latex or word? (i.e. LaTeX typesetting system or MS Word)

starscape · Jan 15, 2009

I wonder how many here write with latex, because word always messes up my MS, and latex is much easier.

But, do agents or publishers prefer MS formatted by word? for example, latex always justfied and break word with hyphen. so after submitting for some time, I wonder if these could appear amatuerish ......

don't really get this though. the published novels are all typeset with latex right? wouldn't it be good if the MS looked as neat as a published?

thanks

alleycat · Jan 15, 2009

You can have it not do right justification in latex. Other than that, I don't think there would be a problem submitting a ms that was done in latex. I'm not sure though; I don't believe this question has come up before.

As to your second question, publishing has its own foibles of one sort or the other. People are used to one thing and it's probably best to keep everything as close to the written, or unwritten, standard as much as possible. Just "go with the flow".

I'm not sure why Word always messes up your ms. I don't have a problem with it generally (although I prefer Word 2003 rather than 2007).

Mad Queen · Jan 15, 2009

It doesn't matter what you use, as long as it conforms to the rules -- left-justified text, no hyphenation. You can do that with latex as well as with MS Word.

the published novels are all typeset with latex.

No, they aren't. My friend, who worked for a publishing house a long time ago, used Corel Ventura. A lot of computer books are formatted with latex. Novels, I don't think so.

RJK · Jan 15, 2009

If you're turning in sheets of printed paper, as long as you meet the format standards, it surely won't matter. When they ask for an electronic copy you may run into a problem if you're using a file format they don't have, or one that won't convert to the software they're using.

Namatu · Jan 15, 2009

I received a file in LATEX and couldn't use it, possibly because the author had also included tags. Tags are useless to me at the submission point. The copy editor won't work with them, and it makes reading the ms a mess. Come to think of it, he never did resubmit in Word. Darn it!

Michael J. Hoag · Jan 15, 2009

Word?! Latex!?

Latex!?
Word!?
I thought publishers these days required all manuscripts to be submitted using these:

NeuroFizz · Jan 15, 2009

Okay, so I slipped on a pair of bend-over gloves and no matter how hard I press, I can't get them to leave any marks whatsoever on my paper.

Namatu · Jan 15, 2009

That joke was only a matter of time... :ROFL:

dpaterso · Jan 15, 2009

I'd never even heard of LaTeX before reading this thread.

Since the majority of writers use a word processor and not a specialized typesetting system, I don't think this question has any relevance.

As well as native .doc files, MS Word can also export Rich Text Format files. So there's never going to be a problem with providing a publisher with useable electronic copy.

-Derek

Namatu · Jan 15, 2009

More memory is coming back to me. The author submitted in LaTeX, I couldn't open it, resubmitted as .RTF with all the tags still in place. I still can't use it because of the tags. Don't annoy your editor! Use a word processing program.

cool_st_elizabeth · Jan 15, 2009

Hmmm ... I own an extremely small publishing company, which has published two printed books and three ebooks so far. I wrote all of them in plain text, then put them in LaTeX, eventually producing .pdf files. For me, I think it would be too distracting to write directly in LaTeX. I always do my writing in plain text, unless I'm intending to submit the piece to a market which I know needs Word or .rtf files ... I don't even have Word nowadays, I use OpenOffice.org.

starscape · Jan 15, 2009

Thank you for all your feedbacks.

Okay, so I just made latex stop justifying my MS and breaking words.

FYI, I write in plain text, and usually submit PDF if possible. Besides, I got lots of footnotes. Word messes up line-spacing etc. Latex instructions are much easier for me and I can focus on the story. just a \footnote{bla bla} in plain text.

alleycat said:
I'm not sure why Word always messes up your ms. I don't have a problem with it generally (although I prefer Word 2003 rather than 2007).

I don't know why word messes up my MS. when I wrote my thesis in word, typeset in 12pt, and some sentences and paras were still default 10 pt. I was so embarrassed before my professor.

Michael J. Hoag said:
Latex!?
Word!?
I thought publishers these days required all manuscripts to be submitted using these:

Nice joke BTW. And it's true. We write with our blood. ^^

I wish I have Rita Skeeter's quill. XD

terry · Jan 15, 2009

LaTeX is excellent...

LaTeX is wonderful, but it has a steep learning curve for the unintiated. The classic line is that it's easy to do things that should be ridiculously complicated (like including matrices of math formulae with lots of greek letters and recursive subscripts and superscripts) but hard to do things that should be ridiculously easy (like changing the margins.)

For anyone pondering, I'd say go with what you know. If an editor really wants it in word format down the road, it probably wouldn't take more than a few hours to convert it, anyway.

One thing that does take a while in LaTeX is figuring out all of the spacing when you're ready to produce the final printable book--you have to get all the overfull and underfull vboxes and hboxes right. But it's manageable.

(I write in TeX because it's what I'm used to, and because I find emacs keystrokes more familiar than Word keystrokes. Also because it feels like I'm able to focus more on the content if I'm not worrying about the formatting while I'm writing it. Even a page break is a little skip from the story.)

Sophia · Jan 21, 2009

This takes me back.

I used LaTeX for academic papers and for my thesis, as it was what the journal publisher used. There was a template that we had to write the papers to. It wasn't as intuitive as something like MS Word to get started with, but it was good once you got going, it didn't do unexpected formatting things and the final printed result was definitely very polished looking. I never considered that novel publishers used it, too.

As long as you produce a printed version in the format the agent / editor is asking for, it doesn't matter how you do it. It might be a problem if they request an electronic file in a format that they can work with. I have a vague memory of using a LaTeX to Word converter, but I can't remember which one; a Google search suggests several options.

sfdrew · Mar 15, 2012

Namatu said:
More memory is coming back to me. The author submitted in LaTeX, I couldn't open it, resubmitted as .RTF with all the tags still in place. I still can't use it because of the tags. Don't annoy your editor! Use a word processing program.

OR... get a better editor that actually cares about typography and doesn't insist on word processing garbage.

Stacia Kane · Mar 15, 2012

sfdrew said:
OR... get a better editor that actually cares about typography and doesn't insist on word processing garbage.

Where will you find an editor who doesn't require standard ms format, because that's what their systems allow them to read?

Deleted member 42 · Mar 15, 2012

sfdrew said:
OR... get a better editor that actually cares about typography and doesn't insist on word processing garbage.

1. Editors don't care about typography; that's the book designer and typesetter.

2. The standard industrial printers can't handle LaTex, and importing a LaTex file into Quark or InDesign requires re-doing the file.

3. LaTex is adequate for engineering and chemistry formulae; it sucks in terms of setting mixed languages or handling non-Roman fonts because the kerning and tracking isn't handled properly.

4. Why did you wake a moribund thread merely to sneer?

robjvargas · Mar 15, 2012

I always get a laugh out of the "which is better" arguments. Word, Ywriter, Scrivener, LaTex, vi, Emacs, Open/libreoffice.

Here's what's best:

What gets you accepted and published?

Document format. NOT the application you used to create it.

Once you get used to an application, you're going to be able to create what agents and editors/publishers want. That's what matters.

I use MS Word, and I've never had issues with format changes because I hand-built a template and a set of styles for that template. In essence, there isn't another format for Word to use. Maybe that doesn't work for others. Maybe they do just fine with Google Docs all online. Maybe someone wants to spend the $1000 or so to get Adobe InDesign and do all that work for themselves. More power to ya.

We each find the way that works for us. Word processing is just one way to get there. Desktop Publishing is another.

In the end, it's about getting accepted and/or getting our work sold.

BDSEmpire · Apr 1, 2012

Heh, three years later and nothing has changed. Word lumbers on as the default submission format for a lot of places while LaTeX continues to be hot stuff in the academic field thanks to its lovely formula handling.

On the other hand, the proliferation of apps for phones and portable devices to help out writers might slowly be changing things. I wonder if there are greater and greater numbers of people using "write anywhere" technology like google docs or Scrivener apps on their smart devices. I have no numbers for this speculation but like a lot of history we spend loads of money and effort to reinvent the wheel. Instead of writing longhand on a pad of paper - which is portable, crash-resistant and requires no special training - we now have computers sleek enough to carry with us and keyboards that allow reasonably quick text entry so you can get your ideas directly into the machine. Oh sure, you have many of the same drawbacks as sitting at a regular computer but now you can go outdoors and see the world around you as you type your latest work. That has to be a bit of a game changer.

Deleted member 42 · Apr 1, 2012

If you really care about writing, about craft, and not just money-grubbing, you use cuneiform and Jotter's Jolt.

latex or word? (i.e. LaTeX typesetting system or MS Word)

starscape

Busy with a number of networks

alleycat

Still around

Mad Queen

California Mountain Snake

RJK

Sheriff Bullwinkle the Poet says:

Namatu

Lost in mental space.

Michael J. Hoag

"What's-it on the wall."

NeuroFizz

The grad students did it

Namatu

Lost in mental space.

dpaterso

Patent pending

Namatu

Lost in mental space.

cool_st_elizabeth

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starscape

Busy with a number of networks

terry

Sophia

sfdrew

Stacia Kane

Girl Detective

Deleted member 42

robjvargas

BDSEmpire

Kindly Bumpkin

Deleted member 42