The Copyeditor's Desk

We just finished copyediting a manuscript that was freaking torture to read.

Why?

Not because the writing was so bad (well, it wasn’t great, but it could have been tolerable). The author turned an otherwise workable book manuscript into a horror show by infesting it with an unending series of word-processing quirks.

For reasons unknown to God nor Man, he set all the paragraphs hanging indent. Then, trying to fix that, he pushed the first lines flush with the indented lines by HITTING THE SPACE BAR. Over and over and over again. Where he wanted an indented first line, he hit the space bar a few more times. Where he wanted an indented block, he set the copy boldface.

Irrationally, he varied the fonts throughout the copy. Some of the stuff was set in Comic Sans! No, not heads & subheads: this would pop up in the middle of a paragraph.

And he had no clue about subheadings, and so he set them with zero consistency…at what appeared to be the same level, some were boldface, some were italic, some were bold-face run-in; some had line spaces before and after, some had no line spaces. Figuring out how to set the subheads turned into an endless, annoying guessing game.

If you are a writer, please: get smart about typing your manuscript. Even if you’re going through a vanity press—which this guy was doing—someone has to copyedit and typeset your golden words. Try not to make their lives miserable.

First, learn to use a word processor. If you don’t know how to use Word or WordPerfect and you don’t want to take the time to learn, hire a typist to prepare your manuscript.

Next, decide what the heads and subheads will look like and stick to it. Headings are organized by “levels”: Level A is the chapter heading. Level B is the highest level of subheading. Level C is the next level. And so on to infinity: these correspond roughly to what your copy would look like if it were outlined:

I. Level A
A. Level B
B. Level B
1. Level C
2. Level C
a. Level D
b. Level D

Each of these should have its own format.

Level A, a chapter heading, is typically flush left or centered, 14 points, roman (“regular” type), caps and lower-case.

This Is a Level A Head

Level B is commonly set boldface, 12 points (the same size as the body copy), caps and lower-case, flush left, one line space before and one line space after.

This Is a Level B Head

Level C is usually italic, 12 points, caps and lower-case, flush left, one line space before and one line space after. If your MS has no level D heads, then Level C heads may be set run-in: as the first line of the paragraph, set flush left.

This Is a Level C Head

Level D is usually italic, 12 points, sentence style, flush left, run-in to the paragraph.

This is a level D head. It is set run-in to the paragraph, like the first sentence of the graf only set in italic. It may or may not be a complete sentence, but all should be grammatically consistent. If one is a full sentence, they all should be full sentences.

All body copy should be set flush left, 12 points, sentence style, DOUBLE SPACED!!!!! No space between the paragraphs!

Hanging indents must be made with your word processor’s hanging indent function! Do not, do not, do NOT hit the return key at the end of each line and the tab key at the beginning of the next line! Writers who do this will spend eternity in Hell trying to learn the Devil’s Own Word Processing System.

In Word, go to the Format menu and scroll down to Paragraph. In the window that comes up, find the line that says “Special.” Click on the little down arrow next to that word and, in the tiny menu that comes up, select “hanging.” You can either highlight the typed copy you would like to set as hanging indent and apply this function retroactively, or you can select Format > paragraph > special > hanging before you start to type a passage. To stop the hanging indent, go back to Format > paragraph > special and select “None.”

Block indents are similarly NOT MADE by hitting the return key and the tab indent! Don’t even think of trying that stunt.

In Word, on your standard toolbar (at the top of the screen) you should see an icon (a tiny picture) that shows a little squiggly line of type, then a right-pointing arrow with two more little squiggly lines, and then another line below the arrow. This is the “increase indent” button. Click on this to make a whole paragraph indented. To undo it, find the similar icon with a left-pointing arrow. This is the “decrease indent” button. It will make an indented paragraph set flush left.

Again, you can highlight a passage you would like indented or simply turn the function on before you start to type material you would like to set as indented block and then turn it off when you’re done.

Use the same font throughout, and use a standard font! Restrain yourself from trying to be artsy-fartsy with your manuscript. Remember that the page size will be different from the 8 1/2 x 11-inch pages you are typing on, and so attempts to take a passage and “shape” it will be lost. The best you can do is suggest to the layout artist how you would like to see the passage (if, for example, it’s one of those poems where the bard tries to use line lengths to build an urn or some such). Do not expect that the printed version will look the same as your manuscript, and do not try to force it to do so. IMHO, the best choice of fonts, unless your publisher asks for 10-point Courier, is 12-point Times or Times New Roman.

Some writers and publishers like to use the Styles function. I personally do not care for this, because it can complicate on-screen copyediting, and I wish people would not use it.

So, the Rules:

1. Use a plain-vanilla font.
2. Double-space throughout.
3. Set body copy flush left, using either the indent first line function (Format > paragraph > special > first line) or the tab indent key to indicate the first line of each paragraph.
4. Use the word processor’s hanging indent function to create hanging paragraphs (Format > paragraph > special > hanging) and the block indent function to create block indent paragraphs for quotations and the like (“increase indent” and “decrease indent” buttons on toolbar).
5. Set subheads flush left, no indent.
6. Decide on formatting that will distinguish each level of subhead, and use it consistently.
7. Refrain from trying to create cute or artsy effects with the type. Leave that to the typesetter, please. Show the typesetter with a separate page demonstrating what you want, title the page something like “Graphic 1,” and mark the passage to be cutesified with a call-out: <COMP: please follow formatting shown on Graphic 1>.

This is not hard.

Related posts:

• Manuscripts: Saving Time and Money, 2
• Manuscripts: Saving Time and Money 3
• What Editors Wish Authors Knew

Tags: writing

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 27th, 2008 at 4:29 pm and is filed under MS prep. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.