Greetings...

kevacho said:

Hey, what's the overall opinion about Font for novel presentations- Courier or Times New Roman- especially, regarding fiction novels? Does Font choice matter so much as it does in screenplays?

I would appreciate any and all help. Sending out a novel soon, so... color me excited.

Kevin
www.kevacho.com

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Courier, for the same reason it's used in screenplays.

But be careful using such phrases as "fiction novels." All novels are fiction.

Courier, unless otherwise stated in submission guidelines.

It isn't as important as it is for screenplays, but still pretty important, is the general feeling.

Use a fixed-width font. That's Courier. Why? See below:

I used to use New Times Roman 12 pt all the time. It was easy to read on my computer and it looked nice. But then, on the advice of many here, I started using Courier 12 pt and I found it looks MUCH better on paper when you print it out. Easier to read. So I use it exclusively now for submissions unless stated otherwise in the guidelines.

I think better in Times New Roman

I started submitting samples of my manuscript, using Times New Roman, to agents at Writing conferences. None of them ever commented on the font. Nor did my agent, when I finally landed one, nor my editor at HarperCollins.

When I finally got around to asking them, they said either was fine, and I've submitted every revision using TNR. I think it's more important to have the correct margins, etc., than to worry about the font, unless you're submitting cold to publishing houses, and then you should follow their guidelines. Real agents don't seem to care that much.

No agent, no editor, is going to say, "This is a really great work, but it's printed in TNR, so I'm rejecting it." Even if it violates their guidelines, if the editor has it in her hand, she's going to look at the first paragraph before she tosses it. So if you're hook works...

For me, it's important to see the words on the page the way the reader will eventually see them, i.e., real italics, real underlines, and more densely packed text. When I tried to do that with Courrier, it just didn't work for me, but you might want to try it yourself, and see if you think better in a different font. After all, you can always change it before you submit.

Several members of my critique group submit in Courrier, but others use TNR, and we all get along, mostly, except for the constant arguments. (We've given up on the font argument).

I suggest you worry more about your hook, and your first five pages, than the font you using.

eskkar said:

I think it's more important to have the correct margins, etc., than to worry about the font, Real agents don't seem to care that much.

No agent, no editor, is going to say, "This is a really great work, but it's printed in TNR, so I'm rejecting it."
For me, it's important to see the words on the page the way the reader will eventually see them, i.e., real italics, real underlines, and more densely packed text.
(We've given up on the font argument).

I suggest you worry more about your hook, and your first five pages, than the font you using.

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Thank you for a sane and reasonable view of this perennial topic. I think we should give up on the font argument, too.

I refuse to use a font that makes my manuscript look like it was prepared on a typewriter. I have a perfectly good word count, thanks to the computer, and if that's not good enough for some printer, he can count the blankety-blank words himself. Authors have to worry about enough already. Someone else can worry about the number of pages.

I'd say you're pretty safe with either of those fonts. I think the problem is only when you start to go outside them. I'd say just ignore those faux cursive fonts =) Then it's possible someone will say they're not looking at it.

There was a while when I felt Arial was really starting to catch on. It doesn't have serifs and looks really modern. But alas, the revolution was squashed...

Kevin, although I don't like the looks of Courier – IBM must have made it up for Selectric typewriters while their esthetics adviser was out sick – it's standard for novel manuscripts. Times Roman and its offspring give editors a hard time. Its narrow letters make handwritten changes a pain.

If you haven't checked the thread "Learn Writing with Uncle Jim," I recommend it. It talks about fonts and everything else.