Sorry for the delay in responding to comments. I’ve been a busy girl! I’m going to pull some of the questions posed in comments to my last post up top to respond to them, though, for the benefit of those reading through a blog aggregator.
Are there preferred margins for copyediting? What about lines per page?
Standard manuscript format should result in about ten words per line and twenty-five lines per page. Margins should be at least one inch all the way around, but a wider right margin (at least 1.25 inches) allows more adequate room for queries. As noted in the comments, text should also always be set RAGGED RIGHT. When you justify your text, it makes it difficult for the copyeditor to tell if there are extra spaces that need to be deleted.
2 Responses to “Margins”
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I'm a freelance copyeditor specializing in fantasy and science fiction. SF/F novels I have copyedited have been finalists for (and have sometimes won) the Hugo, Nebula, Arthur C. Clarke, Endeavour, Golden Spur, John W. Campbell Memorial, Quill, Locus, Philip K. Dick, British Science Fiction, British Fantasy, and World Fantasy awards. In 2007 I became the first and only copyeditor ever short-listed for a World Fantasy Award.
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Actually, she said 1.25 inches on the *left*.
Now I’m all confused again. (And the delay in asking is because I’m getting ready to re-format my manuscript to make it all shiny and purty.)
Now you’re *really* confused. :-)
At first I replied to your comment thinking I’d messed up, but once my brain kicked in…no! :-) (Although I didn’t notice E had asked for a wider left-hand margin.) I, personally, always query on the right-hand side of the page. Perhaps other editors query on the left; I don’t know.