Writing popular fiction

at home, estimate the portion of your living space that is used for writing (don't forget areas where bookcases stand, the easy chair in which you generate ideas every night, or the kitchen table on which you collate scripts, do proofreading, correct galleys) and deduct that percentage of your monthly rent.
Utilities—light, heat, garbage collection. If one fourth of your living space is used for writing, you are permitted to deduct one fourth of your utilities too.
Telephone calls. All long distance calls that are related to your writing career are deductible. If you can honestly say that a considerable portion of your telephone usage is exclusively for business purposes, you can also deduct that percentage of the standard monthly charge, in addition to the charges for the long distance calls.
    40.
Does any country exempt writers from income tax
? Yes, Ireland.
    41.
Do you recommend that footloose writers live in Ireland
? Everyone should investigate the possibility. It does not appeal to me. Ireland is relatively peaceful (Northern Ireland, a completely different country, is the place you've read about in the papers for years, where all the social unrest is fermenting), is an English-speaking country, and is not any more expensive to live in than the U.S. But it is also terribly conservative and out of the mainstream of world affairs, trends, and thoughts. Because of religious and social intolerance, Ireland's great writers have, in the past, been forced to go abroad to do their finest work. But the decision to be an expatriate American in Ireland is one the individual must make himself.
CHAPTER ELEVEN    Marketing Genre Fiction: Questions and Answers
    In addition to the peripheral marketing questions that were covered in the last chapter, let me answer what I believe will be your major questions regarding marketing your stories.
    1.
What is the proper manuscript form
? Use good, bond paper, not the "typing paper" you can pick up in your local five and dime. Good, bond paper can be obtained, by the ream, from any business supply store in your area. I use Sphinx Erasable Bond, twenty pound weight, myself. Although a few editors dislike the erasable papers, these coated stocks can save you enormous amounts of time.
    Once you have your paper in the typewriter, you put the page number in the righthand corner, an inch down from the top. If you haven't an agent, you will also want to put the story title there, or a key word from it, to identify the manuscript and help keep it together as it changes hands. Likewise, if you haven't an agent, your name should go in the upper lefthand corner, also one inch from the top. If you are agented, you need only the page number.
    Next, space down six lines from your name and the page number to begin a chapter. Space down four lines on any ordinary text page. Leave an inch margin on both sides and approximately an inch at the bottom of the page. Indent each paragraph either five or ten spaces (be consistent, of course), and double-space everything, including examples, quotations, etc., which will be indented five or ten spaces.
    An occasional crossed-out word is all right. However, if you begin to change whole phrases, blue-pencil sentences, and make other changes with pencil, you had best retype the page. Editors will bless you for a clean, readable manuscript.
    A novel will have a cover page, containing your address in the upper lefthand corner (or your agent's address, if you have an agent), and an estimate of wordage in the upper righthand corner. Centered will be the title and your byline. The title page isn't numbered; the first page is the first page of your story.
    2.
Should I send a cover letter with the manuscript
? Yes, but keep it short and to the point. Your book should speak for itself; you have no need to explain it to the editor in your letter. If you have no credits to mention, the body of your cover letter might go:
This is a science fiction novel, set on an alien world, written more in the style of the Old Wave authors like Clarke and Heinlein, than in the new, experimental manner of some younger writers. It is, I think, crammed with adventure and action. I hope you'll like it. I've enclosed return postage, and I'll be awaiting your reply.
    If you do have credits, short stories in professional magazines, or perhaps a couple of book sales, you might mention these, at the outset, to let the editor know you have already accomplished something.
    3.
Would it be wise