250 white space method gone AWRY!

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Exir

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I did everything that is required - 1 inch margin all around, Courier New, 12 pt, double space - and I only get 22 lines per page, when I'm supposed to get 25. What's going on?
 

Exir

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Do you have widows/orphans and all of those other special features that decide where line breaks should be turned off?

I have widows/orphans off... what are those "other" special features?
 

HeronW

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A4 requires longer bottom margins than letter size to fit the standard printer quirks.
In MS Word go to Format: Paragraph: 3rd down--Spacing Before or After should be 0 then Pp is double space.
I get 25 lines Courier, 12 pt, 1" margins.

R-click on the MS toolbar & choose 'Standard' which will add a toolbar across the page. Look at the backward filled in P and hit it, then look at your page and see if there's any wierd symbols. You should only have dots as space fillers between words and a backwards P showing the end of a paragraph.
 
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Phaeal

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Why does it matter that you get 25 lines per page?
 

Maryn

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FWIW, on 8.5 x 11 or A4, you want 1.25" margins for the "magic" 60 characters per line in non-proportional font Courier 12 point. Then you want to set your top and bottom margins at one inch or less, so that even with your page header (which doesn't count as a line), you're still getting 25 lines per page.

Why? So publishers can use the six-character "word" (the same one keyboard/typing instructors use to determine your words per minute) and 250 words per page to estimate the number of pages of printed novel your book would run.

There's a reason we're urged to make our manuscripts look like we typed 'em up in 1948.

Maryn, hoping this helps
 

dpaterso

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Not sure if it helps but here are my MS Word default margins - which with A4 paper selected and a 1-line title/page # header (and no footer) gives me 26 lines of double spaced text per page.

Word_defaults.jpg


-Derek
 

DeleyanLee

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Stew and William spoke up before I did--that's what I do too. Combined with Widows & Orphans being off, it works like a charm.
 

Exir

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In Word done in Courier, go to paragraph format. Under line spacing, chose "exactly," and set it at 25. Done

Still not working - I get 27 lines per page... Is there something wrong with my software or what? Should I try open-office instead?
 

Julie Worth

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This question comes up frequently. Setting the spacing at "exactly" 25 doesn't tell Word to use 25 lines per page. This is the line spacing in points, not the number of lines per page. Sometimes it works out that way, that you get 25 with a combination of font, margins and paper size, but it's just a coincidence. If you need more lines, type in a smaller number--24, or 23.5, whatever it takes. Or go higher if you need fewer lines.

And, for this 250/page method, the side margins should be one 1", not 1.25. The latter gives you sixty characters in a line maximum, but the former gives you sixty on average.

In any case, I think the large majority of agents go by computer count nowadays, so as long as your MS looks more or less correct, they're not going to count the lines or get out a measuring stick.
 
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