Lars Eighner's Homepage Writers' Workshop FAQ

FAQ Contents

This is the FAQ.

The FAQ is in a tree structure. Descend the tree by selecting a topic below.

Contents

• Questions about manuscript mechanics
• Questions about getting published
• Questions about paying to be published
• Questions about figures of speech
• Questions about writing technique

Question Tree

• Q. How do I make a manuscript?
• Q. So, what does a manuscript look like?
  • First page of a short story
  • Second page of a short story
  • Format for title page of a novel
  • Format for front matter of a novel
  • First page of a chapter
  • A page in a novel
  • A page in a screenplay or teleplay
  • A page in a live or live-on-tape TV script
• Q. Is it wise to put my social security number on my manuscript?
• Q. What parts of the book does the author provide?
• Q. I've read some old books for writers which say I should use Courier for submissions. Is this still valid? It looks like books and magazines use Times Roman. What font do I use?
  • Q. Why is Courier 10 the same as Courier 12 point and Courier 12 the same as Courier 10 point?
  • Q. I don't have a word processor. What should I use?
  • Q. I have desktop publishing software or a word processor with lots of desktop publishing features. Won't the editor be more likely to buy my stuff if the work of setting it up has already been done?
  • Q. Why do you say Courier when leventy-dozen psychological studies show other fonts are more appealing?
  • Q. My friend is a writer and makes oodles of money at it and always uses Times Roman. So what do you know?
  • Q. I know an editor who likes Barnum and Bailey. Why shouldn't I use it?
• Q. Italics look horrible in Courier. How should I enter Italics?
  • Q. Hmmm, I hadn't thought about this. As my word processor can do italics, I was using "real" italics. I'll make the changes...next question, How does one show underlining? Do I assume double underline? I'm thinking of a title. I was taught that book titles, for example, are underlined in print.
• Q. Should I hit the space bar once or twice at the end of a sentence?
• Q. I need help in deciding the length of paragraphs -- especially when they seem to me to be too long. Also, when should I make a chapter break? What are the basic rules to follow?
• Q. How long should my manuscript be?
• Q. What is a slug line?
• Q. How do I handle abbreviations?
• Q. What do I need to know about electronic word processing?
  • Q. What is ASCII?
  • Q. I'm writing a book with many color illustrations and photographs, but the pictures make even two- or three-page sections enormous files that take a very long time to load, save, and back up. It takes a long time even to move the cursor around on a page. How should I handle photographs?
  • Q. Should I get an ink-jet or a laser printer?
• Q. How do I get an agent?
  • Q. But I can't get published without an agent. Isn't this a catch 22?
  • Q. Could I find a friend, and have him or her send my manuscript to a publisher that does not accept unagented manuscripts? Will they read it simply because it wasn't sent to them by the author?
  • Q. I knew there was a market for gay porn, but I did not want to write that kind of thing. Now there seems to be a market for a better class of gay literature. I understand a friend of yours in Austin sold Travels with Lizbeth to Fawcett for you. So how about an introduction to your agent?
• Q. What about self-publishing?
  • Q. What is the difference between vanity publishing and self-publishing?
  • Q. What is subsidy publishing?
  • Q. What are my options if my subject is of limited appeal?
• Q. How much should they pay me?
  • Q. Is it better to only take royalties, or to take an advance?
  • Q. How much does a writer's first novel bring?
  • Q. How long does it take to get paid?
  • Q. I thought $300 was a good payment for reprinting my short story in an anthology. But I heard of someone getting $500 for the right to use his story in a college entrance examination. What should I get for reprint rights?
  • Q. I asked an agent am I considering about royalties. He said royalties would be 10%. How can he say this when royalties can be anywhere from 7% to 15%? Is this agent dishonest? What should royalties be?
  • Q. I've been asked to write a book about a person's life. How do I get paid what is going rate? How do we get it published? Per page in advance won't work for this person but she has a fascinating story. Any ideas for a contract, rate of pay etc.?
• Q. Is it worth learning all those rhetorical figures and all?
  • Q. What is the difference between zeugma and syllepsis?
  • Q. Is parallelism a figure of speech?
  • Q. An oxymoron is a joke, right?
• Q. How can I improve my writing?
  • Q. How can I learn to recognize mistakes?
  • Q. All right, what are the weak words or expressions to look for?
  • Q. But My novel is written in the first person, and my character is not supposed to be especially well educated or formal. I intend for my character to be casual and informal. The tone I want will be spoiled if I revise my character's loose expressions, won't it?
  • Q. How can I identify weak verbs?
  • Bad old adverbs
  • Verbs of "take" and "make" ("employed," "gave," and so forth)
  • Auxiliary verbs
  • Problem verbs

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