Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Using another font issue

This is topic Using another font issue in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by Chronicles_of_Empire (Member # 1431) on :

Hi all -

I'm rewriting a manuscript in new courier - but there's a feature of a the story that *demands* a different font. Bold or italics will not do.

I've read that agents don't like seeing lots of different fonts, so I'm looking on feedback regarding the issue.

Posted by srhowen (Member # 462) on :

In your cover you can make a note of it--explain why you used a different font. I wonder why you need one though. If you are thinking of what the book will look like published as in some sections that look handwritten but not italics--that's often something worked out before the book goes to print.

Shawn

Posted by Chronicles_of_Empire (Member # 1431) on :

Thanks, Shawn. I'm using a completely alien species in SF, and the form of communication utlised strongly intimates that I must use a different font to create the required emphasis. I'll look to make a note in the synopsis.

Posted by reid (Member # 1425) on :

Chronicles-

As I recall, OSC would set apart the hive queen's mind speak like this:

I thought it worked well for him; however, you might try first to convey the strangeness of your alien form of communication through the language you use and the way human characters react to it.

Regards,

Brian

Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :

Probably the best way to indicate that you want a different font for certain parts of the text is to do it the same way that editors tell typesetters they want to have italics in the text.

What you do for italics is underline the text to be italicized and then in the margin write "ital" (without the quote marks).

In the case of your story, you should include what is called a "style sheet" and in that explain that you want a different font for the aliens and that you have indicated where the font is to be used by underlining and writing something like "alien font" in the margin.

Style sheets are something every writer should use whenever there is going to be something special or different or unusual in the text.

Posted by Chronicles_of_Empire (Member # 1431) on :

reid -

A most excellent suggestion. It would make the MSS look much neater. Now I can worry about using an actual different font when I have an agent and a publishing contract!

Posted by mags (Member # 1570) on :

Something to keep in mind is how you are going to submit your manuscript.

I was reading one a publishers website that they take electronic formats, however it has to be in Times (though I think Courier is actually another option), and the only variation in can be italics. Their reasoning is that many computers won't read something exactly the same way even with the same software (and of course their is the fact that not everyone has the same fonts).