Q: What formula do agents and editors use to come up with the word count?
A: The word count is estimation, not exact science, so almost any formula will work, especially once your manuscript is in standard manuscript format. I can’t speak for each agent and editor, for they differ in opinions, but usually any one of the following methods will work well enough to give agents and editors an idea of the length of your manuscript:
The easiest method is to use your word-processing program. Go to Tools and select Word Count.
The next most common method is to rely on standard manuscript format to give you an estimate. Your manuscript should be in standard manuscript format already, which is 12-point Courier type, double-spaced, with margins of about an inch on all sides. In this format, each page averages about 250 words. If your manuscript is 200 standard manuscript pages long, you multiply 200 pages by 250 words to get the estimated word count.
Other methods rely on character count, dividing by an average length, and so forth. You don’t have to go to that much trouble, I assure you. The people you deal with only want to know if your manuscript is too short or too long. A close estimate is good enough. An exact count won’t change that vital piece of information by much.
Q: When mentioning an album name in my book, like song titles, do you lowercase conjunctions (and), prepositions (of, for), and articles (a, the), even when they appear capitalized on the album covers?
Actual cover: Wheels Of A Dream
In my book: Wheels of a Dream
A: You have hit on a style issue. Advertising, labels, and such often capitalize things at will. Advertising style is not the same as Chicago Style.
Chicago Style, the standard for the book publishing industry, has specific rules for when things should be capitalized, written out, abbreviated, or punctuated. It says, in part, the following: “In title capitalization, the first and last words and all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinating conjunctions (if, because, as, that) are capitalized. Articles (a, an, the) and coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, for, nor) are lowercased unless they are the first or last word.
What you have in your manuscript, Wheels of a Dream, is correct as far as capitalization goes, but I'm not sure if it is an album or a song title. Chicago Style calls for putting quotation marks around the title of a song, but it calls for italicizing the title of a long musical composition, such as an opera or an album.
Q: When it comes to plurals for last names, which is correct? Hueys or Huey’s or Hueys’? The Robersons or Roberson’s or Robersons’? Microsoft Word always flags these as misspelled. I can never tell the difference.
A: Microsoft Word probably flags them because the words themselves, Hueys and Robersons, are not in the dictionary, plus the computer program cannot decipher whether the name is plural or possessive.
If it is strictly plural, it takes no apostrophe. Examples:
We ate dinner with Joe Huey and the rest of the Hueys.
Mike Roberson said all the Robersons are visiting next week.
If it is plural possessive, it needs an apostrophe. Examples:
We ate dinner at the Hueys’ house.
The Robersons’ dog is visiting, too.
Note that if the name ends in an s, the plural possessive for book style is to add an apostrophe and an s. Examples:
The Jones’s house is painted white.
I agree with all of the Samuels’s suggestions.
Q: When I bought your book at a recent seminar, you used a credit card company that notified me via e-mail of my charge going through. Can you tell me about the company? Who are they, and how do I contact them? I need to have the ability to accept credit card payments when I sell my books, so I am shopping around.
A: The company I use is ProPay, and it can be found at www.propay.com. A colleague highly recommended ProPay, and I have been completely satisfied with the service I get. Through ProPay I can take almost any credit card by e-mail, phone, or in person and later transfer those funds to my own bank.
Bobbie Christmas, book editor, author of Write In Style (Union Square Publishing), and owner of Zebra Communications, will answer your questions, too. Send them to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Read more “Ask the Book Doctor” questions and answers at www.zebraeditor.com.
