I need help.. I'm going to write a book...?

Question

Ok so I plan on the book being 200-300 pages long. And im writing it on Miscroft Word 2007. What font should I use and does a full page equal 1 page or 2 pages in a book? Just tell me everything you can about book writing! Thank you!

Answer 1

Use Courier New, 12-pt, with a fixed Exactly 24-pt per line, first line indent by 1/2". 1" margins on the left and right, 2" margin at top, 1.5" margin at bottom. Header at 1".



You can use Times New Roman if you want, but I prefer Courier New; it is clearer and more like original typewriter type face, which is "traditional".



TITLE (in caps) / Your Name / Page #



Don't worry about a title page. That's easy enough to do later.



Don't worry about how many pages it will be in the final version of the book. That is the publisher's problem. They will choose a font and line spacing to make your book fit their size needs.



The number of Word formatted pages for your book is as long as it takes to tell a good story!



If you really want a good, solid estimate for how many Word pages it will take to create the book you are going for, and feel comfortable about it, just take a book that's formatted the way you hope yours will be, and TRANSCRIBE the first couple of pages. (Type them into your Word formatted template.) That will give you an EXACT estimate of how many Word pages you will need to write.



Technically, you could write the entire book USING a font that's similar to a published book, then AFTERWARDS switch the fonts to Courier and double-line spacing, if you want to "feel" what the book "might" look like published. (That's the joy of Word, you can do that and globally change the entire formatting!) Again, transcribe a few pages from a published book and then play with the fonts, justification, Exact line spacing, and margins until you get it close enough. And afterwards, you can undo all of that and make it have the "correct" format for submission. Whatever works.



Finish the book first. If you're writing it in Word, you can always worry about formatting afterwards.

Answer 2

Book pages have nothing to do with manuscript pages. Publishers use all kinds of formats.



What you need to know is *word count.*



Most commercial novels are between 60,000-100,000 words long.



http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26126



has all you need to know about standard submission formatting.



1-inch margins, double-spaced a 12 font in TNRoman is the format. Write the book any old way you like, but send it in the right format.



Go to the 808 section of your library; it has all the books on writing and publishing.



Read it.



Then read the rest of the library.



All good writers are GREAT readers. You need to read at least 500 books, just for starters. Read everything you can get your hands on.



Get Strunk and White's ELEMENTS OF STYLE. All writers have and use that book.



And write every day.



Here is something that helped me become a writer. Go to the website, print out a copy, and tape it over your desk. Read it every day. I still do!



http://www.joebobbriggs.com/jbamerica/1991/jba910510.html



Once more: ALL GOOD WRITERS ARE GREAT READERS.



If you REALLY want to be a writer you have to READ.

Answer 3

I like the fonts Garamond and Bookman Oldstyle.

It's so cool you're writing a book! I would love to, but I can't think of a good idea.

Good luck with your book!

Answer 4

the main thing is to write about something you know and that you feel comfortable with. For example if your a teacher you shouldn't really write a story about a group of gang members in wisconsin unless you personally know the situation. Writing about something you can personally connect to is also a good tip because then you can keep writing about the story daily and its not a burden to do so.

Answer 5

Page doesn't matter, its word count. 80,000-100,000 is average for most novel books, if you reach 100k most likely your book will be three hundred pages, so really just focus on making it good cause im writing to and its hard for me to make it really long so i just write it the best i can and its looking good, so with that good luck-Nick

Answer 6

I am a writer so if you have ANY questions just email me, im happy to help.



Btw whats your book about? I could give you really grand ideas(:



Just hit me up.