: What is the line spacing in novels? I don't mean in a manuscript or submission or anything like that--I mean in the actual novels we read. I googled it and keep getting different answers.

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Typographers don't call it "line spacing." They call it "leading." Comfortable leading depends on the font style, the size of its ascenders and descenders, and the physical size of the text on the printed page (regrettably, all 12 point fonts are not the same physical height).

When I typeset books I usually add 1.25-2.00 points to the default leading for the font because most fonts are too tightly designed for comfortable reading.

Finally, @ggiaquin 's advice is good, but remember that you can't simply duplicate the leading without also duplicating the font size. You need to compare both the physical size of the characters to the whitespace surrounding them. It's actually a bit difficult to duplicate commercially typesetting without the ability to recognize the font face. That comes with practice or a scanner and one of the many websites that will accept the scan and tell you what the font (they think) is.

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