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My question is about cans/tins. I’m from the UK but writing some lines featuring a North American male, from Boston.

In terms of tinned (or canned) food or drink would he say;

‘A can of Coke.’ or ‘A tin of Coke.’  ‘Tinned food.’ or ‘Canned food.’ ‘can-opener’ or ‘tin-opener’ or would it even matter i.e. are the two expressions completely interchangeable, neither sounding alien to the American ear?

Thanks in advance, Dill.

such a tragic event happened in my life, my dear wife of 25 years passed away. i am so devastated, so destroyed... well, even typing this brings me to tears. the light of my life has gone out.

i know that when my senses return to me I will be a new man, I will write again, I will survive, I will dig so much deeper into the writing craft to try to move the emotions of other people.

five years on this site... oh, my friends it has been a lifetime of learning how to write better, understanding how to look deeper into the souls of myself and all the good people here who pour their hearts and souls out.

i am so destroyed. i know that when i find the strength to return to writing you people here will be my collective anchors... because oh my GOD, the tempest is upon me!

Here's my setup for printing through Createspace, assuming you're asking about self-publishing and not submitting an MSS to an agent/publisher. Some of these things you will want to tweak depending on how many pages you want your book to be. The longer it is, the higher the cost-of-production per paperback will be. My personal goal was to make my paperbacks identical to one you might pull off a shelf at a bookstore.

Page Setup
     Margins
          Top: 0.65''
          Bottom: 0.5" (leaves a little extra space for a page number beneath)
          Inside:  0.65"
          Outside: 0.35"
          Gutter: 0.18" (assures the edge of the page is not lost to the book's inner binding)
              Pages
                 Multiple Pages: Mirror Margins
      Paper
           Paper Size: Custom
                Width: 5.25"
                Height: 8"
(Many use 6x9, but I prefer a smaller size since I find larger books awkward to carry/read)

Paragraph
      Indents and Spacing
            General
                 Alignment: Justified
                 Outline Level: Body Text
            Indentation
                  Left: 0
                  Right: 0
                  Special:  First Line
                  By: 0.25"
            Spacing
                  Before: 0
                  After: 0
                  Line Spacing: Multiple
                  At: 1.05 (gives a little extra space between lines so the text isn't so cramped and is easier to read)

These are just basic text settings. My chosen font was Palatino Linotype, 9.5. You'll also want to learn about page/section breaks and headers/footers (I alternate every other page with author name/title on the top, with the page number on the bottom). I also imitate other standard publishing things like beginning each chapter halfway down a new page, using drop caps, etc. The file I used as reference to this post was 104,000 words and came out to 332 pages in the final product, after inserting title page/dedication/maps and other front and back matter. Like I said, you may wish to play with margins and font size to make your book more cost effective, or to lengthen it if you want it to have more thickness.

Hello Bunny, I have missed your writing. So I have come back for more...

Love ya,
Spargo Postle