Format. From MS Word to Kindle – Z to A Blog Challenge

At this stage in our writing career, we know that most agents want Times New Roman 12 pt font, one-inch margins all around, indented paragraphs, and double-spaced manuscripts.

But some agents prefer to read submissions on an E-reader like Kindle.

So, how to format for a Kindle?

Vickie Motter, an agent at Andrea Hurst Literary Management, suggests the following.

(Note: Copy your manuscript before giving this a whirl. Just in case.)

- Press Select+A on your keyboard (Or go up to the Edit drop down menu and choose Select All). This should highlight your entire document. Right click somewhere and go to Paragraph. Under the Indents and Spacing Tab, go to Indentation. Set Left and Right at 0”. Set Special for First Line (this will make your paragraphs automatically indent), by .5”. Don’t ever use the TAB key; this will not show up on an e-reader.

Now go to the next section, still fixing Paragraph, labeled Spacing. Before and After should be opt, and Line Spacing should be Double. This will make your paragraphs evenly spaced. Don’t take for granted that your entire MS is properly spaced already, there are always mistakes.

For new chapters, you can press Enter a few times or, to get the new chapter on a new page, press Shift+Enter. This will put your chapter on a new page and show up nicely on an e-reader (if you press Enter too many times then it might show up on the e-reader as a blank page before we get to the new chapter) Also don’t put your chapter titles in fancy fonts. It doesn’t even need to be in a bigger font.

Using Find and Replace (Ctrl+f) to delete all your tabs by using ^t in MS Word.-