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12/09/2006
Industry Standards: Fact or Fiction?
This phrase has puzzled many authors for years. What are the “industry standards” for a writer? There are many con artists who use this term to lure in unsuspecting writers and there are agents and editors who use this without offering any real explanation. Even authors who have written for decades can become puzzled when this phrase is tossed around without elaboration.
Aside from submission requirements (double-spaced, appropriate margins, last name and title in header, etc.), there is no set “industry standard.”
When you edit your work until it looks perfect, you have brought your manuscript up to industry standard. It will be up to industry standard when it is ready to submit to agents. There is no magical editing formula or method to guarantee publication or acceptance with any company. Your work is already “standard.” Writers work with their material, they constantly work to improve as a writer, and they produce the best piece they can. It is their own, “industry standard.”
That is all this term means. It isn’t a secret or mystery. Writers all differ and the work they produce is equally diverse. What is your standard will be different to the standards of others. This is precisely why there are no specific rules for the publishing industry. Every editor will differ and every agent will differ. Their personal preferences create what we know to be, “industry standard.”
In closing, you never have to wonder exactly what “industry standards,” are. The only rules are creating the best work we can and following submission guidelines wherever we query.
21:36 Posted in Writing | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: writing, books, novels, fiction
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