The Double-space Conundrum...

Lannie · May 24, 2007

Here's something I find puzzling:

Presumably (at least according to Carbon-Credits Al) we are all in the Last Days of environmental apocalypse. Despite that, from what I can tell most (full) submissions are still on paper, and are required to be double-spaced. In my case, this would mean submitting a manuscript of almost eight hundred pages instead of four hundred: the equivalent of a paper cinder block which I'll have to Fedex across the country.

Why, in this electronic age, should such waste be necesary? Must we deforest the entire planet sending in manuscripts which are mostly rejected anyway? Okay, I get that single-space is a little harder to read -although we manage just fine in book form- but what about one-and-a-half space? How is it that every agent's office isn't floor-to-ceiling paper? (Or maybe it is, in which case think incredible fire trap.)

I can understand that an editor might require paper in order to make notations in the margin, etc. But isn't the agent mostly performing an evaluative function? I mean, I could discern a work of genius (or crap) just as easily from a computer screen as from a few reams of 8.5 x 11 sheets.

I'd really hate to think that my rejected manuscripts were causing the polar bears to drown, y'know?

Jamesaritchie · May 24, 2007

Lannie said:
Here's something I find puzzling:

Presumably (at least according to Carbon-Credits Al) we are all in the Last Days of environmental apocalypse. Despite that, from what I can tell most (full) submissions are still on paper, and are required to be double-spaced. In my case, this would mean submitting a manuscript of almost eight hundred pages instead of four hundred: the equivalent of a paper cinder block which I'll have to Fedex across the country.

Why, in this electronic age, should such waste be necesary? Must we deforest the entire planet sending in manuscripts which are mostly rejected anyway? Okay, I get that single-space is a little harder to read -although we manage just fine in book form- but what about one-and-a-half space? How is it that every agent's office isn't floor-to-ceiling paper? (Or maybe it is, in which case think incredible fire trap.)

I can understand that an editor might require paper in order to make notations in the margin, etc. But isn't the agent mostly performing an evaluative function? I mean, I could discern a work of genius (or crap) just as easily from a computer screen as from a few reams of 8.5 x 11 sheets.

I'd really hate to think that my rejected manuscripts were causing the polar bears to drown, y'know?

Now, really, I'm not sure why agents want to see sample chapters double-spaced, but double-spacing is critical for anything an editor is going to see, which means anything an agent is going to send to an editor. Double spacing isn't about reading, it's about editing.

And why oh why do people think paper is ruining the planet, but computers are someone pollution free and environmentally friendly?

Paper is not causing the planet to be deforested. The trees we get paper from are very fast growing, are a renewable resource, and using them is considerably more planet friendly than is the every-growing electronic age.

The electronic age is built on resources that are not renewable, that are getting increasingly expensive, harder to find, harder to mine, and harder to make. Your computer, to some extent, is polluting the air every time you turn it on.

We should have an increased effort to recycle paper; it's cheap, efficient, and easy to do, but the electronic age itself, all the things you use to write an e-mail, are considerably more harmful to the planet than cutting trees for paper will ever be.

DeadlyAccurate · May 24, 2007

Out of the five fulls I sent, three were electronic. I don't know which, if any, of those agents printed them up, though. I think it's slowly going electronic, but agents and editors love books, so it kinda fits that they'd want to hold paper in their hands. It's easier to edit on paper, and it's easier to read paper than a computer screen.

(And I believe Nathan Bransford said on his blog the other day that he's fine with 1.5, but most agents don't say that.)

Lannie · May 24, 2007

And why oh why do people think paper is ruining the planet, but computers are someone(sic) pollution free and environmentally friendly?

Boy, are you right about that! Of course computers have made our jobs as writers immeasurably easier, but I could go back to a typewriter if I had to. Or even longhand; I've done it before. (Yes, it's a colossal pain; nonetheless, there's something primitively satisfying about a pile of handwritten yellow cap.) Of course, that still leaves the drowning bears...

Dollywagon · May 24, 2007

But James, we use pc's AND paper! (and the ink in the cartridges, that use a lot more than pens) and the ink cartridges themselves ... yadda, yadda, yadda.

We don't switch off our pc's when we print out subs, do we?

Then again, single line spacing is much more difficult to read when you've got a lot of it, and I do see the logic behind it. Although it galls me to hell when I send off a sub to an environmental issues publication that will ONLY accept h/c subs.

As a point of interest, when I was at uni I went against the grain on my dissertation and did it in single line spacing. Point being that the subject was that of risk and that my tutor was always going on about saving the environment. Officially he should have refused to mark my paper.
He marked it, I passed, but it was bloody difficult to read :tongue

mistri · May 25, 2007

Lannie said:
I can understand that an editor might require paper in order to make notations in the margin, etc. But isn't the agent mostly performing an evaluative function? I mean, I could discern a work of genius (or crap) just as easily from a computer screen as from a few reams of 8.5 x 11 sheets.

I'd really hate to think that my rejected manuscripts were causing the polar bears to drown, y'know?

I edit my own work on screen, and could imagine being able to read/reject/request queries and partials on screen too (and yes, I prefer submitting electronically as well).

However, I really don't like trying to read full manuscripts on screen. Years ago I was an editorial assistant and it's much easier on the eyes to read on paper than screen. Even now, if I do crits for friends, I get myself a print out rather than try to read it on the computer.

Elektra · May 25, 2007

If I look at a computer screen too long on any given day, my eyes will be shot for the next two (as in, that day I have to literally go lie down in a darkened room with my eyes closed, and the next I can't look at a computer screen). Print is so much easier on the eyes.

Julie Worth · May 25, 2007

mistri said:
...However, I really don't like trying to read full manuscripts on screen. Years ago I was an editorial assistant and it's much easier on the eyes to read on paper than screen. Even now, if I do crits for friends, I get myself a print out rather than try to read it on the computer.

Do you have Word 2003 or later? If so, try the reading layout view. Much easier on the eyes!

Dollywagon · May 25, 2007

I actually hate reading stuff on screen, I struggle in SYW.

Agents and Eds also like to make written notes or comments sometimes on mss when they are looking at h/c.

Much as I am an environmentalist, I honestly can't see a successful way round it, and try and off-set the damage I cause by using recycled paper/envelopes etc.

Saying that, I think if they will only accept queries, then they could be emailed?

The Double-space Conundrum...

Lannie

Jamesaritchie

DeadlyAccurate

Absolutely Fazed

Lannie

Dollywagon

mistri

Sneezy Member

Elektra

Don't Call Me Sweetheart

Julie Worth

What? I have a title?

Dollywagon