Recently, I found myself in a Facebook conversation about ellipses and em-dashes. There was a whole thread about spaces or no spaces and the merits of each, along with the side effects associated with different practices and typesetting issues.
The original question was with regards to Scrivener and the way it handles ellipses. Obviously, this is something that I can comment on as a regular user of Scrivener. So, I piped in.
Within Scrivener, you can convert ellipses into triple dots at the time of compile, just like you can convert em-dashes into double hyphens.
My comment was a bit longer than that (just a tad), but it sparked another thread of conversation.
“Why would you ever want to convert em-dashes to double hyphens?”
My answer: “Some publishers require it.”
Publishers ask for certain formatting for a reason.
Most word-processing programs (Word, OpenOffice, Scrivener, etc.) incorporate an auto-correct that converts the double hyphen to em-dashes (or en-dashes, if you use spaces around it in MS Word — and yes, there is a difference).
Here’s the issue: people can’t agree on whether spaces should be included or not. In addition, writers are often mistaken about the physical difference between an em-dash and an en-dash — and there is a difference. (See Give me the Em-Dash for more information.) To combat the inconsistency that exists, publishers often require that you convert ALL em-dashes to double hyphens or ellipses to triple dots (with no spaces between them). They do this so they have a consistent searchable character string that they can replace with their house’s preferred punctuation.
It doesn’t matter if you think it should be one way, or if the Chicago Manual of Style says it should be another way. The publishing house will do it their way! And it’s not just the Big 5 publishers who have their quirks within their submission guidelines.
Recently, I submitted short stories to several different magazines. One specified the Shunn formatting found on the SFWA website. Another modified the Shunn format a little and specified Times New Roman. Several wanted my name removed from the manuscript file. Another went totally against traditional formatting and required single-spaced lines with zero first-line indentation and an extra line between paragraphs. This was compounded by the fact they wanted submissions to use Verbena. (Adding the extra lines between paragraphs was a pain, as it wasn’t a toggle switch within Scrivener to automatically generate the correct output format, but that’s what they wanted, so that’s what I did.)
As a writer, it is not your place to question why a publisher has requested a specific formatting. It’s your place to just do it!
While there is an industry standard for manuscript formatting for a reason (related to the number of words on a page or a line), deviations from the standard formatting are often related to typesetting at the other end.
People, when I was submitting the final drafts for publication in Putting the Science in Fiction, there were strict formatting guidelines that we had to follow, which included how we named the related files.
You might think that you’re a special case, but when it comes to the manuscript formatting requirements, just do it!
Do not question the sanity of the publisher. They have already lost their minds just by being in this industry. Do not give them a reason to reject your submission just because you can’t be bothered following their submission guidelines to the letter.
This applies to the Self-Published too.
Okay, the above is making the assumption that you are heading down the road of traditional publication. So, does this apply to those self-publishing?
YES!
Editors also have their formatting preferences. Personally, I don’t care if I get a manuscript that is single-spaced or double-spaced, but it irritates me to no end when I get a manuscript with no footer or header containing page numbers.
If I’m doing substantive line editing and I’ve encountered a particularly problematic section, I will print it out and use the red pen. However, I have cats. The papers can go flying. With no page numbers, I spend forever trying to figure out which order the pages should be in. (Instant growl.)
I also hate it when a writer uses a TAB for their first-line indentation instead of letting the paragraph formatting change it for you. This practice earns an instant growl and a chastising moment from me, because it’s a typesetting nightmare.
When I insert a paragraph break and the new paragraph doesn’t indent on the first line like everything else… Turn on hidden characters and see the TAB arrow… Roll eyes and tell yet another writer off.
Programs like Scrivener have made a writer’s job easy, building into the system the ability to easily output your manuscripts using different formatting with just a few clicks. I highly recommend it. It saves the headaches in the long run.
Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with the formatting requirements, regardless if you are self-publishing or heading down traditional roads, do yourself a favor and just do it!
You can thank me later.
P.S. I’d love to meet you on Twitter or Facebook.
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© Copyright, Judy L Mohr 2019
Judy, I am new to this world but you gave me so much to think about and read. Ill definitely be checking out all your stuff, I’m a baby when it comes to writing so I just write without due care (my posts must make you cringe lol) but I would like to refine my writing a bit this year. Thanks
Why would your posts make me cringe? LOL
We all have to start somewhere. Putting those words onto the page is the biggest step. Without it, people like me don’t have a job.
I have always used tab when writing, I never knew that there was another way.
Change this habit, now, or your publisher will get angry/irritated with you.
All word-processing programs allow you to format paragraphs using a first-line indentation. The industry standard for submission formatting is to include first-line indentation at 0.5 inch. By using the first-line indentation paragraph formatting, all a typesetter needs to do to change this is to select the full document and change it all at once. If you use the tabs, the typesetter has a mission to remove all of those tabs, so the systems work. (Saying that, they’re more likely to insist that you remove them and employ the first-line indentation method yourself. Might as well start doing it now.)
This was great. It’s the little things that can come back and bite you down the line so it’s good to think about them early.
Totally agree. And many writers don’t understand that publishers forward plan. They have reasons for what they do. ‘Tis not the place of the writer to question things like formatting.
This is very informative, I got Scrivener last year and I am still learning to use it. I do love how intuitive it is.
Thank you for sharing.
Liliana
Ugg! I’ve been in charge of style guides at various jobs. I much rather being on the other end. I’ll do it whatever way they tell me to, just as long as I know the rules. I haven’t used Scrivener, but it sounds good for this reason.
I started my personal writing journey in fiction using something known as LaTex. It’s what we were required to use when I was a PhD student in Physics & Astronomy. (Word was a curse word in my department. LOL) However, LaTex will not output into DOC or DOCX files, and creating an EPUB or MOBI file was something that required a 2×4. When I discovered Scrivener, I instantly fell in love. Now, ALL of my personal writing is in Scrivener. Word is something that is reserved for working with editors, due to it’s track changes features.