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Line spacing

baintyochobaintyocho
edited February 2011 in - Writing Problems
Hello, and as a newbie to these pages best wishes to you all.

I am preparing a collection of stories to hand over to a local UK printer later in the year. From choice I am doing as much of the preparation work myself as I can. My chosen book size is 129mm x 198mm and the font will be size 12. What line spacing would you people out there suggest I should use?

For the record. This is not vanity stuff - the stories have already been published in various magazines and I am just bringing them all together into this form. After all, we want to make it as easy as we can for Posterity to judge us, don't we?

Thanks in advance.

28

Comments

  • dorothyddorothyd
    Hi and welcome!
    This collection sounds interesting. Personally I would go for single line spacing, more than that looks as if you are trying to fill the pages without content. Best of luck with it.
  • Lou TreleavenLou Treleaven
    Sounds like a nice project. Have a look at the books with layouts you admire. A quick look in my Kate Atkinson shows there is a little spacing between the lines, maybe one and a quarter.
  • Stan2Stan2
    Single line spacing is normal for publication.
  • Jay MandalJay Mandal
    Hi, Baintyocho. Welcome to Talkback. Best of luck with the book.
  • CarolCarol
    Hello, hope the book goes well.
  • Phots MollPhots Moll
    Could you ask the printer to show you a couple of examples with different amounts of space between the lines to see what looks best?

    [quote=dorothyd] Personally I would go for single line spacing, more than that looks as if you are trying to fill the pages without content.[/quote] Too much space would, I agree. My feeling is single line spacing might look a bit cramped and seem you're trying to get it done as cheaply as possible.
  • dorothyddorothyd
    the anthologies which Pixie and I are in at the moment are all single spaced. It works.
  • baintyochobaintyocho
    Hello again,

    Thanks for your views - all appreciated. I'm not overkeen on single spacing - my mock-ups look a little cramped. Nothing set yet though. I'm keeping my options open and experimenting at present. When I finally decide I'll post here to let you know. All the best for now.
  • DwightDwight
    Welcome to Talkback, Baintyocho. Best of luck with your project.
  • dorothyddorothyd
    hope it goes well for you.
    I just checked the submission guidelines for Static Movement. who have somewhere around 30 anthologies either open or in print. They all say:

    Single space, indent paragraphs,

    and having bought quite a few now, I have to say they look good. It depends on how you lay out your pages. I leave a 25 mm inner margin on the books we print (my company, this is) and 20 mm outside edge. Top and bottom are also 25 mm to allow room for possible headers, if I include them as well as page numbers. The wider inner margin takes into account the need to bind the pages and not have the text disappear into the fold.
  • Phots MollPhots Moll
    [quote=dorothyd] just checked the submission guidelines for Static Movement. who have somewhere around 30 anthologies either open or in print. They all say:

    Single space, indent paragraphs,[/quote] That doesn't actually mean the finished product is single spaced though - they might space it a little wider than that. Of course the books might well be single spaced.

    It's really hard to tell when looking at a book exactly what the line spacing is.
  • dorothyddorothyd
    SM take the stories from emails and set them straight into the pages. They specifically request single spacing so that it is virtually camera ready for them to page set. The editor there has so much to do she needs it done like that. Those of us editing anthologies are following those guidelines.

    In addition, I'm going by the books we produce, which are single spaced. I'm looking at our books all day every day, as I print the majority of them one at a time for individual customers ... just completed 25 of them. My printer is nearly worn out. Again. (I've gone through three HPs in the last few years.)
  • baintyochobaintyocho
    Just an update. I think I've opted for 1.25 spacing. It looks ok in my mock-up but until I'm back in England and seen the printer nothing is fixed.

    Thanks again for all the comments and good wishes.
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