At the moment, I'm in the process of formatting it in Microsoft Word for printing. If any of you have used that program, you know how dang stubborn it can be. I'd turn the formatting off, except Its benefits far outweigh its frustrating ticks. But once I get it there and leave it alone, I shouldn't have to touch it again.
Wrong. When all those marked up copies come back, I'll have to go in and tinker with it, which will surely shift everything.
That's for the hard copies. Some submission rules for online submissions are quite specific about formatting or in some cases, no formatting, no tabs, and no space bar spacing for paragraph beginnings, yet they want the beginning of the paragraphs indented.
So I'm asking you, what have some of you done to achieve some of the strict submission rules? Let me know what your experiences are. I want to learn from your mistakes. Ain't I sweet.
First, I put my work on a disc and take it to Fedex or somewhere as they can print it off so much cheaper!
ReplyDeleteLast year I discovered the paintbrush tool, which has changed my formatting life! Highlight the format you like, click the paintbrush, highlight the part you want to format.
ReplyDeleteYou probably know this already, but I didn't.
Don't even get me started on Microsoft Word. When it works, it's wonderful. But if I ever get a "tic" in it, it's horrid.
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
Regarding formatting, my friend who self publishes her wonderful work got many tips from the self publisher, LULU. She learned how to format and so many things from that site. So good luck if you do go there.
ReplyDeleteI have not done much formatting. I did managed to save novel in a pdf file and was so proud of myself. Now I've forgotten how. Not forgotten. The knowledge is wandering around somewhere in the cobwebs of my brain.
Love your title and the cover. Blessings, Barb
Oh I feel so much rage when using Word. So...much...rage. No wonder my keyboard's broken.
ReplyDeleteI am having the same issues. I use OpenOffice, I set it all up, then find it is back to useless the next time. Grrr.
ReplyDeleteGood luck and stay calm.
I don't know anyone who likes to format. It's a royal pain. Me, I leave it alone until it's ready to go out, and then do the classic 12-point courier font with one-inch margins all the way around. I actually love the look of it, but at about 250 words per page, I wind up burning through A LOT of paper that way.
ReplyDelete