Formatting

I know I have touched on this subject to some degree earlier but today I want to talk about formatting a manuscript for submission.

It is very, very important to follow all the stated rules and adhere to all the requirements of whomever you are submitting to. To do otherwise is to give the reader their first reason to reject you, and probably the only reason they will need. So I take formatting seriously.

But I had an issue earlier this week when I was submitting my short story, "The Missing CD" (a title I am not happy with but I needed a title and that is the first thing that came to mind), to the editor of a currently untitled racing anthology set for spring 2010 publication.

The type size (12-point), font (Times New Roman) and spacing (double) were no problem. Even the margins, one-inch all around, wasn't too hard to do. The title page created some early problems but it, too, worked out in the end. Most importantly, I put the title in the right place and indicated the word count. Editors want that.

The problem was with the headers.

I use Mircosoft Office Word 2007, although I can save material and send things in a 2003 version.

On my computer, I can use the headers to put the title/author's name in the upper left corner of a page. And I can put the page number on the upper right. Both appear to be basic requirements.

But my laptop doesn't allow a page number header AND a title/author's name header at the same time. It is intensely frustrating. I know there must be a way to do that but I just haven't been able to discover it. And I know a lot could be hanging in the balance.

On virtually any computer there are tons of options but knowing what all those opions are is an enormous task. And I don't have all the time to find it out.

That is why, if you are like me, it is good to know a techie or two. Sound advice.

Thanks for reading and don't give up on writing.