Sunday 16 August 2009

"MF"?

Okay, as you may know I am in the process of editing my novel (I think I might have mentioned it) so when I received an email from the people that run the writing course that I didn't finish saying "the perfect manuscript" I had a look. There's the usual stuff about 12pt Times Roman Numeral, double spacing, good margins etc. Okay so nothing new there then. However there was one thing. It still preaches, as was the case when I did the course, that you put "mf" or "more follows" at the bottom of each page (apart from the last one of course.) I thought that I'd read somewhere that that was looked upon as the mark of an amateur these days.
Or am I just making that up?

5 comments:

Unknown said...

I've never heard of it on this side of the pond, but it may be standard practice for you guys.

Beyond it being amateur... it seems kind of silly. I mean, if there's another page, there's probably more right? And if you're submitting digitally, which is the case with most agents now, it's obvious that there's more. What's the point?

Anonymous said...

I'm no expert but that sounds old-fashioned and a bit pants to me. Personally I would number the pages at the bottom, possibly with the total page count given somewhere - in the covering letter perhaps, or the synopsis.

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Sheila Norton said...

I've never even heard of 'mf', Gonna Be - does that make me even more of an amateur? I've certainly never put it at the bottom of a page. I do number my pages, but that's it!

Paula RC said...

Well, if this is of any help, I didn't put anything like that at the bottom of my MSS and it was read in full by a publisher. So I would say no don't do it.

Good luck with your book, GW

Colette McCormick said...

All of your comments just vindicates my decision to stop doing the course that I was on. It seems that they aren't moving with the times.
TLH it apparently isn't standard practice on this side of the pond.
I tend to put the page number in the top corner Captain but maybe I should put it at the bottom then it would be more like a regular page.
Olivia you are definately not an amateur.
Jarmara don't worry I won't.