Tonight's class at Rio Vista is going to focus on manuscripts and formatting. That means this week's Patreon Post focuses on what even is proper formatting nowadays?
The difference between a manuscript and a book is similar to the difference between a writer and an author. A writer writes. An author publishes. A reasonable definition of a manuscript would be the text of your work before that text has been published in a completed book. Manuscripts become books once they are typeset and bound, or formatted as an ebook.
It is so important to note that all three are completely different formatting styles. We will touch on that later.
Agents, publishers, and even readers are looking for a well formatted manuscript. The writing may be stellar, but if the font, spacing, and style is a disaster, no one will want to look at the words on the page. A messy or poorly formatted manuscript, bad grammar, or poor font choice, are red flags to any reader which screams that this author does not want to put the time into their work as a professional.
When the industry still worked with paper, the manuscript was literally what you printed out. I am so grateful we have stepped into the future. I would much rather send a free PDF document than burn through 600 plus pages of paper every time I wanted to pitch my 180,000 word novel.
Today, the best practice is to make your digital manuscript as easy to access and read as possible. Don’t give anyone an instant reason to toss your file in the recycle bin.
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