Im writing with: -Windsor Lt Bt -Size 18 And the question lies here. What size and font do you recommend? One page in Microsoft word with the basic font Times New Roman (size 12) is, for example, in a 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.3 inches format? (The Blue-Covered Eragon Paperback size xD) thanks
On this web site, you'll have the best readability if you stick to the default font. In manuscripts submitted to publishers, you should check with their submission guidelines. In Word, always use named styles for all your changes in font - that way you can simply change the definition of the style to update your font throughout the manuscript. But really, those are typesetting issues, not writing issues. Your writing should be independent of such considerations.
If you mean for submissions to agents/publishers/etc, then you need to use size 12 courier (which is the standard), double spaced.
I guess I'm confused with the question. 12 point Courier or Times New Roman if you are submitting your work, but a book should never be published in those two fonts. Popular ones these days are Georgia, Garamond, Palatino, and a few others for book text. It really depends on what fits with the theme of the book.
As was indicated, each publisher has specific requirements. It is easy enough to type the manuscript in the font that works best for you to read/edit, including margins and spacing. Then, when it comes time for submission, you can easily switch the version being submitted to the required font/format/guidelines. One thing that is sometimes (but not very often) a concern is italics...some publishers prefer underline (more commonly if they desire courier font submissions) as opposed to actual italics in the text. What I did with my novels, as I wrote, was to do both (underline/italic) the words or phrases, and then depending on the requirement, I selected all and if I wanted to get rid of the underlines--for MS Word--just clicked underline all and then undid the underline of all words, leaving the italics. Or the same process for the italics, leaving underlines only. Saves time and a lot of hassle rereading and 'fixing'. Just remember to keep a template version of the final draft before switching one way or the other. Terry
Or create a style named (for example) undertalics, derived from normal or paragraph text, and mark all such text in your doument as being that style. Then all you need to do is edit the font characteristics for that style, and your entire document will update without any changes to the actual content. If you have created your own document template(s) for your writing, you can make all your style changes in the template instead of your documents, and just do trivial updates in the document to propagate the style modifications.
you don't have to be concerned with a book's page size or content, unless you're having it printed on your own or otherwise self-publishing... for submitting to paying publishers, only the approximate total word count will count... and, as noted above, mss to be submitted should be in courier 12 pt, double-spaced... with 1" margins all around... that said, you should always check each agent's/publisher's guidelines before submitting and adapt your ms to whatever format details they specify--if they do--to maximize your chances with them...
Check with the publisher or agent before sending any work to them. Some agents prefer size 14 font or Times New Roman rather than Courier. Same with some publishers. But for rough drafts and such, it's really whatever you want. I stick with a serif font (like Times) that's easier to read, and size 12 keeps me from building up too many pages, but it's really your own opinion.
