![]() Half the time, e-mail submitters don’t even include a cover letter they just attach the requested number of pages. ![]() It’s an especially common omission in e-mailed submissions. No, your eyes are not deceiving you: the single most popular title page option in manuscript submissions is none. Not much doubt about what it’s called or who wrote it, true, and the typeface certainly blares those two facts with gratifying gusto, but how precisely does this (unusually small, for some reason best known to the writer) sheet of paper fulfill any of the functions the agent or small publisher to whom it was submitted might need it to serve? How, in fact, is it a better title page than the most common of all, the following? What possible practical purpose could a title page like this serve at the submission stage? Nor is it merely the shouted-out declaration of the book’s title and who wrote it, another popular choice in submissions. At minimum, this admittedly rather pretty top page demonstrates that the writer does not understand that throughout the publication process, the title page of a manuscript is not just its top cover. She sees not a manuscript perfectly ready for publication - that’s what some of you, thought, right? - but evidence that the sender does not understand the difference between a published book and a manuscript. ![]() So when she opens requested materials to find something like this: So is pretty much everything on the dust jacket, including the back jacket copy, the book’s typeface, and every other cosmetic consideration. Millicent is quite cognizant of that fact, however experience watching books travel the often bumpy road from initial concept to publication have shown her that cover art is almost invariably the publishing house’s choice. are frequently unaware that that in traditional publishing circles, the author typically has very little say over what does and does not grace the cover. Even the more industry-savvy rookies - the ones who have taken the time to learn that book manuscripts must be double spaced, contain indented paragraphs, be printed on one side of the page, etc. You’d be surprised at how many aspiring writers are not aware of that, judging by how many single-spaced, non-indented, photo-heavy submissions turn up at agencies. Standard format for manuscripts does not resemble what’s on the printed page of a published book in many respects. That’s what they’ve seen in bookstores (ask your grandparents, children), so that must be what looks professional to the professionals, right?Īs I hope those of you who have been following his series have already shouted: heavens, no. Don’t be too hard on yourself, if so: most first-time submitters simply assume that if a manuscript does include a title page - and a hefty majority of submissions arrive without one - it should be a replica of a hoped-for book cover. When last we broached the subject, I showed how the first page of text does not, from a professional perspective, make an adequate substitute for a title page in a book manuscript - a demonstration that, if past is any prologue, may well have left some of you scraping your jaws off the floor. Writers’ conference season is almost upon us, however, and proper formatting can make the difference between an enthusiastically-read post-pitch submission and one that our old pal, Millicent the agency screener, picks up with trepidation, so I’d like to smuggle the standard format basics into everyone’s writing tool kit sooner rather than later. I’ve been hesitant to keep pressing forward with our series-in-progress on manuscript formatting while the visual examples are still acting a bit squirrelly. Mea culpa, and thanks for hanging in there. Quite a bit of progress can be seen behind the scenes, I assure you, but it will be a little while before the full benefits will be visible from your side of the page. Sorry about my recent slow rate of posting, campers as the sharper-eyed among you may have noticed, we here at Author! Author! have been experiencing what the old television shows used to call euphemistically technical difficulties.
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