline and sample chapters?
8. What happens if I don’t get an agent?

1. What is an agent and why do I need one?

   An agent is a writer’s business representative. His job is to market your book, negotiate a deal with the publisher, keep track of rights sold, and generally handle the business end of things so that the author can concentrate on writing. (more…)

Tags: agent, Chuck Rothman, Intermediate, Rothman, writing
Posted in Agent Etiquette, How to Sell Your Novel, Information Center, SFWA Blog, The Business of Writing | 5 Comments »

World creation and the source of objects

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

One of the things that bothers me sometimes when looking at world-building is the way people don’t think about where objects come from. What is the industry that fuels the region? Where does all that paper come from in Battlestar Galactica?

So this essay on the origins of a pencil tickles me no end, and not just because it’s written in first person. What I like about it is that it points out all the different jobs that you don’t even think about which are required to make a pencil.

Pick me up and look me over. What do you see? Not much meets the eye—there’s some wood, lacquer, the printed labeling, graphite lead, a bit of metal, and an eraser.

Just as you cannot trace your family tree back very far, so is it impossible for me to name and explain all my antecedents. But I would like to suggest enough of them to impress upon you the richness and complexity of my background.

So next time you’re doing world creation, think about where all those objects are coming from. Even if you don’t put that detail down on the page, it can add a richness to your fiction.

Tags: world building, writing
Posted in SFWA Blog, Writing Technique | 1 Comment »

Manuscript Preparation

Friday, November 7th, 2008

Written by Vonda N. McIntyre

“Manuscript Preparation,” a PDF, requires the Adobe Acrobat Reader. The software comes installed on many systems, and is available as a free download at the Adobe website.

Tags: manuscript, McIntyre, Vonda N. McIntyre, writing
Posted in Advice for New Writers, Information Center, Manuscript Formatting, The Craft of Writing | Comments Off

TANSTAAFL and the Novice Writer

Wednesday, January 4th, 2006

Written by Elizabeth Moon
From a note posted on SFF Net
(TANSTAAFL ¹)

When I was teaching short workshops, I found that some beginning writers want business information in the curriculum and others hate it. One critique sheet complained bitterly that I spent a couple of hours on the business end (out of eight) and was “too commercial”. Needless to say, the only people who have ended up published after these workshops have been the ones who weren’t afraid to be commercial.

Novice writers have to take some responsibility for their own careers. The good information is NOT that hard to find. The novices who don’t find it–and don’t find it repeatedly–are resisting the truth.

Example: at a Dragoncon, I heard Anne McCaffrey talk on a 2-hour panel aimed at new writers. She talked, she answered questions, she put out a lot of good information on Copyright issues, agents, editors, contracts, and so on. Patient, firm, clear, all the above.

On her way out of the room, a young man who had been in the audience ambushed her, and asked again, the very basic-stupid question he had asked the panel twice. He was convinced that she had said what she said only because she “had” to say that in public, but in private she could give him the Magic Button to Getting Published.

There is no Magic Button. There is no such thing as a free lunch (not even when it’s charged to the editor’s plastic.)

This kind of novice will claim, to his deathbed, that no one ever told him the real secret to getting published … because, of course, he never listened. No writers’ group, SFWA or any other, can be held responsible for this kind of novice. We are not their fairy godmother, and we have too many other claims on our time to spend much effort trying to break through their fantasy.

How do I know? I was once a hopeful hobby writer myself, who had a wistful vague dream that someday a shaft of light would beam down from above, trumpets would sound, little drifts of glittering gold would land on my shoulders, and I’d be anointed Real Writer. I would know it. My mother would know it. My friends and their friends would know it. And of course editors and publishers would know it instantly. Fame and fortune awaited me; I had only to wait until the right moment.

While in this hazy dream, I didn’t seek out any practical knowledge whatsoever. I didn’t go to the library and find writers’ magazines or books on how to write. I didn’t take courses. I didn’t join a writers’ group. No: if I had the talent, someday the light would come. I wrote bits of stories and sent them to a friend who was in a graduate English program; she trashed them and sent them back. Then I’d go into a decline (mentally wailing and worry about my talent) before before trying again. (The one thing I did right, was write. At least I was working on the salable skill, if not the skill to sell it.)

The turnaround for me came when something (I now forget what) shook me out of this idiotic daze and I realized that if I wanted to be anything other than a science fictional Emily Dickinson, I would have to know some practical stuff. The “getting published” side of writing was more like “getting a driver’s license” or “getting to Europe” than having a religious experience.

I had gone from “it sure would be nice to hike along mountain trails” to reading, researching, renting equipment for short hikes, buying equipment, and finally hiking along mountain trails pretty competently. I had gone from “it sure would be nice to be able to ride horses over fences” to reading, researching, taking lessons on the flat and over fences, leasing a horse, buying a horse, and riding my own horse over fences.

So … what was this silly nonsense about a spotlight from on high when it came to getting published?

From that revelation came an immediate burst of research–which did not take long to put me in touch with perfectly good sources of information. The information is out there. It is available. You can tell the good stuff from the scams just as easily as you can in any other field. All it takes is applying the same business attitude you would if buying a car, a house, a horse. While any writers’ organization (including SFWA) may provide general information on the business of writing and the realities of a writer’s life, you don’t have to find it here–it’s in every library.

Genre-specific info is another thing entirely. By the time I went to a half-day SF workshop, I already knew about manuscript preparation, why I shouldn’t be looking for an agent yet, which publishers handled SF, and so on. I had finished three books and quite a few stories; I had been submitting stories for over a year. But I had no idea what a science fiction convention was, or why anyone would go. I knew no writers (SF or other, except for reporters at the county newspaper), no editors, nothing.

The workshop presenter mentioned SFWA and handed around a copy of the Bulletin. I had read about SFWA (briefly) in Writer’s Market; the presenter, and the Bulletin, convinced me it was an organization with something to offer. In other words, I was ready to hear what SFWA had to say.

He also explained conventions (sort of … ) and I decided to get a one-day membership to the NASFiC in Austin that year. While I did not meet any science fiction writers then (I had two sales, but nothing out in print; I felt suspended between novice and neo-pro) I had the chance to see them, watch them, and start figuring out the tribal customs. The workshop also gave me an immediately useful bit of advice (“Send your stories to an editor whose choices you already like — he’s most likely to like yours”) which was responsible for my first hard-SF sale, about three months later.

But there were over thirty people at that workshop. Many were where I had been a few years before — drifting along day-dreaming of being writers by annointment. They had never finished a story; some had never started a story. They wanted to hear that they were talented — they wanted the beam of light to come down and mark them as Instant Real Writers. They couldn’t hear the practical advice being given, and they have never sold a thing, even if they kept writing. Another group were almost ready to hear it — close enough that they formed a support group, and most of those later achieved at least one professional sale.

I’m coming on strong here, because I just spent another half-hour writing back to a newbie with a fantasy novel who is desperate to find an agent, and has gotten a nibble from someone who wants a reading fee. I spent an hour yesterday combing my files and essentially re-writing several articles for him. He came back with a bunch of “yes, but … ” sorts of things. If he writes me again, still misty-eyed because someone is willing to read his work, I’ll give up. He’ll have proved himself determined to be fooled. I have mail waiting from someone who wants me to read her work and tell her she’s talented enough to keep going — although I’ve told her before to workshop her stories in her own area (which has writers’ groups.) I’ve spent hours and hours with promising beginners (some of them now thoroughly published) when I felt they were taking in the info I could give, but I do not have the time to waste on people who want the Magic Button or the Free Lunch or the Secret Decoder Ring to the Publishing Empire.

---

¹ TANSTAAFL: There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. (From Heinlein, “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress”.)

Tags: Elizabeh Moon, Intermediate, Moon, writing
Posted in Advice for New Writers, Building a Career, Information Center, The Business of Writing, Tips for Beginners, Workshops and Critique Groups | Comments Off

The Obligatory Manuscript Format Article

Tuesday, January 4th, 2005

Manuscript Preparation. Don’t Skip It — You WILL Learn Something
Written by John Gregory Betancourt

Everyone starting out as a writer will, sooner or later, get hit over the head by an editor over manuscript format. In short, there is a single right way to do it.

For short stories:

• In a font called “Courier”
• At a standard, easily legible size (“12 points”)
• Double spaced (between LINES, not WORDS!)
• With a 1″ margin on every side
• On one side of the paper ONLY
• With a ragged right margin (NOT fully justified)
• With your address in the upper left-hand corner of page 1
• With the word-count in the upper right-hand corner of page 1
• With the title in ALL CAPS in the exact middle of page 1
• With your byline (“by John Q. Writer”) 2 lines underneath it.
• With the story commencing 4 lines beneath that
• With future pages containing the author’s last name, the story title, and the current page number in the upper right-hand corner (“Author/STORY/2″)

For novels:

• In a font called “Courier”
• At a standard, easily legible size (“12 points”)
• Double spaced (between LINES, not WORDS!)
• With a 1″ margin on every side
• On one side of the paper ONLY
• With your address in the upper left-hand corner of page 1
• With the word-count in the upper right-hand corner of page 1
• With the title in ALL CAPS in the exact middle of page 1
• With your byline (“by John Q. Writer”) 2 lines underneath it.
• With the story commencing on page 2 (or a later page if you have dedications/quotes/acknowledgments/etc. to go at the start)
• With all pages after the first page containing the author’s last name, the story title, and the current page number in the upper right-hand corner (“Author/STORY/2″)

BUT WHY?

No, these rigid format requirements are not designed to make the writer suffer under an oppressive editor’s insane rule. Believe it or not, every one of these format requirements exists for a legitimate, sensible reason. Once you understand the “why” of all these seemingly arbitrary rules, you will probably agree that they are necessary. Let’s look at them one by one.

1. In a font called “Courier”

Courier is a fixed-width font, which means every character takes up exactly the same space on a line. It is easy to read, and most importantly, easy to use to calculate your story’s word-count accurately. Word-count is important with short stories, since most short stories are bought by the word.

IMPORTANT: WORD COUNT IS *NOT* THE EXACT NUMBER OF WORDS IN A STORY! “Word count” is, more accurately, the amount of space a story will take up when typeset. Editors conside one word to be 6 characters (5 characters plus a space). Therefore, putting a computer-generated exact word count on a ms. is not entirely helpful (though it doesn’t hurt).

2. At a standard, easily legible size (“12 points”) [ed. note: that's 10 pitch, or pica, in typewriter terms]

Editors live by their eyes. If you make it too small, they will have trouble reading it. You want to make reading your work as painless as possible.

3. Double spaced (between LINES, not WORDS!)

Editors mark on manuscripts after they have purchased them for publication — edits, corrections, instructions to the typesetter, stuff like that. You must leave them enough room to write clearly and legibly.

And believe it or not, people have made the mistake of adding an extra space between every word, rather than between lines.

4. With a 1″ margin on every side

Again, you must leave the editor room to work.

5. On one side of the paper ONLY

The publishing industry is horribly wasteful, but everyone else only writes on the front of pages. If you write on the back, chances are good that no one will notice half your manuscript. Conform to the industry standard. If you feel guilty about those poor trees, use recycled paper.

6. With a ragged right margin (NOT fully justified)

This ties in with point #1, “Courier”. You need to leave the right marged ragged so the editor (or anyone else) can calculate the exact 6-character word count. Here is how it is done:

Pick a standard-looking page from the middle of the manuscript. Using a ruler, align it along the right edge of the text so that the ends of half the lines stick out and half are covered. Since most standard format pages contain 24 or 25 lines, you should have 12 or 13 sticking out beyond the ruler. Count characters backwards from the point where the ruler ends. Divide the total by 6. Multiply by lines on the page. (Example: 60 characters divided by 6 equals 10 words per line. Multiplied by 25 lines equals 250 words per page.) Then multiply by pages in the manuscript — adjusting for blank areas, like the half page missing on the first page. This will give you an accurate word count equivalent to what an editor will use.

7. With your address in the upper left-hand corner of page 1

You DO want the editor who wishes to purchase your story to be able to find you.

With the word-count in the upper right-hand corner of page 1

8. With the word-count in the upper right-hand corner of page 1

This is just a guide for the editor, who will perform (and pay using) his or her own word count. You can use a computer-generated true word count here, if you want.

9. With the title in ALL CAPS in the exact middle of page 1

You want the title to jump out at the reader; you don’t want him or her trying to figure out what it is.

10. With your byline (“by John Q. Writer”) 2 lines underneath it.

This is how you want your name to appear on the published story. If you use a pseudonym, put it here. Make sure your real name is on the address part; you want to be able to cash the check when it comes, and you may have trouble if it’s made out to a pseudonym.

11. With the story commencing 4 lines beneath the byline

Again, you must leave the editor enough room to work.

12. With future pages containing the author’s last name, the story title, and the current page number in the upper right-hand corner (“Author/STORY/2″)

You must identify each page of your story completely. Remember, an editor buys a lot of stories, and accidents do happen. If your story gets shuffled in with another story, dropped with a bunch of them, or otherwise mixed up, you want it to be an easy matter to sort it out.

Author name: what if someone else writes a story under the same title?

Story title: what if the editor buys 5 or 6 stories by you?

Page number: you want the story read and typeset in the proper page order!

13.  For novels/books:

With the main text commencing on page 2 (or a later page if you have dedications/quotes/acknowledgments/etc. to go at the front)

You start a new chapter on a new page in books. This gives the book’s designer room to write instructions on how to start a new chapter for the typesetter.

And that’s about it for format.

ADDITIONAL NOTES!

1. Don’t listen to a handful of old pros who tell you not to worry about format. I know several who deliberately don’t follow the above rules, creating headaches for editors/copyeditors/typesetters with bizarre fonts, right-justification, improper margins, etc. A word of advice: DON’T DO IT, TOO. These are established professionals; editors are willing to overlook formatting in their cases because their books sell a lot of copies. It’s simply easier to do things right. After all, when you’re starting out, you don’t want to look like a troublemaker or a rank amateur, do you?
2. Lawrence Watt-Evans commented, when I workshopped this article, that he got out of the habit of using all caps (even for story titles) when one of his editors expressed his displeasure at seeing anyone use all caps anywhere in a manuscript. If you have a paying editor who likes your work and has specific format instructions (as in LWE’s case), follow them. You’re here to make money, and you never argue with a man who buys your work for real money. If someone will pay you an acceptable rate and wants your work in green crayon on toilet paper, oblige that editor! You can always change the format before you sell reprint rights to anyone else.
3. Also in workshopping this article, Cecil Rose said: “I just wanted to comment about cashing checks made out to somebody else. I have refereed soccer and football in high schools and colleges, and the schools frequently get the names wrong on referee’s checks. The standard practice here is to just write “pay to the order of [your name]” on the back of the check and then sign the other guy’s name. As long as you’re depositing this check in your own account, the banks never question it. In twenty years, depositing 30-40 such checks per year, I’ve never had a problem. As long as you’re not doing it for a fraudulent purpose, I don’t think you’re breaking any law, and in practice it always works.”My reply: Some banks will question (or refuse to accept) 3rd party checks. You can probably get away with it for small amounts, but for the sake of simplicity, it’s easier to do it right in the first place!

“The Obligatory Manuscript Format Article” is Copyright © 1997 by John Gregory Betancourt. All rights reserved.

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