Italics: underline or italicise?

[Kissmequick]

Erm....?

Erm what? I've seen one or two places that specify they want them underlined. If they don't, they get them italicised.

 

[Boneman]

Erm... italicise italics? How else can you write italics? Or do you mean you just use italics and no underlining?

 

[Kissmequick]

Well originally italics weren't italicised in MS's, (You'd need too many keys on teh keyboard!) but underlined instead. So I don't do both D) - that would be redundant and not usually what someone means when they say they wants italics underlined.

They usually either want

this

or this

 

[Boneman]

Oh... what a dummy, me! I've either done this or this. I must admit putting both together would be a very heavy emphasis. I prefer italics, somehow...

 

[Jo Zebedee]

So write in that and change when you sub - it only takes a few clicks.

I italicise italics, unless the subs guides say otherwise.

Sub guides trump everything else. They say send it in wing dings, they get wing dings!

Yep, that is what i do if they specify a font, but it knocks off where each new chapter starts line wise, and i have to go through it and check they are standard. It is a non serifed 12 point font, so shoud be ok, i think. The ipad doesn't have times new roman, so if i send from there - and i m sure other people do - the nearest available is defaulted to.

A lot of these things are guidelines. It is like the non-log line advice on queries. When i specifically asked three agents on #askagent, they all said thy had no problem, whatsoever, with One. maybe next week i will ask about specific fonts and report back! Provided it is easy to read with appropriate sized font, with clear margins and space for comments, i don't think an agent will reject out of hand.

 

[alchemist]

Yep, that is what i do if they specify a font, but it knocks off where each new chapter starts line wise, ...

You not using page breaks?

Since Harper Voyager asked for a sans serif font, I've come to like Calibri quite a bit. It just looks so ... clean.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

That's what i like about it.

I use page breaks but start each new chapter on line six, a third down by double paragraphing, as this gives room for comments, and this gets knocked off cos the font isn't exactly the same. Am i doing something really dense?

 

[alchemist]

Golly, that sounds very professional. Look at the stuff I'm learning.

 

[Brian G Turner]

That's what i like about it.

I use page breaks but start each new chapter on line six, a third down by double paragraphing, as this gives room for comments, and this gets knocked off cos the font isn't exactly the same. Am i doing something really dense?

Excellent - wondered how people got the "third down the page" measured.

Have to admit, I do like sans serif. It's just so ... clear. But Times New roman is only a click away, if anyone really needs that!

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Oh, um, it wasn't very scientific and might be wrong. I took the finall line number and divided by three and i got 6point something and decided To round down as it looked better.... So don't be led by me

 

[Warren_Paul]

Sorry, yeah, I'll explain myself better. Both Courier and Times New Roman are currently acceptable unless the submission guidelines say otherwise. But as Anya points out, there are some who prefer Times over Courier now but it's not a big deal, and they'll usually state it in their submission guidelines.

You'll notice in the Angry Robot open door submission guidelines, they actually went out of their way to make a point that they don't care which font of the two you choose to use, and if you ask, it will result in an instant declined letter. So in other words, to them font is so trivial it doesn't matter. Obviously there would be a problem if you sent the submission in a fancy font like Copperplate Gothic or something.

 

[Warren_Paul]

Out of interest. I pulled this off William Shunn's website, who's a renowned expert when it comes to the standards of formatting manuscripts.

If you intend a word or phrase to appear in italics, the convention has long been to indicate this in your manuscript by underlining. This practice, too, is beginning to change. In Courier you should continue to underline, since italics in monospaced fonts are easy to overlook. In Times New Roman, though, it's becoming more and more acceptable to use italics directly. (Again, consult submission guidelines when you're in doubt.)

So Shunn suggests only using italics if you're using the TNR font - also interesting to note Shunn confirms both Courier and Times New Roman are accepted.

It's also interesting that preference on font is apparently divided. Some feel that Courier is easier to read, others that TNR is. My preference is TNR.