Chapter II: Act III: , Scene i

[Sidenote: _Paper and Margins_]

Manuscripts should be submitted either in typewriting or in handwriting that is perfectly legible. Black ink should be used. The paper should be white, of medium weight, and uniform in size. The number of words written on each page should be approximately the same. Small sheets are to be preferred, 8 ✕ 10 being the best size. There should be half an inch of space between the lines, whether the manuscript be written by hand or on a typewriter, and the writing should be on one side of the sheet only. Liberal margins should be left both at the top and at the left-hand side. Typewritten manuscripts are always best. Probably three-fourths of the manuscripts now submitted to publishers are typewritten.

[Sidenote: _Page Numbers_]

The pages should be numbered consecutively to the end of the book, not separately by chapters. Inserted pages, following for example page 25, should be numbered as 25a, 25b, 25c, etc. Pages that have been taken out should likewise be accounted for. If pages 25, 26, 27, and 28 have been eliminated, sheet 24 should be numbered “24-28.” Additions at special places on the original pages, intended as insertions, should be written on separate sheets, placed with the pages in which they are to be inserted, and the place of insertion indicated thus: “Here insert A,” or “Here insert B,” the new pages being marked “A matter,” or “B matter.”

[Sidenote: _Mucilage and Clips_]

When one piece of a page is to be joined to another, pins should not be used, but mucilage. Pieces of paper pinned together are in danger of being separated, and thus may easily be lost or may get hopelessly disarranged.

The manuscript should never have the sheets fastened to one another at the top or side, except by means of clips, which are easily removable. If they are sewn together, or fastened with eyelets, the printers in separating the sheets will mutilate them and often injure them seriously. This point will be understood by those who know that each printer puts into type only a part of the manuscript, and sometimes only a few pages.

[Sidenote: _Paragraphs_]

Paragraphs should be carefully indicated by indenting the first line about one-half inch, or by a ¶ mark; otherwise it will be difficult for the printers to determine satisfactorily the intentions of the author in regard to them. Should the printer’s arrangement, as shown when the proofs arrive, be found unsatisfactory, an alteration must be charged as the author’s. Paragraphs should occur frequently. Ordinarily not more than 200, or at most 300, words should appear in one paragraph.

[Sidenote: _Punctuation_]

Punctuation marks should also be carefully made; failures to indicate them systematically are constant sources of error.

[Sidenote: _Chapters_]

A book containing 80,000 words should have at least ten chapters. Fifteen would seldom be too many. The number might even be twenty. In a history or biography, or in any work of a serious kind, these subdivisions help materially to open up the text, showing the reader on a hasty examination something of the contents.

[Sidenote: _Chapter Titles_]

Each chapter should be provided with a title of its own. This applies to fiction as well as to other books. When the volume is printed, the chapter titles will appear reproduced at the top of each right-hand page, with the title of the book at the top of each left-hand page. This will materially assist the reader in examining the book. Historical and biographical works should have date-lines accompanying each chapter title.

[Sidenote: _Quotations_]

Quotation marks should always be carefully indicated, showing where the quoted passage begins and where it ends.

[Sidenote: _Foot-notes_]

Foot-notes should be clearly designated. A systematic method should be employed to distinguish them from the text. Some authors separate text and notes by heavy lines across the page, which is a good method. The word “foot-note” should be written on this matter, and it should be supplied with an asterisk (*), a corresponding asterisk (*) appearing in the text, or with a figure 1. In a new book foot-notes should be used sparingly. Whenever possible the information should be incorporated in the text. When the information consists of citations or references, however, it often can not go anywhere else than in foot-notes.

[Sidenote: _Foreign Words, etc._]

The utmost care should be taken to write proper names, figures, foreign words and phrases plainly and in full. Abbreviations and signs, such as MS., etc., Fig., and the like, should not be used in a purely literary work, but are admissible in text-books, cyclopedias, and other condensed and utilitarian writings.

[Sidenote: _Title-pages, Prefaces, etc._]

Until reminded of delay authors sometimes fail to supply essential portions of their manuscripts, such as title-pages, prefaces, tables of contents, lists of illustrations, and indexes when necessary. These items are important parts of a book, and all, except the index, should be delivered with the manuscript.

[Sidenote: _Index_]

The index of a book should not be furnished on cards or slips, but on sheets of the same size as the paper used for the manuscript of the text. The cards, or slips, used in making the index can, however, be pasted on sheets, and delivered in that form. Technical books should be indexed as fully as possible, and cross-references should be made. For example, in a medical book “abscess of the cornea” should appear both under “Abscess, of the cornea” and under “Corneal abscess.”

The index is usually made from the page-proofs. It is desirable to have the manuscript of the index ready for the printers at the earliest moment, so that the printing may not be delayed. But in case serious corrections have been made on the page-proofs, resulting in any change in the page numbers, the index should, without fail, be verified later from the foundry-proofs which show the pages as they will appear when printed.

[Sidenote: _Kinds of Type_]

Whenever the plan of a book calls for two kinds of type, a larger kind for the main text, and a smaller for quoted passages (or for other matter less important than the main text), the manuscript should have the two kinds clearly distinguished from one another. This is best done by drawing a vertical line alongside the quoted passages with the words “smaller type” written on the line.

[Sidenote: _Headings_]

Technical books, which require many heads and subheads, should have the character of the heads indicated: main heads, by three lines underneath them; subheads, by a double line, and side-heads (composed of the first words of a paragraph) by a wavy line.

In indicating capital, small capital, and italic words, one line underscored means italics; two lines mean small capitals, and three lines capitals.

[Sidenote: _Summaries_]

In submitting a manuscript to a publishing house, with a view to an opinion as to its availability, an author should send a brief but precise summary of its scope and purposes. This will facilitate an examination of the manuscript by the publishers’ “readers,” and thus hasten the decision for which the author waits.

[Sidenote: _Correct Manuscript_]

Let it be urged that the manuscript be delivered in final and complete form just as the author wishes it printed. To correct manuscript requires merely the stroke of a pen; while to correct type is laborious and expensive. The cost of authors’ corrections in the proofs could be avoided entirely if the original manuscript were made absolutely correct. It should be gone over with great care before it is forwarded to the publishers. Especially should typewriters’ errors as to punctuation and the use of capitals be corrected.

The type-setter works “by the piece”; his wages depend upon the amount of work he can perform, and this amount depends directly upon the legibility and systematic arrangement of the manuscript.

[Sidenote: _By Express_]

Manuscripts should never be rolled or folded, but placed flat, in a box or between boards. They should be sent by express. The charge is usually less than if sent by mail, and the package can be more easily traced in case it is lost in transit.

[Sidenote: _Return of Manuscript_]

After the author has read his galley-proofs, he should in all cases return his manuscript to the printer, so that the proof-reader may be able to refer to it in deciding any question in dispute in the final reading.

III

OF COMPOSITION AND THE PROOFS

“Oh, sir, we quarrel in print, by the book.”
_As You Like It._