Question of publishers and format and words

[Cayal]

I am halfway through writing a novel and I've just started to research what exactly publishers want in a submission but I do have a couple of quick questions. I haven't look at any publishing sites (as I haven't a clue where to look in regards to that) but do they generally have a format they want you to submit your draft in? (eg: font, format, double spaced, typed, printed, electronic etc etc etc).

Also, as an aspiring novelist submitting his first work, do publishers have a general word limit? I doubt I'd be pushing anywhere above 150,000 words and probably wouldn't be getting anywhere near that mark but will a published reject work if it is excessive in the word count without even reading it?

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Gosh, it seems like this subject was under discussion just yesterday ...

Manuscript format - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The only thing I can add to that is that you can sometimes use Times instead of Courier.

If you want to research publisher's site, just Google the names of some publishers you think might be interested in your book. If it is SFF, presumably you are reading enough SFF to know which houses are publishing similar books. If it something else, again, your bookshelf should produce the names of some suitable publishers. However, it is better to get an agent first. Nevertheless, you will still want to use the standard format, since an agent will want something he or she can send straight off to a publisher without asking you to reformat.

For fantasy, 150,000 words is not too much. For science fiction, it may be pushing the limit for a new author.

 

[Cayal]

Thanks Teresa and sorry for the repeat of topic.