word count rounding, e-submissions etc.

[Calfin]

Hi, everyone. I have a few questions I hope you can help with:

1. I've heard of so many different ways to get a word count on my manuscript that I don't know which one to pick. I use OpenOffice Writer (which seems very like Word), so can't I just use the word count as stated by the program or do I need to count pages etc.?

2.Another problem, now that I think of it, is that my spell checker seems to have 'run out'; at some point in the novel it stopped checking. What can I do about that? No, I don't depend on it entirely, but it does speed things up.
3.I want to finally start querying agents and I don't know whether I should round my word count up or down, and to the nearest ten or five? Also, even after I query, I might still continue making changes to the manuscript (I think I'm the kind that might keep doing that until the publisher - should I get one - puts an end to it), so how big of a difference in stated and actual rounded up word count would be a problem?

4.The characters in my English novel are actually speaking Arabic, but French and English words slip in, as is frequent in the middle-upper to upper classes; also, I want to use Arabic expressions (when removing them doesn't sound right and translating them into English sounds stilted) in the text the way I occasionally use French ones; I just italicized the French, so can I use different fonts for English and Arabic expressions?

5.How can I find agents who accept email submissions of manuscripts, not just queries ?(it's really expensive sending paper to New York from the Middle East, and I can't find any international coupons to allow the manuscript to be returned, anyway).

[stormie]

Hi, everyone. I have a few questions I hope you can help with:

1. I've heard of so many different ways to get a word count on my manuscript that I don't know which one to pick. I use OpenOffice Writer (which seems very like Word), so can't I just use the word count as stated by the program or do I need to count pages etc.?

Word Count, not pages. If it's similar to Word, then fine.

2.Another problem, now that I think of it, is that my spell checker seems to have 'run out'; at some point in the novel it stopped checking. What can I do about that? No, I don't depend on it entirely, but it does speed things up.

Not sure on that one. Anyone?

3.I want to finally start querying agents and I don't know whether I should round my word count up or down, and to the nearest ten or five? Also, even after I query, I might still continue making changes to the manuscript (I think I'm the kind that might keep doing that until the publisher - should I get one - puts an end to it), so how big of a difference in stated and actual rounded up word count would be a problem?

Finish the manuscript. Make all the changes before querying. Even if you have to put it aside for awhile. Round either up or down to the nearest hundred.

4.The characters in my English novel are actually speaking Arabic, but French and English words slip in, as is frequent in the middle-upper to upper classes; also, I want to use Arabic expressions (when removing them doesn't sound right and translating them into English sounds stilted) in the text the way I occasionally use French ones; I just italicized the French, so can I use different fonts for English and Arabic expressions?

Not sure. Anyone?

5.How can I find agents who accept email submissions of manuscripts, not just queries ?(it's really expensive sending paper to New York from the Middle East, and I can't find any international coupons to allow the manuscript to be returned, anyway).

www.agentquery.com (http://www.agentquery.com) A lot of agency's are going the email route for queries, and ask for about the first five pages of the ms. Also, look around here at AW. A lot of great info!

Oh, and welcome!

[Prawn]

First, Welcome to the forums! Ooo Calfin, I need to talk to you. My novel is set in Israel and Palestine with characters who speak Arabic, French and Hebrew.

As far as number four, using expressions from other languages, I just throw them in. Just make sure that the context tells the reader the meaning. With something like "Yalla! Yalla!" or "Salam Aleikum" people can figure it out. If it is in dialogue, I don't italicize. If a character is referring to it in dialogue, I italicize it, for example, "Shukran? I think that means 'thanks' "

I hope this helps. Leftclick on the name Prawn on the left and you can PM me or e-mail me if you'd like. I'd love to hear more about your work.
Prawn

[Calfin]

Thank you! (only realized I'd forgotten to add 'thank you' to the post after posting)

I already tried AAR and I already have a list of agents who accept e-queries, but as I said, what I'm worried about is if any of them want to see the whole manuscript, how am I supposed to send it? Their profiles on AAR don't say if they accept whole manuscripts, or even the first three chapters via email.

Oh, well, maybe I'm jumping the gun.

As for the word count, I read that 'word' holds different meanings to a publisher and to the program, so Word's word count can be totally different to the publisher's.

As for the language issue, the characters are all Egyptians, speaking to one another primarily in Arabic, but the novel's in English, so my problem is that when I want to use an expression that won't make sense transliterated into English, I'm not sure if I should italicize the way I did with French. I don't mean simple words like 'shukran', but things like 'ya sater'; not so easy to understand from context, and that's a simpler phrase than some of the ones I had in mind.

Anyway, thanks again, y'all.

[Prawn]

If you have a more complicated phrase which is central to the plot, you need to have characters talk about it, or have someone say it around someone who doesn't know it, say someone from the gulf, or even an English speaker. Still, I think that using Ya sater can add texture with out the audience knowing what it means. If you use it a few times with context they will figure it out

"Ya sater! Tell me some good news!"

or

I saw the car coming towards me and though, ya sater, don't hit me!.

[RickN]

Hi, everyone. I have a few questions I hope you can help with:

1. I've heard of so many different ways to get a word count on my manuscript that I don't know which one to pick. I use OpenOffice Writer (which seems very like Word), so can't I just use the word count as stated by the program or do I need to count pages etc.?

Use the word count from OpenOffice unless you feel it'll way off base. I checking my latest WiP: MS Word -- 100,569 Openoffice Writer -- 101,055. I was curious as to the difference: MS Word does not count words in the page header/footer; Openofficer Writer does.

2.Another problem, now that I think of it, is that my spell checker seems to have 'run out'; at some point in the novel it stopped checking. What can I do about that? No, I don't depend on it entirely, but it does speed things up.

Can you select portions of the text and spellcheck those? I know that Word spellchecks your selection first and then asks if you want to check the rest of the document.

3.I want to finally start querying agents and I don't know whether I should round my word count up or down, and to the nearest ten or five? Also, even after I query, I might still continue making changes to the manuscript (I think I'm the kind that might keep doing that until the publisher - should I get one - puts an end to it), so how big of a difference in stated and actual rounded up word count would be a problem?

For my novel, it's current word count is 100,569, so my query letter would say 100,000 or 101,000. Any agent who complains about 500 words is a sign of future problems, so good riddance to them.

As far as changes, feel free to keep making them as long as you are aware of what you're changing. You don't want to change major plot points or character, but changing "Bob walked to his car and climbed inside." to "Bob got in his car." is irrelevant. This does change once you send the manuscript -- a publisher had me certify that the final copy I sent them was identical to the reading copy which they had requested after the query. So, I make changes during the query process, but not after I send the manuscript to somebody.

4.The characters in my English novel are actually speaking Arabic, but French and English words slip in, as is frequent in the middle-upper to upper classes; also, I want to use Arabic expressions (when removing them doesn't sound right and translating them into English sounds stilted) in the text the way I occasionally use French ones; I just italicized the French, so can I use different fonts for English and Arabic expressions?

I wouldn't use multiple fonts. In addition, many manuscript guidelines have you remove italics also and replace them with underlining. I would treat all non-English phrases in the same. That French and Arabic are different from each other is less relevant than they're both different from the body of the work.


5.How can I find agents who accept email submissions of manuscripts, not just queries ?(it's really expensive sending paper to New York from the Middle East, and I can't find any international coupons to allow the manuscript to be returned, anyway).

I've never been able to email novel manuscripts. I'm not saying those agents aren't there -- I've just never found one. Do you have any friends in the US that you trust to print, assemble the package, and mail for you?

As always, these comments represent my opinions. However, my opinions are always correct (unless you ask my wife or anyone else who knows me). :-)

[Carrie R.]

I always rounded to the nearest 5k (my novel was at 72,350 and I rounded down to 70k and then I did some edits bumping it to 74,421 and I rounded it up to 75k on the cover page). Don't worry too much about this part -- it's just a way for the agent to know if you're in the range of what they represent.

As for emailing manuscripts, I would hope that if you explained you were overseas that the agent would allow you to email rather than mail. I had 5 requests for fulls and all of them I sent via email (one agent requested both email and snail). All from very reputable houses (and I'm not even overseas). So I think you can def. find agents willing to work with you on that.

Good luck!