Formatting your master MS like this eats up a lot more paper but makes it easier for your copy-editor to do their job. There are a few ‘rules’ to correctly …read more »
Tips & Timesavers
When I was starting out, I leapt straight in to the fun bit, the writing. It wasn’t until my manuscript (MS) was nearly finished that I took the time to start looking around for some of the conventions, requirements and timesavers that go with putting together a professional piece of work. WRONG MOVE Nikki! I regret not researching the industry and the etiquette first. Here’s a summary of some of the most useful info I found in my travels
Formatting & Layout
Do yourself a massive favour and set your manuscript up to industry standard before you start writing. Following are some key 'best practice' layout requirements:
Manuscript formatting
Synopsis formatting
A synopsis should be two to five pages long and should layout the progression of the story in summary format. Technically, it should introduce the characters, lay out the major …read more »
Grammar, Punctuation & Craft
It goes without saying that your submitted manuscript, competition entry or query letter should be completely checked for spelling, grammar and punctuation as well as 'craft' issues such as POV and tenses.
Fonts
All fonts are created equal. But some are more equal than others. The terms ‘proportional’ and ‘non-proportional’ are quite misleading. Contrary to what their names suggest, a proportional font is …read more »
Italics vs underlining
Italics are often used for emphasis in writing or — more modern convention — to communicate unspoken, internal monologue/thoughts. Readers either love em, hate em or aren’t fussed. I’m in …read more »
Spaces (line & sentence breaks)
Line Spacing in print As a general rule of thumb, Women’s Fiction prints in single line-spacing with 1cm/5space indents on new lines. A blank line can be used to indicate …read more »
Em dash vs. En dash
The difference between a dash/hyphen, and ‘en’ dash and an ‘em’ dash is easier to describe than it is to explain. An ‘em’ and ‘en’ are as wide as the …read more »
… vs em-dash
Okay, this is a toughie to communicate in HTML. I’ll give it a shot. The ole dot-dot-dot (…) technique is another one of those love-it-or-hate-it type devices. If you want …read more »
Point of View
‘Point of view’ is the viewpoint from which a story is told (or read). It is the character that the reader hear/see/listens through. A book can have more than one …read more »
Show, don’t tell
Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of moonlight on broken glass. (Anton Chekov) I love this rule. It’s one of the most constructive and useful …read more »
Voice
The term ‘voice’ is often misused in relation to POV. But the term actually refers to the author’s ‘voice’–their style, their unique approach or flavour–rather than any technical aspects of …read more »
Past/Present/Future Tense
Okay, this is straight back to junior school English. Suprising how easy it is to slip up with your tenses, though. As their name suggests, past tense views everything as …read more »
Word Count
There is a formula for determining word count. The good ole ‘word count’ button may be considered suitable in the future but, for now, at least, many publishers still use …read more »
Legalities & Technicalities
Disclaimer: This advice is provided as a personal opinion only and should not be construed as legal or business advice. As is always the case with this sort of thing nothing is a substitute for thorough, personal research and professional counsel.
Pen names & Aliases
People choose to write under a different name for a whole range of resons: to preserve their anonymity to allow them to write for more than one genre to team …read more »
Agent or self-representation
Everyone has different expectations of their publishing experience. Some people thrive on the challenge of stalking down and securing a contract with a publisher and the months (if not years) …read more »
Copyright
There is no system of registration for copyright protection in Australia. You do not need to publish your work, to put a copyright notice on it, or to do anything …read more »
Plagiarism defined
Wikepedia.org defines ‘plagiarism’ as follows: Plagiarism (from the Latin plagiare, “to kidnap”) is the practice of claiming, or implying, original authorship of (or incorporating material from) someone else’s written or …read more »
Acronyms, Terminology & Jargon
Like any industry, the publishing industry has a swag of terms, acronyms and jargon unique to it.
Partials, Imprints & other publishing terms
Partial A partial is any part smaller than the full manuscript (MS) sent to a publisher. Usually refers to three chapters. Imprint A publishing house may have more than one …read more »
Category/series vs. Single Title
Most romance books published are Single Titles but, by far, most romance books SOLD are category. CATEGORY: You need to look back at the history of romance to identify the …read more »
Romance sub-genres
It is arguable that, rather than there being sub-genres in romance, that romance IS a sub-genre of other genres (ie: Western romance, Fantasy romance, Detective romance). Either way its roughly …read more »
Common Acronyms
MS: Manuscript POV: Point of View H/H: Hero/Heroine ARC: Advance Reader Copy (also used to describe a particular way of formatting a MS HEA: Happy Ever After. Pretty much compulsory …read more »
Everything Else
For stuff that just doesn't fit neatly anywhere else.
‘The Big Six’ – who are they?
This phrase gets bandied around—a lot—in writing circles. We all know that the big six are a core group of publishers who’ve held the power in publishing for a …read more »
Why time is like sex…
Time is like sex. We all think everyone else has more of it and that it’s somehow better quality than the sex we have. Well, just like sex, they’re not. …read more »
Find & Replace – A writer’s best friend
First published in HeartsTalk Magazine(Romance Writers of Australia) in 2010 © Nikki Logan A few years back, on the eve of a competition and when I was super new to this …read more »
Why good writers aren’t automatically good authors
Being an author is only partly about being a writer. Lots of people who write well, don’t necessarily write well across-the-board. Someone proficient in government report writing may have style-guide …read more »
Genre Knockers (Popular/Commercial Fiction)
The question was asked by someone new on a commercial writer’s loop “what is ‘literary fiction’?” and the best answer (by far) was “What the rest of us support.” Literary …read more »
To Comp or Not to Comp
Writing competitions can be enormously useful if you approach them with balance and detachment and don’t give them too much importance in the greater scheme of your writing. They are …read more »
10 Ways to ‘out’ yourself as a newbie
It’s not hard to get carried away by the excitement of your first book, first submission, first website. It’s pretty exciting stuff. But… when approaching agents, publishers or seasoned writers …read more »
