Computer to book formatting

[Addison]

I don't know if this is the right forum, but I did come across a question after adding up the pages in my story. (I have it saved in chapters)

When a publisher, or any publishing software, takes your manuscript and turns it in to a book, how does the format change? The size of the margins, font and pages. They'd have to make it readable.

I'm following manuscript format: 1 inch margins, double spaced lines, size 12 Times New Roman font. Header aligned right with Last Name/Title/Page#, First page of each chapter has the chapter one third down the page.

I double checked and did the math again, my page count is..(gulp) 794.
I have some more editing, the last stage is reading it aloud.

Does anyone know how the publishers convert the sizes to make it adequate size? And how to maybe round it down?

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

There's no set way. Publishers all have their own set styles. But expect all of those things to change. Double spacing and TNR font will both go. That'll probably knock two to three hundred pages off your ms to begin with. And the final font size won't be twelve either. I think eight or nine is standard.

However to give you some comparison I have one book out that runs 750 pages printed. It's 250k words. That's at single spaced, twelve point TNR, block paragraphed on a six by nine inch paperback. I could have reduced the number of pages by at least a hundred if I'd wanted to - I just value being able to clearly read the text over page numbers. So instead of worrying about the number of pages in your ms consider the word count. If it's under three hundred k it'll easily fit in a paperback.

But be aware that many publishers will want certain word lengths, maximums and minimums for books in certain genres. You might want to check with their guidelines.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[callmeclemens]

Anyone have experience self publishing on a site like amazon.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

I have nineteen books out on kindle - does that count?

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Addison]

Pardon my language...but Holy Crap! Nineteen?! Dang! I'll look you up.

So when you converted your story from Word or whichever software to Kindle, how did your story length change?