manuscript "two spaces or one space after a period?"

thegirlwhowrites said:

Do agents/editors prefer one or two spaces after a period? I think I prefer two...

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I would have agreed with you last week, but after #queryday on Twitter, I'm not so sure.

Apparently, the 2 space method makes the text look weird on Kindles and other readers.

Colleen Lindsay (and others) said they hate the 2 spaces and much prefer the 1.

It does matter. Consult the style guide for the agent or publisher you are contacting. Many are fanatical about this because they have software set to receive it as per their dictates.

In Australia the government style guide - accepted on most points by most publishers - states only one space. So I'd suggest if the organisation you are sendiong the work to doesn't state what they want, use the style guide most prevelent for our country.

... when I first started writing I always used 2 spaces. After awhile, though, I switched to 1 and quickly got used to it. You will too, I'm sure

thegirlwhowrites said:

Do agents/editors prefer one or two spaces after a period? I think I prefer two...

Click to expand...

Well, as you can see, there are disparate views on this.

I think you want to try to go with whatever the entity to whom you're submitting specifies in their style or submission guide. Lacking that, my tendency would be to go with the traditional two spaces because in nearly all situations it's easier to read, which is where the convention came from in the first place. This is less true when using kerned fonts as opposed to monospaced ones, but it still reads better even in that situation.

I realize that it does no good to talk about submission guides and such when you are in the midst of a work and have no idea to whom it'll ever be submitted. But in that case, I'd go with two spaces because the odds of ever encountering a publisher or publication that absolutely demands one blank space are probably long and if one happens to specify two, then you've got the base covered. It's not a point that most submission guides cover.

Start with two...

I tend to put two spaces after periods, question marks, etc. because that's how I've always done it. And on the few occasions an editor wants there to be only one, I can quickly search for the double spaces in Word and replace them with singles.

Going the other way (i.e. from one to two spaces) is nowhere near as easy.

Bill.

Humourwriter said:

I tend to put two spaces after periods, question marks, etc. because that's how I've always done it. And on the few occasions an editor wants there to be only one, I can quickly search for the double spaces in Word and replace them with singles.

Going the other way (i.e. from one to two spaces) is nowhere near as easy.

Bill.

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That's what I do, too. The only time I fret it is when the submission guidelines say to make it one space after sentences.

I'm old enough to have been taught to double-space after a full stop (period), but my understanding is that the modern preference is strongly in favour of single-spacing. At least, single-spacing is almost never inappropriate, whereas double-spacing may be... so I single-space now.

As long as you're consistent, no one really cares. They'll end up fixing it in typesetting anyway. But in the electronic/computer age, it seems the "two period" thing is passe, a leftover from the typewriter era. Websites (HTML), for example, don't even recognize the extra space.

My preference is one space. I have never heard any editor ask for something else. And I have never read any submission guidelines that specify either.

Of course, if the guidelines do specify, stick with them.

Double-spaces are a obsolete leftover from the typewriter age. Since I doubt you're using a typewriter, you no longer need a doublespace to make the manuscript more readable.

One.

JJ

Two.

I WIN.

-Derek