Ever wondered what a 520-page manuscript looks like in hardcopy?
Our laser printer went kaputt this morning, just as I was trying to print out the manuscript. I had to drive into town and pay the folks at Staples $40 for the job. Eight cents a page isn’t much, but it adds up.
Hooray for electronic submissions, I say. Between the print job and the shipping, I’ll be out fifty bucks for one single, solitary submission. Via email, it costs pennies. (In all fairness, you don’t usually send out the full manuscript. Most publishers request one to three sample chapters with a query, not the whole thing. If they like what they see, they’ll ask for the rest.)
12 Comments
July 13, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Wow, poor trees. Good luck to you, $50 is a lot to invest for 1 submission.
Personally, I recently went through my agent query list and discovered that I have gone unintentionally “green” and do not have a single agent on there who does not accept email / online submissions.
July 13, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Heh. What’s that in millimetres per day output, then?
July 13, 2009 at 6:22 pm
The official unit of measurement for the productivity of writers is the wpV (words per Venti.)
July 13, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Well, now that I am officially a reader (The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is on its way to being my first novel EVER, and I’m loving it), I can say that I’m honestly looking forward to getting an early copy.
I trust you’ll let us know when such would be available?
tweaker
July 13, 2009 at 6:51 pm
sending good ju-ju along with a small rain forests worth of trees to be replanted in your honor.
Good luck seriously!
Loved the teaser you sent us earlier and looking forward to reading the real thing.
July 13, 2009 at 7:48 pm
for those unaware of the fact, the pulp trees used for paper production are a sustainable crop like any other…support your local farmer; write and print to heart’s content!
jtc
July 19, 2009 at 9:27 pm
having lived in Southeast Georgia and put up with the stench of the tree farms and pulp plants, I must admit that I like email better….
However, nothing beat the feel of a good book in the hands.
PeterT
July 13, 2009 at 9:14 pm
I too am amazed it’s on paper. Is it single-sided, double-spaced, galley proof, in 16 point type, without binding? Hardly something even the most Luddite editor would like to curl up with.
I hope it has page numbers and you don’t drop it.
520 pages is just over the typical ream, and if my sense of scale is right, it must be single-sided.
July 14, 2009 at 5:06 am
Single-sided, double-spaced Courier 12, with page numbers. And no, I didn’t drop it yet.
July 14, 2009 at 1:22 pm
Here’s hoping that the request for the full manuscript is a harbinger of good news.
July 19, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Good luck with the next step of the novel. It must be hard sending out your ‘baby’ for others to judge.
Looking forward to reading the whole thing soon!!
July 19, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Jumblerant, one of the first things a commercial artist of any stripe learns is that It Ain’t Personal. Change requests, edits, revisions all descend from on high, and eventually most of them will get implimented – even if half of them are eventually revoked.
As with all things, there’s the Get Out Clause later on: the unexpurgated version of Stranger in a Strange Land, the Director’s Cut of Blade Runner, or the Ultimate Jedi Edition of Star Wars where Luke’s been replaced by a cute, furry CGI critter with huge eyes and a squeaky lovable voice.
Gahhh. Must. Wash. Brain.