
Not necessarily, because now each publishing house had different formatting requirements. Witness the two houses for which I’m now writing. Let’s call them House A for my romances and House B for my mysteries. Both agree on .5 inch indent for each paragraph, em-dashes instead of hyphens or en-dashes, and one inch margins. But here's where they differ:
FONTS
House A: New Courier 12 pt.
House B: Times New Roman 12 pt.
SPACING
House A: 25 lines per page
House B: Double spacing
CHAPTER HEADINGS
House A: six lines down the page; capitalize first letter of each word
House B: one space down the page is blank, then the chapter heading comes on the next line. Then this is followed by another empty space before the text. Chapter heading should be bold and centered. First line of every chapter should begin flush left.
HEADERS/FOOTERS
House A: No specific instructions
House B: Page number bottom center with .5 inch footer and .5 inch header. Header should have centered Author’s last name\Book Title
ASTERISKS
House A: Four asterisks centered
House B: Five asterisks centered
ELLIPSIS
House A: Three periods with no spacing before, between or after.
House B: Three periods with a space before, between and after.
You get the idea? Plus the front material, meaning the title page, dedication and acknowledgements, as well as the back end info, might be different, too. You have to carefully examine the submission requirements to give your work its best chance.
The more you configure your work, the more often you’ll remember the next time. And if you’re just working with one publisher, you’ll have no problem...at least until you try to format for Kindle, Smashwords, and Nook.
How do you deal with this confusion?
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