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A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: Spec Sheets, Formatting, and More

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(photo by Frank Perez) It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic is about formatting your book, before and for submission. Let's take a look at what happens to a pre-formatted book and what publisher expectations are. Proposal stage . Formatting a book for a proposal. Some authors send out a fully formatted book, complete with a cover design, to acquisition editors, very likely hoping to impress them with their advanced skills in writing and potential publishing. How do these acquisition editors respond? Many, if not most, vanity presses will accept these and publish them as is, warts and all. We have one such "published" book from a