Formatting Problems in Books and Manuscripts

When did it become popular to format a work of fiction with no paragraph indent and double spacing between each paragraph? (I mean like this blog is formatted.)

For non-fiction this works, but not fiction.

I don't understand why a writer wouldn't look at a book published by a large publisher and see how they format the paragraphs and do what they do.

The biggest problem I've found with a manuscript formatted with the double space to denote a paragraph is it makes it difficult to realize when there is a change in the point of view. I realize that sometimes, along with the double space for paragraphs the writers doesn't really understand point of view--and that is a whole other problem.

When someone is sending a manuscript off to a publisher, one of the first things they should do is check the publisher's guidelines. Usually, the guidelines will spell out how they want the manuscript formatted. 

Even if the content of the book or manuscript is wonderful, the extra space between every paragraph is annoying to me--and I bet to others who read a lot of books.

My advice is never do anything that will annoy or distract a reader. That goes for a lot of things, but a biggie for me is the extra space between every paragraph.

For a blog, this formatting works fine.

Okay, folks, that's my rant for the day.

Marilyn aka F. M. Meredith

Coming soon, Seldom Traveled, the next Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery.