# Single Space vs Double Space



## Shanna Moncuse (Jan 26, 2016)

Hello, everyone.

So, I finished writing my novel. It's about 71,000 words long. Double spaced it is about 223 pages long and single spaced it's only 110. My question is, should I publish it single spaced or double spaced? The reason I'm asking is because if I submit it single spaced, Amazon will say the novel is only 110 pages long, which seems like a lot less than a novel should actually be. But I'm afraid if I do double space, it will leave too much blank space and too little words per page.

This is what my short story looked like on my laptop Kindle app with single space:









What would you guys recommend I do/share your experience. I could really use some help before I put my novel up on Amazon's Kindle store.


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## Carradee (Aug 21, 2010)

Line multiple of about 1.1 or 1.2 is common and good for legibility. Your indentation's also too big (and looks inconsistent, so you're not creating it right). Are you using the ruler to create it?

What's your word count?


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## KeraEmory (Feb 8, 2016)

I don't think anyone uses double-spacing, but I'm a newb.

Your indentations are strange/inconsistent.


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## Shanna Moncuse (Jan 26, 2016)

Carradee said:


> Line multiple of about 1.1 or 1.2 is common and good for legibility. Your indentation's also too big (and looks inconsistent, so you're not creating it right). Are you using the ruler to create it?
> 
> What's your word count?


I didn't notice that, but you're right!

My word count is approximately 71,000 words.
I'm wondering if I should put that in the Amazon summary so people know it's novel length, even if I decide to go with the single space 110 page version.


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## Shanna Moncuse (Jan 26, 2016)

KeraEmory said:


> I don't think anyone uses double-spacing, but I'm a newb.
> 
> Your indentations are strange/inconsistent.


I didn't think so, it just irks me that my page count will only be 110 pages when the word count is novel length.

Yeah...you're right. I had no idea about that.


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## Carradee (Aug 21, 2010)

I think you're fretting too much about the page count. MS Word pages ≠ Kindle device pages--which themselves will vary, depending on the device and settings used to read it. At that word count, you're gonna be around 200 pages.

(A note on double spacing: that's a format for something that will be edited and have notes/corrections written in, as in a school essay--not for actual final document format. Open up some novels on your bookshelf and take a look.)

*_Edited to correct em dashes to hyphen alternative._


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## Shanna Moncuse (Jan 26, 2016)

Carradee said:


> I think you're fretting too much about the page count. MS Word pages ≠ Kindle device pages--which themselves will vary, depending on the device and settings used to read it. At that word count, you're gonna be around 200 pages.
> 
> (A note on double spacing: that's a format for something that will be edited and have notes/corrections written in, as in a school essay--not for actual final document format. Open up some novels on your bookshelf and take a look.)
> 
> *_Edited to correct em dashes to hyphen alternative._


Thank you! That actually makes me feel a whole lot better. I appreciate the help!


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## AmpersandBookInteriors (Feb 10, 2012)

Typical typography standards have body text at 1.2-1.4 leading (or space between lines). I'd do something like that at 12 pt font for ereader screens, and I agree with the person who said to calm down those indents--you only need 1.2 em or .2 inches or so. You might want to check for tabbing at the beginning of paragraphs, or extra spaces at the beginning. It's usually a good idea to make word styles and apply them to the appropriate paragraphs to make sure things stay consistent (and to help you from going half bald.)

Good luck!


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## Rick Gualtieri (Oct 31, 2011)

Carradee said:


> I think you're fretting too much about the page count. MS Word pages ≠ Kindle device pages--which themselves will vary, depending on the device and settings used to read it. At that word count, you're gonna be around 200 pages.


Actually I think that's understating it by quite a bit. I have a 65K novel that comes in at 340 KENP pages.

Ignoring that, it's close to 300 at 5x8 paperback.


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## Jena H (Oct 2, 2011)

I usually use either single-space or 1.5.  Since the reader can adjust the text to his/her preferences on their chosen device, I don't think it's as important as it used to be.  And btw, I think your screen-grab looks OK


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## Not any more (Mar 19, 2012)

A Word page is not equivalent to a book page. 71K is going to give you a trade paperback around 250 pages and a KENP around 350 pages.

Try a .3 indent in your paragraphs and if you think it looks crowded, put a .3 space between paragraphs. You need to do this with Styles in Word. Do yourself a favor and get Mark Coker's free Smashwords Style Guide and read it. https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52

Once you have a publishable book, save it as a template (such as booktemplate.doc), strip out the text, and use it to start writing on your next book. Formatting issues solved forever. The only platform I've had to modify the base template for was Barnes and Noble. Everyone else takes it without a problem.


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## Shanna Moncuse (Jan 26, 2016)

Thank you guys for all your help. I appreciate it!


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## The Bass Bagwhan (Mar 9, 2014)

Since I got this far I'm going to say anyway...   yes, as someone else mentioned, double space was (or maybe still is) an old printed manuscript format that allowed editors to scribble small adjustments between the lines including some interesting "trade" marks that were fun to decipher. Beyond that (for my vintage) they used post-it notes stuck to the edge of the page. I remember being told that my manuscripts were relatively "clean" and didn't need much editing — and saw like half a tree of post-it notes sticking out of the ream!
Any paragraph formatting in Word seems to translate well. It's one-off paragraph breaks and things like tabs that get screwed up in the Kindle conversion process. So if I create a time space like *** I format the para with 12 points before and after, whereas I discovered that any extra paragraph returns just kind of got swallowed.
Good luck with it.


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## AltMe (May 18, 2015)

1. I refuse to read anything which is double spaced. Its too hard. If I see it in the sample, I'll delete it unread. Doesnt matter how good the cover, blurb and hook are. Double spacing is a read killer for me.

2. KDP will strip out the double spacing when you put it in KU. The difference between the original pages number and the KENPC will be bigger than normal.

3 Double space was for manuscripts submitted on paper to agents and publishers. It has no place at all in ebooks. And should not be a practice today there either, given how many trees are being wasted for this purpose.

4. It tells me you're desperate for a higher page count, and dont mind a passive lie to achieve it. That puts me off you as an author.


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## Gessert Books (Apr 20, 2015)

This would damage your product only to inflate a number that is fairly arbitrary in the first place, and possibly would not even work.


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