Fonts

Not much to say tonight, it's late and I'm pretty tired---I've had a lot to do at work this week, which is great, but leaves me pretty wiped out at night.

But I did notice something today as I was wading through hordes of contest entries, and I thought it was worth sharing.

I have an uncontrollable negative reaction to certain fonts. I think they're Courier and Arial, but I can't be completely sure. They're just harder to read for me, and I think they look somewhat unprofessional, probably because they're a far cry from the fonts used in bound and printed books.

The point here isn't that they're bad fonts, but that font choice can actually matter. As much as I can make an effort to recognize and ignore my gut reaction, it's still there---it's a distraction from the writing, and it's harder work for me to read and evaluate. And as I've said before, that's never a good thing when with every submission I'm looking for a reason to reject it (it may sound harsh, but there are enough submissions in which I can't find a reason that it makes a good M.O.).

So if an agent or publisher has guidelines up about which font to submit in, follow them, even if you personally hate their chosen font. You can always switch back to the one you love again after you've signed a contract. ;-p