Transcribe
Translate
Spaceways, v. 3, issue 4, May 1941
Page 17
More information
digital collection
archival collection guide
transcription tips
SPACEWAYS 17 ON TYPING MANUSCRIPTS 7 by FREDERIK POHL (Editor's Note: This article was originally published by Robert W. Lowndes, through whose permission it is reprinted. It was mentioned in "Learn To Type", last issue; since comparatively few fans have seen it, it is published here.) The most important rule of typing manuscripts is to be accurate, neat, and thoughtful. Thoughtfulness implies neatness and accuracy--for neatness makes it possible for an editor to read your work without too much eyestrain; accuracy simplifies getting it ready for the printer--but it means more. For instance, editors frequently have to interlineate changes in the wording of stories, so double-spacing is vital. There is any amount of information which must be put at the end of a story--leave plenty of room there. Similarly between chapters. If your manuscript runs over 7,000 words, it is a novelette to most publishers, and should be divided into chapters. A chapter should run from 1200 to 2500 words, and each chapter should be given a title, preferably of not more than four or five words. If your manuscript is less than 7,000 words, it is a short story. A short story should not be divided into chapters, but it should be broken up at strategic points in the action by extra spacing and capital letters for the first two or three words of the next paragraph. These breaks should occur at every 600 to 1000 words. (This, incidentally, applies also to novelettes, in which these breaks should occur three or four times in each chapter.) Every author and manuscript-typist should know a few printers' signs. The most important of these are the underline, which means that the underlined words should be italicized in the published version for emphasis; the transposition, which is used wehn two letters are reversed in their order; and the hiatine, which is used to join sep arated letters. At the top of the first page of every manuscript, put your name and address, and the approximate number of words in your story, to the nearest 100. If your story is a novelette, add a page for the title at the beginning, on which you duplicate this information, and a blank sheet at the end. These are for the protection of the manuscript. Number the pages of your manuscript at the top. It is not necessary to put your name or the name of the story on every page. Indent your paragraphs by at least three spaces. Ten is a better figure, but it is not necessary to go above ten. Use 8 1-2 X 11 (standard letter-size; the size of this magazine) paper. Do not try to squeeze too many words on a page. Leave at least an inch margin on the left side, half an inch on the right. you can get about thirty lines of the double-spaced typing on a page; don't try to exceed that. Do not use arbitrary symbols unless you know they are standard among printers and editors. For instance, when you want to indicate a pause do not do it thus............ See how it is done in the magazine itself (generally . . . .) and copy that. That is a maxim: when in doubt, look it up in the magazine. Do not dress up your manuscripts with big initial letters, asterisks, etc. If you want to indicate a footnote, do so by inserting an asterisk at the proper point in the text, then typing out the footnote on a separate sheet of paper, marked "footnote for page ?", and insert this sheet of paper in the manuscript just after the page to which it refers. Never overtype. And never erase, unless your eraser, paper, and typing are such at no smudge or faint superimpression will result. If you put in a wrong word xxxxx cross it out and write it again. If you ^leave a word out, make a mark to indicate where it should go, and write it in above. If you run words/together, draw a line between them. Editors hate work. That is an axiom. Bad typing means more work for the editor. Draw your conclusion. THE END
Saving...
prev
next
SPACEWAYS 17 ON TYPING MANUSCRIPTS 7 by FREDERIK POHL (Editor's Note: This article was originally published by Robert W. Lowndes, through whose permission it is reprinted. It was mentioned in "Learn To Type", last issue; since comparatively few fans have seen it, it is published here.) The most important rule of typing manuscripts is to be accurate, neat, and thoughtful. Thoughtfulness implies neatness and accuracy--for neatness makes it possible for an editor to read your work without too much eyestrain; accuracy simplifies getting it ready for the printer--but it means more. For instance, editors frequently have to interlineate changes in the wording of stories, so double-spacing is vital. There is any amount of information which must be put at the end of a story--leave plenty of room there. Similarly between chapters. If your manuscript runs over 7,000 words, it is a novelette to most publishers, and should be divided into chapters. A chapter should run from 1200 to 2500 words, and each chapter should be given a title, preferably of not more than four or five words. If your manuscript is less than 7,000 words, it is a short story. A short story should not be divided into chapters, but it should be broken up at strategic points in the action by extra spacing and capital letters for the first two or three words of the next paragraph. These breaks should occur at every 600 to 1000 words. (This, incidentally, applies also to novelettes, in which these breaks should occur three or four times in each chapter.) Every author and manuscript-typist should know a few printers' signs. The most important of these are the underline, which means that the underlined words should be italicized in the published version for emphasis; the transposition, which is used wehn two letters are reversed in their order; and the hiatine, which is used to join sep arated letters. At the top of the first page of every manuscript, put your name and address, and the approximate number of words in your story, to the nearest 100. If your story is a novelette, add a page for the title at the beginning, on which you duplicate this information, and a blank sheet at the end. These are for the protection of the manuscript. Number the pages of your manuscript at the top. It is not necessary to put your name or the name of the story on every page. Indent your paragraphs by at least three spaces. Ten is a better figure, but it is not necessary to go above ten. Use 8 1-2 X 11 (standard letter-size; the size of this magazine) paper. Do not try to squeeze too many words on a page. Leave at least an inch margin on the left side, half an inch on the right. you can get about thirty lines of the double-spaced typing on a page; don't try to exceed that. Do not use arbitrary symbols unless you know they are standard among printers and editors. For instance, when you want to indicate a pause do not do it thus............ See how it is done in the magazine itself (generally . . . .) and copy that. That is a maxim: when in doubt, look it up in the magazine. Do not dress up your manuscripts with big initial letters, asterisks, etc. If you want to indicate a footnote, do so by inserting an asterisk at the proper point in the text, then typing out the footnote on a separate sheet of paper, marked "footnote for page ?", and insert this sheet of paper in the manuscript just after the page to which it refers. Never overtype. And never erase, unless your eraser, paper, and typing are such at no smudge or faint superimpression will result. If you put in a wrong word xxxxx cross it out and write it again. If you ^leave a word out, make a mark to indicate where it should go, and write it in above. If you run words/together, draw a line between them. Editors hate work. That is an axiom. Bad typing means more work for the editor. Draw your conclusion. THE END
Hevelin Fanzines
sidebar
