HOW TO PREPARE A MANUSCRIPT
If you have a real "story" up your sleeve and know how to word it in
passable English, the next thing to learn is the way to prepare a
manuscript in professional form for marketing. In the non-fiction
writer's workshop only two machines are essential to efficiency and
economy. The first of these, and absolutely indispensable, is a
typewriter. The sooner you learn to type your manuscripts, the better
for your future and your pocketbook.
It is folly to submit contributions in handwriting to a busy editor who
has to read through a bushel of manuscripts a day. The more legible the
manuscript, the better are your chances to win a fair reading. I will go
further, and declare that a manuscript which has all the earmarks of
being by a professional is not only more carefully read, but also is
likely to be treated with more consideration when a decision is to be
made upon its value to the publisher in dollars and cents. Put yourself
in the editor's place and you will quickly enough grasp the psychology
of this.
The editor knows that no professional submits manuscripts in
handwriting, that no professional writes upon both sides of the sheet,
and that no professional omits to enclose an addressed stamped envelope
in which to return the manuscript to its author if it proves unavailable
for the magazine's use. Why brand yourself as a novice even before the
manuscript reader has seen your first sentence? Remember you are
competing for editorial attention against a whole bushel of other
manuscripts. The girl who opens the magazine's mail may be tempted to
cast your contribution into the rejection basket on general principles,
if you are foolish enough to get away to such a poor start. What an
ignominious end to your literary adventure is this--and all because you
were careless, or didn't know any better!
The writer who really means business will not neglect in any detail the
psychology of making his manuscript invite a thorough reading. It may be
bad form to accept a dinner invitation in typewriting, but it is
infinitely worse form to fail to typewrite an invitation to editorial
eyes to buy your manuscript. Good form also dictates that the first page
of your contribution should bear in the upper left hand corner of the
sheet your name, upon the first line; the street address, on the second;
the town and state, on the third. In the upper right hand corner should
be set down an estimate of the number of words contained in the
manuscript.
Leave a blank down to the middle of the page. There, in capitals, write
the title of the article; then drop down a few lines and type your pen
name (if you use one) or whatever version of your signature that you
wish to have appear above the article when it comes out in print. Drop
down a few more lines before you begin with the text, and indent about
an inch for the beginning of each paragraph. Here is a model for your
guidance:
Frank H. Jones, about 3000
2416 Front St., words
Oswego, Ohio
CAMPING ON INDIAN CREEK
By
Frank Henry Jones
It took us two minutes by the clock to pack everything we
needed--and more, for the camper-out always takes twice as
much junk as he can use. All that was left to do after that
etc.,
There are sound reasons for all this. The first is that, likely enough,
your title may not altogether suit the editor, and he will require some
of the white space in the upper part of the page for a revised version.
Also, he will need some space upon which to pencil his directions to the
printers about how to set the type.
Double space your lines. If you leave no room between lines, you make it
extremely difficult for the editor to write in any corrections in the
text. Moreover, a solid mass of single-spaced typewriting is much harder
to read than material that is double-spaced.
Use good white paper, of ordinary letter size, eight by eleven inches,
and leave a margin of about an inch on either side of the text and at
both top and bottom. Number each page. Don't write your "copy" with a
ribbon which is too worn to be bright; and, while you are about it,
clean up those letters on the typebars that have a tendency to fill up
with ink and dust. You may have noticed, for example, that "a," "e,"
"o," "s," "m," and "w" are not always clear-cut upon the page.
You are doing all this to make the reading of your contribution as easy
a task as possible from the purely physical side. You are simply using a
little common sense in the process of addressing yourself to the
favorable attention of a force of extremely busy persons who are paid
to "wade through" a formidable stack of mail.
If you have an overpowering distaste for doing your own typewriting, you
may hire a typist to turn your handwritten "copy" into something easier
to read. This procedure, however, may prove to be rather too costly for
a beginner's purse. It is the part of wisdom to learn to operate a
machine yourself. At first the task may seem rather a tough one, but
even after so short a time as a month of practice you are likely to be
surprised at the progress you will make. Before long you will be able to
write much faster upon a machine than with a pencil or a pen.
The danger then lies in a temptation to haste and carelessness. This is
one reason why many fastidious magazine writers always do the first
draft of an article in longhand and turn to the typewriter only when
they are ready to set down the final version. Temperament and habit
should decide the matter. Nearly any one can learn to compose newspaper
"copy" at the keyboard, but not so many of us dare attempt to do
magazine articles at the same high rate of speed. Particularly does this
hold true of the first page of a magazine manuscript. The opening
paragraph of such a manuscript is likely to make a much more exacting
demand upon the writer's skill than the "lead" of a newspaper "story."
All that the newspaper usually demands is that the reporter cram the
gist of his facts into the first few sentences. The magazine insists
that the first paragraph of a manuscript not only catch attention but
also sound the keynote of many words to follow, for the "punch" of the
magazine story is more often near the end of the article than the
beginning.
Though the technique of newspaper and magazine writing may differ on
this matter of the "lead," do not make the mistake of supposing that the
magazine introduction need not be just as chock full of interest as the
opening of a newspaper "story." You are no longer under any compulsion,
when you write for the magazines, to cram the meat of the story into the
first sentence, but one thing you must do--you must rouse the reader to
sit up and listen. You can well afford to spend any amount of effort
upon that opening paragraph. Write your lead a dozen times, a hundred
times, if necessary, until you make it rivet the attention.