Formatting Is The Least Of Our Worries (sort of)

I am always amazed at the number of authors out there, who, when sitting in an editor/agent panel have the chance to ask any number of questions, and yet, spend their time on formatting. Really? This is the best you can do?

The deal is that, for the most part, we are not so hung up on the formatting of your manuscript. Standard 12 pt. font that is double spaced is pretty much the standard. We know you are all working on different platforms, with different word processing programs, but how you set up your paragraphs, whether there is an extra space between your paragraphs is the least of our worries.

This obsession over formatting is really coming from the self-publishing models where you are entirely responsible for the layout and so forth. These documents need to be "digital ready" since no one else is assisting with that work.

The goal is that you turn in a document that is professional and easy to read. You need a document that everyone can access your work. I am stressing this especially for those of you who might be working with Open Doc formats. In cases such as this, I do recommend using Rich Text Format.

Just one more thing you don't have to obsess over.