Brush Up Your Book Proposal!

Another quick video chat… thanks to everyone in the Huddle who helped shape it!

 

[PCFrontier]

Hi Pete, Thanks for putting this video chat online. From now on I will increase the gap size before each new paragraph.

I discovered Litopia at the end of last year, so I will check backwards for all your and others good advice.

I do not mind reading short articles online, but if something is several pages or more, I prefer to read it bit by bit or even print the article. For me, you cannot beat a printed page of fiction or non-fiction.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Arial? Poo. Heathens. I use Garamond and Verdana, I think, is quite easy on the eye.

 

[Claire G]

Thanks @AgentPete This is really useful! I can never make the Huddles unfortunately

 

[AgentPete]

Arial? Poo. Heathens. I use Garamond and Verdana, I think, is quite easy on the eye.

It’s such a weird / surreal world we find ourselves in at the moment… I’m fully expecting the Powers That Be to mandate Comic Sans for everything!

 

[Rachael Burnett]

Great talk @AgentPete. It reminded me of one of my MA Eng Lit module at BSU called Materialities. It discussed typography whose history is so fascinating. For anyone whose interested in the subject, Why Fonts Matters by Sarah Hyndman, Just My Type by Simon Garfield and Thinking With Type by Ellen Lupton are worth a read. Also, the documentary Helvetica is a fascinating watch Helvetica (2007) | WatchDocumentaries.com

 

[AgentPete]

Great talk @AgentPete. It reminded me of one of my MA Eng Lit module at BSU called Materialities. It discussed typography whose history is so fascinating. For anyone whose interested in the subject, Why Fonts Matters by Sarah Hyndman and Thinking With Type by Ellen Lupton are worth a read. Also, the documentary Helvetica is a fascinating watch Helvetica (2007) | WatchDocumentaries.com

I saw that documentary and really liked it!

Helvetica seems a much more sophisticated sans serif to me than boring old Arial, particularly in its range of weights and variants. But still use with caution, it can look quite dated (remember how it was used for almost everything in the ‘70s).

I do think that writers need to develop some awareness of font use / page design, so well done whoever put your Eng Lit course together!

Irritatingly, I forgot to discuss justification in the video. I advise against it, which surprises many writers, because printed books are of course almost always justified. But – publishers employ designers, usually pretty good ones, who pay great attention to all aspects of page design, and can make justification work pretty well. I’m not convinced that Word can equal those subtleties, and the risk in producing a manuscript page consisting of perfectly straight left and right margins is that it will simply look dull. Straight lines often do

There’re another reason, too, for leaving your ms “ragged”, i.e. ranged left, and that it to leave some psychological room for the publisher to invest themselves in… an unjustified ms is “raw” state… this is subtle but I think quite important...

 

[E G Logan]

I found a publisher yesterday that is asking for submissions as follows:

--Please note we only accept submissions in a Word processing document (no PDFs).
--We prefer just single-spaced work with the manuscript.
--Garamond and Palatino are our favourite fonts.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

It’s such a weird / surreal world we find ourselves in at the moment… I’m fully expecting the Powers That Be to mandate Comic Sans for everything!

Arial Narrow is somewhat less brutal. But these are weird and brutal times. The earth herself is unsettled, little wonder perhaps that we are too. And Comic thingie is likewise ....all rounded and friendly and cuddly, all rounded. But still yelling in yer face.

"Why do designers hate Comic Sans?

Business

Unlike most professional fonts, however, Comic Sans letterforms often force designers to adapt the print or online space to the font. Designers think the designer of the Comic Sans letterforms got lazy and should have paid more attention and added more value."

Education

"Comic Sans use should not be justified by claims of increased readability or benefits to dyslexic students or indeed for handwriting, but if you just like it, and your pupils like it, there is no good reason you should not use it."