Double spacing in novels - Why?

10358 Views 64 Replies 24 Participants Last post by 10105, Jun 22, 2015

AltMe

Discussion Starter · Jun 17, 2015

I saw something in another thread, and it triggered the question.

Why does anyone use double spacing in a novel, other than for special formatting? I mean where you get a large blank space under each line of text, not just between paragraphs.

I've downloaded samples several times now, where the content seemed to be ok, but I found it unreadable as it was all double-spaced. Reading dialog was painful because it spread out too far. I trashed them without getting out of the first chapter.

I know its a requirement for submitting a manuscript to an agent or publisher on paper, but why do it in a Kindle?

Or is this a ploy to get the number of pages higher?

1 - 20 of 65 Posts

Douglas E Wright

· #2 · Jun 17, 2015

I space mine at 1.5 and use Garound. I'm told neither matter, but I like the look when I'm typing the MS.

Doglover

· #3 · Jun 17, 2015

TimothyEllis said:
I saw something in another thread, and it triggered the question.

Why does anyone use double spacing in a novel, other than for special formatting? I mean where you get a large blank space under each line of text, not just between paragraphs.

I've downloaded samples several times now, where the content seemed to be ok, but I found it unreadable as it was all double-spaced. Reading dialog was painful because it spread out too far. I trashed them without getting out of the first chapter.

I know its a requirement for submitting a manuscript to an agent or publisher on paper, but why do it in a Kindle?

Or is this a ploy to get the number of pages higher?

I think it's probably because it needs to be double spaced to submit to a traditional publisher. I suspect people don't read the instructions properly and a lot of newcomers assume that Amazon is a publisher, so do it the same. Or, perhaps as you say, it is a ruse to get the page numbers up.

Lindy Moone

· #4 · Jun 17, 2015

I use single spacing, because as a reader I hate when I set my Kindle at minimum line spacing and the result doesn't look like a real book. IMO, there is no good reason to use double spacing; the authors probably aren't doing it for any nefarious reason, but may just be following the old trad manuscript submission model -- and they may not even be aware that line spacing is reader-adjustable on devices.

I wish all authors would switch the body of their manuscripts to single spacing when formatting for ebooks. Consider what happens when a reader needs to adjust the text to large size. Total frustration, a lot of extra page turning...and maybe an abandoned book.

AltMe

Discussion Starter · #5 · Jun 17, 2015

That's probably why it bothers me. I use a larger font size than normal, so the effect is enhanced.

Scatterdown

· #6 · Jun 17, 2015

Doublespacing is a hold-over from paper editing, where edit-marks are important, and yes, the look is pretty "clean".

Pace-count-padding or just forgetfulness I suppose.

C. Rysalis

· #7 · Jun 17, 2015

Lindy Moone said:
I use single spacing, because as a reader I hate when I set my Kindle at minimum line spacing and the result doesn't look like a real book. IMO, there is no good reason to use double spacing; the authors probably aren't doing it for any nefarious reason, but may just be following the old trad manuscript submission model -- and they may not even be aware that line spacing is reader-adjustable on devices.

I use double spacing for the web serial version for my novel; double spacing is quite standard for web fiction because of readability issues. For the books, I'll adjust the text to single spacing. I could imagine that some other web fiction authors don't consider the standard for ebooks and just use their manuscript as is, with double spacing.

AltMe

Discussion Starter · #8 · Jun 17, 2015

Whats the difference with web fiction?

C. Rysalis

· #9 · Jun 17, 2015

TimothyEllis said:
Whats the difference with web fiction?

You can't change font or the look of the site, you read on your computer monitor, and you scroll a looooong way down during each chapter (they're like really long blog posts). There's no pages.

AltMe

Discussion Starter · #10 · Jun 17, 2015

C. Rysalis said:
You can't change font or the look of the site, you read on your computer monitor, and you scroll a looooong way down during each chapter (they're like really long blog posts). There's no pages.

That doesn't explain double spacing though.

C. Rysalis

· #11 · Jun 17, 2015

TimothyEllis said:
That doesn't explain double spacing though.

When you scroll through 5K words without page breaks, single spacing is a pain on the eyes after a while.

AltMe

Discussion Starter · #12 · Jun 17, 2015

C. Rysalis said:
When you scroll through 5K words without page breaks, single spacing is a pain on the eyes after a while.

Can you link to an example?

Annette_g

· #13 · Jun 17, 2015

C. Rysalis said:
When you scroll through 5K words without page breaks, single spacing is a pain on the eyes after a while.

My fanfic is single spaced with a double space between paragraphs rather than indented. Double spacing the whole thing would be awful to read for me.

Speaker-To-Animals

· #14 · Jun 17, 2015

Douglas E Wright said:
I space mine at 1.5 and use Garound. I'm told neither matter, but I like the look when I'm typing the MS.

The font choice won't matter, but the line spacing probably will. Please consider setting for a normal 1.0 to 1.2 line spacing. 1.5 or larger is huge on e-ink kindled.

AltMe

Discussion Starter · #15 · Jun 17, 2015

Douglas E Wright said:
I space mine at 1.5 and use Garound. I'm told neither matter, but I like the look when I'm typing the MS.

Speaker-To-Animals said:
The font choice won't matter, but the line spacing probably will. Please consider setting for a normal 1.0 to 1.2 line spacing. 1.5 or larger is huge on e-ink kindled.

I second that. No matter how you write, the final version should be set up for other people to read.

Ann in Arlington

· #16 · Jun 17, 2015

Quiet said:
A properly formatted ebook shouldn't define line spacing. It should be adjustable by the reader. Too many of them aren't. Kills me when I can't use the Kindle settings to override it. A vast majority of ebooks are poorly put together for a Kindle. I really don't like closely spaced lines. Most of the time these days I don't have a choice.

I would disagree with this assessment.

Yes, there are books where the publisher has defined something in a non-standard fashion. Even a fair number where they've 'locked' it so the user can't even change it. But I don't think books like that are a majority, much less a 'vast majority'. Maybe it's just what I tend to read, but I've only come across it a handful of times. In 7 years of using a Kindle.

In the early days . . . indie writers especially were still learning how to make their books look professional and some times hadn't mastered it before publishing. So there were extra blank lines between paragraphs or no paragraph indents or something. The usual effect was that the book didn't look 'like a book' and in some cases it was hard to read.

There were also some cases of weird formatting immediately after Amazon introduced the more adaptable file format. It was usually a case of the publisher not having realized there was a change in process. In the cases I can specifically remember, people reported it to Amazon and the publisher fixed it; an update came down that made the book readable. Famous example was The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling -- the default font size was teeny tiny -- the publisher had screwed up by not checking the settings when they uploaded it.

I also saw a few that locked a specific typeface. Interestingly, my experience has been that indie writers mostly didn't make that mistake because they were paying more attention in the first place and KNEW there'd been a change.

Mind you: I've no doubt there are still a HUGE number of abysmally formatted books, probably mostly by indie writers who are approaching it as a 'get rich quick' scheme rather than as a professional pursuit. But I don't really come across that many if I'm at all discerning when browsing.

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Jena H

· #17 · Jun 17, 2015

"Why double spacing in novels?"

My guess would be ignorance of the process and/or accepted process. I'd think that the Preview function before publishing would show these writers how terrible it looks with forced double-spacing. I don't read ebooks, but even I know that readers can adjust text to make it as large (or spaced out) as they wish.

AltMe

Discussion Starter · #18 · Jun 17, 2015

Ann in Arlington said:
probably mostly by indie writers who are approaching it as a 'get rich quick' scheme rather than as a professional pursuit.

Amazing. People actually think that?

That's the opposite of what I research told me.

BaileyM

· #19 · Jun 17, 2015

I've bought a couple of books spaced that way from people who seemed to publish otherwise very professionally. Since I read with a fairly large print size on my device, it was rather annoying. I really think they did it just to get a higher page count. I felt disappointed.

G

· #20 · Jun 17, 2015

I suspect some people still use double-spacing for the same reason some people still use the tab key to indent.

BECAUSE THEY HATE US!

In all seriousness, a lot of word processing programs default to 1.5 or double spacing for some bizarre reason, and lots of people don't know how to change those default settings. Makes me nuts because I get submissions all the time for the journal with crazy settings despite having specific formatting guidelines on my site. People just use whatever the default is and don't understand how it will impact readability.

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