Many writers don’t realize that upon online publication, their manuscript needs to fit into three kinds of devices: desktop, tablet, and phone. Often the work fits into none of these, which leaves editors spending hours reformatting it.

Why is this? Because writers format their prose into their own files– usually 8.5 X 11– and use line breaks to make it look good within their own file, even if this means making it look wrong (embarrassing gaps) when it’s published. In effect they type as if they were on an old-fashioned typewriter with carriage return, preparing their manuscript not for online publication, but for print.

SOLUTION #1

The solution is to avoid line breaks, keeping only paragraph breaks.

A TEST

A test I use is to drop a paragraph or two from a manuscript into an 11 X 17 word or doc file. If the lines don’t extend all the way to fill the width (up to a set margin on the right), you have a problem.

SOLUTION #2

Several sites, such as textfixer.com, remove line breaks– but make sure to keep or create paragraph breaks of an entire empty line in the text of the manuscript.

XXXXX

Thanks!