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This question was asked in 2011: Do editors still expect Courier font in book submissions for publication? A couple people said they found a monospace font helpful to have space to insert editing symbols.

Nowadays, with more and more submitting being done electronically, does font matter?

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aparente001
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  • You have to ask the editor in question. I prefer Times. – Lauren-Clear-Monica-Ipsum Jan 08 '17 at 13:34
  • @LaurenIpsum - How interesting! What do you like about Times? // I had to submit some documents recently in Times. It was my first time really working with it. I could live with it in 12 point, not bold. The italics were nice. I didn't like it for larger point section headings, though. – aparente001 Jan 09 '17 at 02:44
  • I CAN READ IT. Unlike Calibri (shudder) or Courier (which gets exhausting after a while). It's a smooth serif font designed to be legibile. – Lauren-Clear-Monica-Ipsum Jan 09 '17 at 16:40
  • @LaurenIpsum - Ah. I share your feelings about Courier, but on the screen I'm okay with Calibri. Are there any other commonly available fonts that don't make you shudder? Palatino, Garamond? – aparente001 Jan 09 '17 at 18:44
  • I like both of those, although Palatino is probably better for editing purposes since it has higher x-heights and wider bowls. Garamond is somewhat tighter. It's a beautiful font (the Harry Potter books are set in it) and one of my favorites, but if I'm editing, I'd like something plainer. – Lauren-Clear-Monica-Ipsum Jan 09 '17 at 18:50
  • When I set aside my book draft a couple of years ago, it was in Garamond. But I really disliked the italics -- too slanty, and hard to read. I'm now thinking of switching over to Palatino. I don't remember why I rejected it previously. Thanks for sharing your opinions. // Why don't you write an answer? – aparente001 Jan 10 '17 at 02:52
  • @LaurenIpsum - Could I widen the character spacing? // I was imagining that if someone (beta reader, editor, agent, publisher) wants to propose changes, they might use Track Changes. Is this ever done in your experience? – aparente001 Feb 11 '17 at 23:42
  • I always use Track Changes in Word when I'm editing a manuscript file. But I still need to read it. If you're referring to Garamond being "tight," I'm referring to the space within the characters — the x-heights are lower and the bowls are smaller. (The "bowl" is the inside of an a, for example.) Kerning (character spacing) isn't going to affect or improve that. – Lauren-Clear-Monica-Ipsum Feb 12 '17 at 02:15
  • @LaurenIpsum - kerning -- okay, I see. MS Word -- so if someone sent a manuscript to you, for example, in a font you're uncomfortable with, would you just Control-A then change the font? – aparente001 Feb 12 '17 at 07:04
  • Yes, or I would ask that the person change it to Times 12 pt. Either way that will be what I end up working in. – Lauren-Clear-Monica-Ipsum Feb 12 '17 at 13:25
  • @LaurenIpsum - I once wrote an article for a national news weekly and they had me submit my article triple spaced. That was a long time ago and I typed it. How times have changed. – aparente001 Feb 13 '17 at 06:05

2 Answers2

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The agent or publisher will post instructions on its submission website. This has not changed. Typically, they will read your query in plain text, so it doesn't really matter what font you use as long as it can be converted to plain text. Once you get past the query phase, the instructions you receive will be explicit.

Stu W
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Nowadays, with more and more submitting being done electronically, does font matter?

It depends on the file format. It's much harder to change the font on a PDF than on a Word document.

As a writer, work with a tool that makes it easy to produce output with different fonts for submitting to editors.

And, unless you've already found success in the marketplace, avoid typographic gimmicks like The Mouse's Tale in Alice in Wonderland.

DepressedDaniel
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  • When I have submitted legal documents, I have submitted the pdf and the Word document. The pdf for reading, the Word doc so the person working with my document can easily copy and paste some of my text. But here my question is about preparing a manuscript for submission to a publisher or agent. – aparente001 Feb 01 '17 at 05:07
  • @aparente001 Just follow their instructions. If they don't have any specific instructions, just do something reasonable, like submitting a Word document. Then it will be their move to tell you what they really want if they can't handle a Word document. – DepressedDaniel Feb 01 '17 at 05:40