March Madness: Chapter Titles

This post applies mainly to YA and Adult. Not middle grade, chapter books, nonfiction, etc.

Confession. I hate chapter titles. I think it comes from when I was younger, reading chapter books, I could predict what was going to happen in the chapter based on the title and picture. Honestly, snotty child that I was, I felt like they were insulting my intelligence. So, to this day, I tend to ignore everything about chapter headings--chapter number, quotes, title, POV shift (part of the reason I have issues reading POV shifts). I've only allowed one of my clients to retain chapter titles, and that's because they're awesome, relevant, and give nothing away about the plot (that I can tell, maybe there's a whole other layer I don't get--I'm okay with that).

Because I feel like being cheeky

Here's another thing about chapter titles. When reading, I get so totally absorbed into a story that I completely forget that I'm even holding a book. So chapter titles, and anything that draws me out of the story, is super annoying.

Of course, there is always a time and a place.

POV shifts, especially first person POV shifts, do need a designation. However, make sure the voice helps the reader shift. If your two characters sound exactly alike, there's a bigger problem going on.

Part 1, part 2, part 3 with titles while chapter titles just have numbers. When this is done well, and the Part titles are clever, relevant, and make me go, o okay I get it, I'll go with it.

If you do have chapter headings, or even just the chapter numbers, do not make them fancy in your ms. There is a chance it'll get lost in translation. Set them either to the left or center, same font as the text, bold or italics if you must.

And that's my very personal opinion on the subject. It is, as many things in this business are, subjective. Some other may have differing opinions to mine, or even no preference at all. If you want to keep your chapter titles, be my guest. I will not discriminate when considering your ms. If I sign you, I will, in all likelihood, make you scrap them.

Happy writing!

February Requests: Format

Agents will request partial or full manuscripts in one of two ways: paste it in the email, or attach it. And it's usually pretty clear how they want it. They'll say paste or attach.

Pasting materials:

1. Hit "reply"
2. Add your note: (agent's name), Thanks for requesting (so many pages) of (title). You'll find the requested material pasted below. I look forward to hearing from you. (closing signature)
3. Press "enter" a few times
4. Go to your manuscript and copy the desired number of pages (you can go over a few to get to the end of a sentence or scene)
5. Go to your email and paste the desired pages
6. Send

Attaching materials:

1. Save the desired number of pages in a .doc document (try not to use .docx as some ereaders have difficulty reading it)
2. Don't use fancy graphics as it detracts attention from your manuscript and can show up funky on some monitors and ereaders
3. Refer to my blog post Formatting for Ereaders if you want your manuscript to look pretty whether on a computer or ereader
4. The file name you save your document under should be the title of your manuscript. Be sure your name and email is on the title page of your manuscript (so I know who it belongs to)
5. In the email thread hit "reply"
6. Add your note, (agent's name, Thank you for requesting (number of pages) of (title). The requested material is attached. I look forward to hearing from you. (closing signature)
7. Attach requested material
8. Send

It may seem pretty self explanatory, but you'd be amazed at how many people don't do this. It's simple. I need nothing else. No explanations of how you came up with the idea, how I shouldn't just the first 50 pages because it picks up after that, how much you worship the ground I walk on, etc.

Remember. Simple is good. It's your ms that needs to speak volumes. Not you.

Happy writing!

Formatting your MS

In today's world of e-readers, getting the format on your manuscript is super important. How important? So important that I'll reject your ms if it isn't formatted properly? No way. I'm not that picky. But it is one of the first things I fix in the revisions stage. But if you get your format fixed before it gets to an agent, she might just forget she's reading a ms on her e-reader because it looks just like a real book! Or it's just one less thing for her to notice.

So, what's the correct format? (I'm using Microsoft Word and I'm reading on a Kindle; please let everyone know if there are different standards for different programs.)

Personally, I prefer Times New Roman 12 pt font, but you can use something equivalent (Arial or Courier)--but don't use Harry Potter font or something equally weird. It's about the words, not how clever you are with ClipArt (please don't add ClipArt).

Make sure you have one inch margins all around (this is a throw back from my English Lit days and I have no idea if the margins actually make a difference).

Next, press Select+A on your keyboard (or go up to the Edit drop down menu and choose Select All), this should highlight your entire document. Right click somewhere and go to Paragraph. Under the Indents and Spacing Tab, go to Indentation. Set Left and Right at 0". Set Special for First Line (this will make your paragraphs automatically indent), By .5". Don't ever use the TAB key; this will not show up on an e-reader.

Not done yet. Now go to the next section, still fixing Paragraph, labeled Spacing. Before and After should be 0pt, and Line Spacing should be Double (unless you've been told to use something else). This will make your paragraphs evenly spaced. Don't take for granted that your entire ms is properly spaced already, there are always mistakes.

For new chapters, you can press Enter a few times or, to get the new chapter on a new page, press Ctrl+Enter. This will put your chapter on a new page and show up nicely on an e-reader (if you press Enter too many times then it might show up on the e-reader as a blank page before we get to the new chapter--profoundly annoying for some reason). Also, don't put your chapter titles in fancy fonts. It doesn't even need to be in a bigger font.

Now your ms should be in the correct format. If you have an e-reader handy, or if you can borrow one from a friend, send the doc to yourself and scroll through the pages.

Viola! You've just eliminated a step from the agent's revising process, made your ms look a lot neater, and it looks like a real book on an e-reader!

Update 4/20/11: Reader @Kris informs us that you can use Find and Replace (Ctrl+f) to delete all your tabs by using ^t in MS Word. Thank you Kris for the information! Hopefully that will cut down on the time it takes to reformat your documents.

Update 4/29/11: For new chapters use Ctrl+Enter. I originally said use shift+enter; that does nothing. Thanks Kris (different Kris than above--I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone, are all Kris's extremely smart?) for pointing this out! Also to @Bonita's question, no, your chapter titles don't need to be centered. I have no preference on this. Do it or not, just don't spend a whole lot of time on it.

Update 3/23/12: Cassandra Marshall has a great checklist for formatting that I stumbled across, you can find it here. Also, if my info becomes obsolete, what with e-readers updating faster than I can type, please do update us masses!

Skim through the comments, several people have been extremely helpful on this topic!

Happy writing!