A-B-C of Publishing

SELF-PUBLISHING SOLUTIONS:

A-B-C of Publishing

Printing and publishing have a language all their own,

Dragonwick Publishing has included many of the terms

that a self-publishing author may encounter during the

book preparation and production process,

along with some useful tips

A3: 297 mm wide x 420 mm deep; A4: 210 mm wide x 297 mm deep; A5: 148 mm wide x 210 mm deep.

A or an: Use an in place of a when it precedes a vowel sound, not just a vowel. That means it’s ‘an honour’ (the h is silent), but ‘a UFO’ (because it’s pronounced yoo eff oh) and ‘an MRI’ (em ar aye).

Abbreviations consist of the first letter of a word, usually some other letters but not the last letter. Use a full stop after the final letter: Mon., Dec., tel., fig., Co, Rev., etc.

About the Author: A short biography at the end of the main text that lists any expertise the author has in the book’s subject, any previously published books, and a brief summary about the author. This is sometimes placed in the front part of the book or on the back cover.

Acknowledgments: This includes the author’s thanks to people who provided support or help during the writing process or writing career. It may also include credits for illustrations or excerpts if not specified elsewhere. This section can also go at the back of the book if preferred.

Acronyms are strings of initial letters (and sometimes other letters) pronounced as a word: TAFE, ATSIC, ASEAN, Anzac, Qantas, scuba, sonar, etc. There are no full stops after the letters and they are mostly all capitals, but lower case is used for some familiar ones (with an initial capital if a proper noun).

Acrostic Poem: A poem in which certain letters of the lines, usually the first letters, form a word or message relating to the subject. Of ancient origin, examples of acrostic poems date back as far as the fourth century. Strictly speaking, an acrostic uses the initial letters of the lines to form the word or message. If the medial letters are used it is a mesostich; if the final letters, a telestich. The term acrostic, however, is commonly used for all three. When both the initial and final letters are used it is called a double acrostic.

Active voice should be used wherever possible. When a verb is active – ‘Harry stole the bone’, it is usually stronger than when it is passive – ‘the bone was stolen by Harry’.

Affect or effect: ‘Affect’ is a verb meaning to change or influence; ‘effect’ is a noun meaning result or outcome, and can also be a verb meaning to bring about.

Afterword: This is a brief concluding section often used in non-fiction works. It is usually written by someone other than the author.

Aggravate or irritate: ‘Aggravate’ means to make an already troublesome matter or condition worse; ‘irritate’ means to make it troublesome in the first place.

Among or between: Use ‘between’ for two things, ‘among’ for more than two.

Anthology is a collection of literary pieces, especially poems, of varied authorship.

Appendix: This includes any data that might help clarify the information in the book for the reader. Some items included here might be a list of references, tables, reports, background research, and sources.

Arabic page numbers are used for the main text section of a book. They start (from 1) at the first chapter or introduction.

Author’s Corrections: Changes made by the author at the proofing stage.

Autobiography: An account of a person’s life, written by himself or herself.

Avoid euphemisms, clichés and overused or ‘trendy’ words and phrases.

B5: 176 mm wide x 250 mm deep; B6: 125 mm wide x 176 mm deep.

Back Cover: This often features a ‘blurb’ about the author or the book. It should show the ISBN and/or barcode.

Bad writing is prevalent in some published works but don’t be tempted to follow suit. Maintain your standards regardless of how much money and fame second-rate work may bring the writer.

Ballad: A narrative poem with stanzas of two or four lines and usually a refrain.

Barcode: The barcode, representing a product’s number in a form which can be read by an electronic barcode scanner, is used by publishers, booksellers and libraries to order, sell and manage books. The barcode should be included on the back cover of the book, for ease of use.

Bibliography or References: Both the bibliography and reference sections list the sources for works used in a book. The sources are arranged alphabetically by the author’s last name.

Bimonthly can mean ‘every two months’ or ‘twice a month’. To avoid confusion, it is preferable to use ‘every two months’ or ‘twice monthly’.

Binding: The various methods used to secure loose leaves or sections in a book: saddle stitch, perfect bound.

Bio: Usually a short two-sentence description of the author in the third person.

Biography: An account of a person’s life, written by someone else.

Bitmap (BMP): This is the standard Windows bitmap image format on Windows-compatible computers. It is not suitable for commercially printed or online documents.

Black and White (B/W): Black print colour on a white background. Also called mono.

Bleed: Layout that extends beyond the trim marks on a page. The page is printed on a larger sheet and then trimmed back to size.

Blurb is the abbreviated, positive review of the book or the author, often appearing on the back cover or in the front matter.

Body Text: Main text of the document, not including the headlines.

Book Producers: Book producers work with self-publishing authors to create commercial-quality books – offering services such as design, page makeup, copy-editing and organising printing.

Book Sizes: A5 size is most commonly used for poetry collections, anthologies, children’s stories, memoirs and novels. B5 size is often used for local and family histories. A4 size can be used for children’s picture books and large-format local histories. Custom sizes can also be used.

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Can or may: ‘I can’ means I am able; ‘I may’ means I am allowed.

Capitalisation: In the past, writers tended to use capital letters for many words, whether they were proper nouns or not. Following are some correct uses of capitals. If in doubt, you can usually follow the general rule: if the word is preceded by ‘a’ (a post office), don’t capitalise; if preceded by ‘the’ (the Oodnadatta Post Office), use capitals.

Christmas Day, Derby Day, New Year’s Day, etc. – but happy new year; spring, summer, autumn, winter (all lower case except when personified); Parramatta Road, Eddy Avenue, Grange Crescent – but road, avenue, crescent, etc.

Afghan hound, Airedale terrier, Great Dane, Labrador, Newfoundland, Pomeranian, Samoyed, Schnauzer, Scotch terrier – but basset hound, bulldog, bull terrier, cocker spaniel, golden retriever, pug, poodle. Venezuela, Alaska, Estonians, Sudanese; Latin, Hellenic, Parisian. Indian ink, Indian file, Indian clubs but indian summer; French polish, French stick – but french window; Morocco – but morocco bound; Chinese but chinaware; Turkish bath, Turkish delight.

Christian, Shakespearian, Dickensian – but boycott, quixotic, wellington boots, pasteurise; Byzantine (architecture) – but byzantine (complexity); an Adonis, a Casonova, a Venus – but a sandwich, a cardigan, a valentine; pro-Nazi, anti-British and non-Catholic; Halley’s comet, Parkinson’s disease; the Pope – but popes, Pope Paul, Pope Benedict, etc.

Endeavour, HMAS Sydney, SS Titanic; Concorde, Fokker, Boeing 727, 1910 Rolls Royce the Ghan. Note: Italics are used for individual names but not for types or models.

Anglicise, bologna sausage, braille, Central American, Caesarean section, Cheshire cheese, French dressing, Gothic architecture (but gothic novel), lyonnaise potatoes, madras cloth, melba toast, mid-Atlantic, plaster of paris, Pre-Raphaelite, roman type, roman/arabic numerals, Russian roulette, Southerner, southern hemisphere, Spanish omelette, transatlantic, Trans-Siberian Railway, Hills Hoist, Holden, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Ronson, Victa, Xerox, Aspro, Kodak, Vegemite, etc.

Case Bind: Also called cloth bind or hard cover bind. Stiff boards are covered by material, such as fabric, and then placed on the front and back covers of a book.

Cataloguing in Publication (CiP): The National Library of Australia (NLA) manages Cataloguing-in- Publication (CiP) data, and will prepare a CiP entry for books before they are published, from a form completed by the publisher. The CiP information should be printed on the imprint page according to the guidelines provided by the NLA.

Chapbook is a small book or pamphlet containing ballads, poems, popular tales, etc.

Chapter Books: For ages 7–10, these books are 45–60 manuscript pages long, broken into 3–4 page chapters. Stories are meatier than transition books, though still contain a lot of action. The sentences can be a bit more complex, but paragraphs are still short (2–4 sentences is average). Chapters often end in the middle of a scene to keep the reader turning the pages.

Chapters and Parts: Most books are divided into chapters, with titles similar in style and length, and be equally placed throughout the manuscript. When text can be logically divided into sections larger than chapters, the chapters may be grouped in parts. Each part is normally numbered and often given a title.

Cinquain: A five-line stanza of syllabic verse, the successive lines containing two, four, six, eight and two syllables. Based on the Japanese haiku, it was an innovation of the American poet, Adelaide Crapsey.

Clerihew: A comic, light verse, two couplets in length, rhyming aabb. It was named for its originator, Edmund Clerihew Bentley, an English writer.

Clichés are phrases that were once original but have now been so overused that they have lost their impact – it was raining cats and dogs. Clichés are examples of lazy writing and should only be used in dialogue.

Clip Art: Generic graphics that can be cut and pasted electronically into the document.

CMYK: Abbreviation for the colours (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) used in four-colour process printing.

Colophon: Originally, this term referred to information about the publisher and printing, data now found on the imprint page. However, it can also appear on the last right-hand page of the book, containing, e.g. the history of the edition, designer or printer’s name, typefaces, binding, etc.

Commercial Publishers: These companies distribute books under their own imprint. They purchase manuscripts from authors and undertake the cost of producing them – editing, design, typesetting, printing, marketing, distribution, etc. The books are owned by the publisher and remain in their possession until sold. The author usually owns the copyright to the material and receives royalties – a small percentage of the revenues.

Compound Words: Two or more words are often hyphenated if this makes the meaning clearer to the reader, e.g. accident-prone, baby-boomer, cat-o’-nine-tails, devil-may-care, even-tempered, evil-minded, fifty-fifty, great-aunt/niece/nephew, hand-me-downs, ill-advised, jiggery-pokery, knick-knack, left-handed, make-believe, near-sighted, off-peak, penny-pinching, quarter-hour, self-publish, tam-o’-shanter, up-market, vice-presidential, weather-beaten, X-ray, yellow-bellied, zero-rated.

Conclusion provides a summary of ideas, concepts, and advice about the major concepts presented in the book and some guidelines on what to do with that information. It would replace an epilogue or afterword.

Contents: This is essential in a non-fiction book that has parts and chapters. A contents page in a fiction book is only used if the work includes specific chapter titles, not just numbers. Roman numerals are usually displayed from the second contents page.

Contractions: These consist of the first and last letters of a word and sometimes other letters in between. There are no full stops after the contraction, e.g. Mr, Rd, Cwlth, Pty Ltd, Bros, etc.

Copy-edit: An edit that checks for grammar, spelling, punctuation and inconsistencies in style.

Copyright ©: Copyright is an internationally recognised system of protecting the rights of creators of written, performed or artistic works such as books, plays, paintings, computer programs or sound recordings.

Couplet: Two successive lines of poetry, usually of equal length and rhythmic correspondence, with end-words that rhyme. The couplet, for practical purposes, is the shortest stanza form, but is frequently joined with other couplets to form a poem with no stanzaic divisions.

Creative Non-Fiction is non-fiction in the first person.

Crop: Cut off unwanted parts of a picture or image.

Dates: In running text, dates are best presented using numerals for the day and year but spelling the month in full: 15 March 1943. No punctuation is necessary, even when including the name of the day:

Friday 10 February 1937.

Dedication: There are no rules for the information to be included, as it is usually of a personal nature. Commonly centred on the page, the typographic treatment should suit the subject.

Desktop Publishing: Book design, layout, and production completed on a computer by specific software.

Dictionary: The Australian Government recommends using the Macquarie Dictionary or the Australian Oxford Dictionary. Choose one of these and follow its first preferences consistently.

Didactic Poetry: Poetry which is clearly intended for the purpose of instruction – to impart theoretical, moral, or practical knowledge, or to explain the principles of some art or science.

Dialogue must be believable. Don’t report it as it would be said in real life (very few people talk in a direct way). Select only those words that advance the story and then rewrite in a manner that ‘sounds like someone is actually speaking’.

Digital (On Demand) Printing: Printing direct from computer files to paper.

Digraphs (ae/oe) are used in English spelling but not American. However, in Australia ‘encyclopedia’, ‘medieval’ and sometimes ‘fetus’ are usually spelt with just ‘e’. When a digraph appears at the beginning of a word, as in ‘aesthetic’ or ’oestrogen’, it is always retained.

Dirge: A poem of grief or lamentation, especially one intended to accompany funeral or memorial rites.

Distributor: A company that buys books from a publisher/author or other distributors and resells them to retail accounts.

Doggerel: Originally applied to poetry of loose irregular measure, it now is used to describe crudely written poetry which lacks artistry in form or meaning.

Dots per Inch (dpi): Used to measure resolution of photographs for printing purposes.

Double negatives, like ‘not unlikely’ should be avoided.

Dragonwick: This is a TrueType script font with broad, sweeping letterforms, and Dragonwick Publishing use the name (and typestyle) for their book production & printing service for self-publishers.

Drop Cap: A large initial letter at the start of the text that drops into the line or lines of text below.

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Easy Readers: Also called ‘easy-to-read’, these books are for children just starting to read on their own (age 6–8). They have colour illustrations on every page like a picture book, but the format is more ‘grown-up’ – smaller trim size, sometimes broken into short chapters. The length varies greatly by publisher; the books can be 32–64 pages long, with 200–1,500 words of text, occasionally going up to 2,000 words. The stories are told mainly through action and dialogue, in grammatically simple sentences (one idea per sentence). Books average 2–5 sentences per page.

E-books (Electronic Books) are books published in electronic form that can be downloaded to computers.

Editing: Changing or correcting the contents of a book in order to improve the final results or to fit a format.

Edition: Different versions of a book, e.g. pocket edition or 2nd edition.

Elergy: A poem of lament, usually formal and sustained, over the death of a particular person; also, a meditative poem in plaintive or sorrowful mood.

Ellipsis ( … ): This is three points and is normally used to show the omission of words from quoted material. There are no spaces between the points but a space is used before and after.

Em Dash (—): This dash is one ‘em’ in length and is used without separating spaces.

En Dash (–): Half the length of the em dash (and twice the length of a hyphen). When used in normal text it has spaces either side. If used specifically (instead of the word ‘to’), e.g. 1900–1907, London–Paris, it is not spaced.

End Matter is the section after the body of the text and may include the references, index, bibliography, author biography, etc.

Epic: An extended narrative poem, usually simple in construction, but grand in scope, exalted in style, and heroic in theme, often giving expression to the ideals of a nation or race. Homer, the author of The Iliad and The Odyssey, is sometimes referred to as the ‘Father of Epic Poetry’.

Epigraph: A significant quote or phrase, usually placed at the front of the book.

Epilogue: Additional text at the end of the book, serving as a brief comment or conclusion to the preceding text – often continuing the story years later. Chapter numbers are not used for this section.

Epithet: An adjective or adjectival phrase, usually attached to the name of a person or thing, such as ‘Richard the Lion-Hearted’.

Every day or everyday: Everyday (one word) is an adjective, and means not out of the ordinary, e.g. An everyday event happens every day.

Exaggerate minor incidents, if they further the plot line or begin a change in a character or conflict. Minor incidents are sometimes the ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’ and should be emphasised in the writing.

Expressions of time: They used to have apostrophes, ‘five weeks’ time’, but it is now often left out. However, when the time reference is in the singular, the apostrophe should be retained: ‘a day’s journey’.

Familiar, everyday words are easier for readers to understand.

Farther or Further: Farther applies to physical distance, further to metaphorical distance, e.g. You walk farther, but pursue a matter further.

Final Draft: The final proof after all other proofing and editing steps have been completed.

First person writing, especially in short stories and poetry, is an ideal way to make the characters’ feelings immediate and it is much easier to move from the present to the past.

First Australian Rights: The rights in Australia in the medium in which the writing was published. You can publish the work overseas.

First Print Rights: The rights anywhere in the world to your writing in the medium it is published in.

Flash Fiction: Fiction under 500 words.

Flush Left/Right: Type aligned to the left or right margins.

Flyer: Circular for promotional distribution.

Folio (Page Number): Actual page number in a publication.

Font: Set of characters in a specific typeface.

Foreign Words and Phrases: Keep their usage down as overuse will only confuse the readers.

Foreword: This contains a statement about the book and is usually written by someone other than the author, who is an expert or is widely known in the field of the book’s topic. A foreword is most commonly found in non-fiction books.

Fortuitous: Means ‘happening by chance’, not interchangeable with fortunate.

Four-colour Process: Printing in full colour using the major colours – magenta, cyan, yellow and black (CMYK).

Four-digit numbers do not require a space or comma, since they are short enough to be readable: ‘$1000’, ‘4587’ or ‘7.8456’.

Free Verse: A fluid form of poetry, which conforms to no set rules of traditional versification.

Frontispiece: This is an illustration that faces the (full) title page. It is always printed in portrait format.

Front Matter: The series of pages that appear before the body of text. This usually includes the half-title page, title page, imprint page, dedication, foreword, contents, list of illustrations, preface and acknowledgements.

Full stops are not used after displayed titles of books or poems, headings, running heads and footers, captions that are not complete sentences, index entries and symbols for units of measurement.

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Gatefold: Sheet bound into a book that folds out, often used for a map or chart.

Genre: A specific category of literature, marked by a distinctive style form or content.

GIF (.gif): Graphics Interchange Format is a standard for displaying graphics on the World Wide Web and other online services. Because it compresses image data it is not suitable for displaying photographs online (use JPEG instead) and is not recommended for commercial printing.

Glaze: A clear film applied to the cover of a paperback book for glossy appearance and protection.

Glossary: A glossary comprises alphabetically arranged words and their definitions.

Grammage (gsm): Weight of the paper in grams per square inch (e.g. 80 gsm).

Graphics: The non-text parts of a book such as drawings, illustrations, photographs, charts, etc. that are used to enhance the content of a book.

Guard your writing time, at all costs. Family and friends must not be allowed to impose on the writer’s ‘working time’. Even writers who have not yet been published or who only write for pleasure, must make people respect the time they use for writing.

Gutter: The inside margins of a books towards the binding edge.

Haiku: Three-line poems of Japanese origin, which accurately celebrate an aspect of nature. For some examples, see a selection from Quendryth Young’s book, The Whole Body Singing.

Hairline: A very thin line, often used around illustrations.

Half-title Page: This is first page in a book and contains only the main title of the book – not the series title, subtitle, or author’s or publisher’s name. The back of this page is usually blank but can contain a list of other titles by the author, editors or publishers.

Half-tone: A scanned photograph.

Hanging Hyphens are sometimes used to connect two words to a common word they share, e.g. ‘full- or part-time jobs.

Hard Copy: A printed version of a manuscript or other text, as opposed to an electronic copy of the text (on computer or disk).

Hard Cover: See Case Bind

Header: Used at the top of the page, often contains the book name and/or chapter and page number.

House Style: Copy-editing rules for spelling, punctuation, etc. used by a publishing house.

Humanise your characters. Small mannerisms can make the reader feel that the character is behaving like a human – he was nervously tapping his fingers. Tapping fingers is not a character trait but just adds to the humanising behaviour of a fictional character.

Hyperbole: A bold, deliberate overstatement, e.g. ‘I’d give my left arm for a cold drink’. Not intended to be taken literally, it is used as a means of emphasising the truth of a statement.

Hyphens are used to connect numbers up to ninety-nine that comprise two words: twenty-two, ninety-one. A number expressed in numerals may be joined by a hyphen to other hyphenated words, but hyphenated numbers expressed as words should not, e.g. a 42-year-old house, a forty-two year old house – not a forty-two-year-old house.

Imagery: The elements in a literary work used to evoke mental images, not only of the visual sense, but of sensation.

Immigrate or Emigrate: One immigrates to, e.g. My family immigrated to Australia in 1848. But one emigrates from, e.g. My family emigrated from England in 1848.

Impossible success stories should be taken with a grain of salt. Most writers spend years honing their craft before recognition. The exceptions are rare and should not be relied upon as a scenario that could possibly happen to you.

Imprint Page: Usually the reverse page of a book’s title page. Carries information such as CiP data, including a book’s ISBN, copyright line, publication date, edition number and information about the publisher and printer. Other information, relevant to the publication, may also be included.

Index: An alphabetical list of names, events, etc. mentioned within the book. It is the last section of the book, and takes into account both the terminology used in the publication and the types of words and phrases readers might use to search for the information. A good index not only is of great benefit to users but also lends authority to the book. Most libraries will not accept a non-fiction book without an index.

Infringement of Copyright: This is using someone else’s work or part thereof without their permission. This includes photocopying, copying by hand, scanning and recording. Strict penalties apply.

Initialisms are strings of initial letters (and sometimes other letters) not pronounced as a word: NSW, SBS, PC, TV, CPI, IQ. There are no full stops and all capitals are used.

International Standard Book Number (ISBN): A unique, 13-digit number that ensures books are identified throughout the world. The allocation of ISBNs in Australia is managed by Thorpe Information Services. A separate ISBN is required for each different title published, and each new edition of a title.

Introduction: This section gives information about the following text that the reader should know before proceeding to read the book. Unlike a preface, an introduction refers to the main body of the work itself, and may also describe, in more detail than a preface, the research, methods, and overall concept of the book. It normally appears after the contents and before the first chapter of the book. The introduction should start on a right hand page, and normal arabic page numbers start here.

‘ize’ or ‘ise’: The broad rule is that the ‘-ize’ endings are standard in America, but that ‘-ise’ ones are now usual in Britain and the Commonwealth. All British newspapers use the ‘-ise’ forms; so do most magazines and most non-academic books published in the UK. However, some British publishers insist on the ‘-ize forms’ (Oxford University Press especially). Most British dictionaries quote both forms but, despite common usage, put the ‘-ize’ form first. Exceptions are ‘surprise’ and ‘prize’.

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Jot down all your ideas and thoughts. Many successful writers carry a small notebook at all times. It has served them well.

JPEG (.jpg): The Joint Photographic Experts Group format is commonly used to display photographs and other continuous-tone images in HTML files over the web and in other online media.

Justify: Alignment of text with both margins.

Keep writing, even if it’s rubbish you’ll never use. Ideas come from other ideas and compound themselves in the writer’s mind and, remember, the act of writing begets writing.

Kerning: The adjustment of space between letters.

Keyline: An outline drawn on artwork showing position of an illustration.

Kicker: A short, snappy ending.

Laminate: A thin, transparent plastic coating applied to paper, providing protection or accent colour.

Lampoon: A bitter, abusive satire in prose or verse attacking an individual. Motivated by malice, a lampoon is intended solely to reproach and distress.

Landscape: Format in which width is greater than height. Portrait is the opposite.

Lateral Reversal (Flip Horizontal): Image transposed left to right as a reflection of the original.

Latinisms should be avoided in your writing. Don’t use words and phrases that have come from other languages – ‘sotto voce’, ‘carte blanche’, etc. Use a simple, strong English expression that everyone will understand.

Latin Shortened Forms: Many Latin shortened forms are used regularly, they are regarded as being thoroughly anglicised and are used in roman (not italic) type: c. (circa, about, approximately), e.g. (exempli gratia, for example), et al. (et alii, and others), etc. (et cetera, and so forth, and so on), i.e. (id est, that is), MS (manuscriptum, manuscript), NB (nota bene, take careful note), PPS (post postscriptum, second postscript), PS (postscriptum, postscript), v, vs (versus, against), viz. (videlicet, namely).

Leading: Space between the lines of type.

Lead Time: The time between submitting your manuscript for production and the completion of the books.

Legal deposit is a legal requirement to ensure that copies of publications are deposited in libraries in the country in which they are published. There is no charge for legal deposit.

Less or Fewer: Less means ‘not as much’; fewer means ‘not as many’.

Ligatures: Certain type character pairings cause awkward collisions: fi, fl, ff, fj, ffi. This is resolved by ligatures, which combine the letters into a more elegant shape. Ligatures are not available in all typefaces.

Limerick: A light or humorous verse form of five lines of which one, two and five are of three feet and lines three and four are of two feet, with a rhyme scheme of aabba. The limerick, named for a town in Ireland of that name, was popularised by Edward Lear in his Book of Nonsense, published in 1846.

Logo: Identification mark used by an individual, business or organisation as a representation symbol.

Long Words: Don’t use long words where short ones will do; it makes your writing dense and difficult to understand.

Malapropism: A mistaken substitution of one word for another that sounds similar, generally with humorous effect, as in ‘arduous romance’ for ‘ardent romance’. The term is named for the character, Mrs Malaprop, in Richard Sheridan’s play, The Rivals, who made frequent misapplications of words.

Manuscript: A writer’s document of a novel, non-fiction book, screenplay or article.

Margins: The white space that surrounds the printed area of a page.

Media is a plural noun, the singular is ‘medium’, and the plural of ‘curriculum vitae’ is ‘curricula vitae’. Whereas, the noun ‘data’ is both singular and plural.

Memoir(s): Records of one’s own life and experiences.

Metaphors, used correctly, can add vitality to your material – ‘the moon was a sliver of light’. But don’t mix them (too confusing), unless in dialogue to define a character’s personality.

Middle Grade Books: This is the golden age of reading for many children, ages 8–12. Manuscripts suddenly get longer (100–150 pages), stories more complex (sub-plots involving secondary characters are woven through the story) and themes more sophisticated. Kids get hooked on characters at this age, which explains the popularity of series with twenty or more books involving the same cast.

Mixed Metaphor: A metaphor whose elements are either incongruent or contradictory by the use of incompatible identifications, such as ‘the dog pulled in its horns’ or ‘to take arms against a sea of troubles’.

Mock-up: The rough visual for a design.

Moiré Pattern: Checkerboard pattern caused when a previously printed photograph is rescanned.

Never marry another writer. You would be letting yourself in for a life of unmitigating torment. Writers should marry real people – not other writers!

Novel: A fiction book for adults usually 40,000 to 60,000 words or more (often contemporary, romance or young adults are less). Generation, spy thrillers and historical are often 80,000 to 100,000 words.

Numbers: It is usual to spell out numbers less than one hundred but this is dependent on house style. But you should not begin a sentence with a number, either spell it out or rewrite, and in a series of numbers, don’t mix them up – either spell them out or use numerals.

OCR (Optical Character Recognition): Software that converts a printed page into a file that can be edited.

Offset: Method of printing where a cylinder is used to transfer the image from plate to paper.

Organisation names should be spelt exactly as they themselves spell it: World Health Organization (not Organisation) and US Department of Defense (not Defence).

Orphan: First line of a paragraph beginning at the foot of a page.

Overlong speeches lose the interest of the reader. If the character speaks more than four sentences, he is delivering a speech. Break up the dialogue with some action or an interruption from another character.

Oxymoron: The grouping of words which, at first view, seem to be contradictory or incongruous, but expresses a truth or dramatic effect, such as, cool fire, deafening silence, wise folly, etc.

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Page Count: Total number of pages including blank pages.

Palindrome: A word, verse, or sentence in which the sequence of letters is the same forward and backward, as the word, ‘madam’, or the sentence, ‘A man, a plan, a canal: Panama’. A variation in which the sequence of words is the same forward and backward is called a word-order palindrome. The invention of the palindrome has been attributed to Sotades, a third century Greek writer of lascivious verse.

Paragraphs should contain only one developed idea. It often begins with a topic sentence which sets the tone of the paragraph; the rest amplifies, clarifies, or explores the topic sentence. When you change topics, start a new paragraph. There’s no hard and fast rule for the length of a paragraph: it can be as short as a sentence or as long as it has to be.

Parody: A ludicrous imitation, usually for comic effect but sometimes for ridicule, of the style and content of another work. The humour depends upon the reader’s familiarity with the original. A parody can also be intended as an affectionate tribute to the original work.

Pathetic Fallacy: The ascribing of human traits or feelings to inanimate nature for eloquent effect, e.g. ‘cruel wind’, a ‘pitiless storm’. The term was coined in 1856 by John Ruskin, an English painter, art critic and essayist. While his intent was derogatory, the term is now applied in a neutral sense as a less formal type of personification.

PDF (Page Description Format): Popular format for Adobe Acrobat Reader for text and graphic material.

Perfect Bind: The binding of sheets and cover with glue, common for paperback books.

Placenames: Those involving possessives are all written without apostrophes: Mrs Macquaries Chair, St Marys, Frenchs Forest, Kings Cross, Murphys Grass.

Plot and character must be balanced in your writing. Neither should assume prominence over the other. If the readers cannot become involved with the characters, why should they care what happens to them?

Plural Forms of Shortened Words: These are usually made by just adding ‘s’, without a preceding apostrophe, e.g. MPs (not MP’s), FAQs (not FAQ’s), paras, figs, etc.

Poetic Licence: The liberties generally allowable for a writer to take with his subject matter to achieve a desired effect.

Portmanteau Word: An artificial word made up of parts of others, so called because of two meanings combined in one word, as in Lewis Carroll’s ‘Jabberwocky’, in which he combined lithe and slimy into ‘slithy’, or the word ‘smog’, formed from smoke and fog.

Portrait: An upright image or page, where the height is greater than the width. The opposite is landscape.

Preface: Common in non-fiction books, it is written by the author and usually describes why the book was written, research methods, qualifications and expertise in the book’s subject matter.

Proofreader: Checks the manuscript to make certain that the copy is correct and verified before final printing.

Prose is ordinary language people use in speaking or writing, distinguished from the language of poetry.

Protagonist: The protagonist or main character is the central figure of a story. The word derives from the Greek protagonistes, ‘one who plays the first part, chief actor’.

Proverb: A brief, pithy popular saying or epigram embodying some familiar truth, practical interpretation of experience, or useful thought.

Quatrain: A poem, unit or stanza of four lines of verse. It is the most common stanzaic form. Sometimes two or more quatrains are interlocked by a chain rhyme.

Quiet space is important (preferably a room with a door that shuts), as is a typewriter or computer, for the serious writer. It also helps if you can type properly – saves a lot of time! Editors definitely give preference to the well-presented manuscript.

Quintet or Quintain: A poem, unit or stanza of five lines of verse.

Quotation Marks: Their function is to show direct speech and the quoted work of other writers. Other uses are for enclosing the title of a song or an article in a magazine, and for drawing attention to a term that is unusual. Single quotation marks are becoming the norm in Australia, with double quotation marks used for quotes within quotes. The opposite is also correct.

References or End Notes: These may replace or supplement footnotes in a work. Throughout the text they are usually represented in superscript type, with the applicable reference printed at the bottom of the page or in the End Notes/References section. This can be at the end of each chapter/part or at the end of the book, before the index.

Resolution is used to express image quality. 300 dpi TIFFS are used for commercial printing.

Resources: Readers may want to buy products or learn more about the field in which you’ve written. A list of organisations and associations, manufacturers and distributors, websites, and other sources can be invaluable to your readers.

Rhetorical Question: A question solely for effect, with no answer expected. By the implication that the answer is obvious, it is a means of achieving an emphasis stronger than a direct statement.

Reverse: Type printed as white on a dark background.

Revision: You should always spend a lot of time revising your work – looking not only for grammatical errors, but also wasted words, improving clarity and precision. You should be prepared to put as much energy into revision as you do into the original composition. Let some time pass between your first draft and your revision – you’ll be able to read your own writing with fresh eyes, and to see things you missed before.

Rewriting is probably the most important process you’ll go through before submitting your manuscript – over and over (and over) again.

RGB: A colour format using red, green, blue, the additive colour primaries.

Richochet Words: Hyphenated words, usually formed by reduplicating a word with a change in the radical vowel or the initial consonant sound, such as pitter-patter, chit-chat, riff-raff, wishy-washy, hob-nob, roly-poly, pell-mell, razzle-dazzle, etc.

Roman numerals are used as page numbers (xiii) for the front matter of a book. However, they are not usually displayed until the second contents page.

Royalties: A percentage of the cover price of a book, paid to authors by commercial publishers.

RRP (Recommended Retail Price): The GST-inclusive price at which retail outlets sell the book.

Running Head or Footer: A line of type at the top or bottom of a page which repeats the book or chapter title.

Run-On Sentences: Just as there’s nothing inherently wrong with a long word, there’s nothing wrong with a long sentence. But it has to be grammatical. A run-on sentence is ungrammatical, not just long. It often happens when two sentences are run into one without the proper punctuation.

Saddle Stitch: Bind by stapling sheets together through the centre.

Sans Serif: A typeface that has no small strokes at the end of the main stroke of the character, e.g. Arial.

Satire: A literary work which exposes and ridicules human vices or folly.

Self-pity is not to be indulged in. Everyone has failures (Tolstoy, Hemingway, Joyce, etc.) but you must rise above rejection and soldier on.

Self-publishing: The publishing of books and other media by the authors of those works, rather than by established, third-party publishers.

Self-publishers: Authors who pay for the design, production, printing and distribution of their books.

Semicolon: This has two common uses: to separate the items in a list after a colon and to separate two independent clauses in one sentence. In this second use, the semicolon can always be replaced by a period and a new sentence.

Sentences: A sentence should contain one idea, though that can be a complex or compound idea. If your writing lacks clarity, check to see if a long, bad sentence might make two short, good ones.

Sentence length should be kept to an average of twenty-two words, where possible.

Sentence Fragments: A sentence fragment is a group of words without a subject and a verb.

Serif: Type with a small cross stroke at the end of the main stroke of the letter, e.g. Times New Roman.

Serpentine Verses: Verses ending with the same word with which they begin. The term alludes to the old representation of snakes with their tails in their mouths, which was symbolic of eternity, without beginning or end.

Sestina: A fixed form of poetry consisting of six 6-line (usually unrhymed) stanzas in which the end words of the first stanza recur as end words of the following five stanzas in a successively rotating order.

Short Story: Fiction under 10,000 words but usually less than 7,000 for most markets. In science fiction it’s less than 7,500 words.

Short Short Story: Fiction under 1,000 words.

Simile: A figure of speech in which an explicit comparison is made between two essentially unlike things.

Sonnet: A fixed form of poetry consisting of fourteen lines of five-foot iambic verse.

Spans of numerals require an en dash, not a hyphen: 8–14, 1990–91, 36–32 BC, 1815–1896, 6–10 pm. However, an en dash should not be used in spans following the words ‘from’ or ‘between’.

Speculative Fiction: Fiction which combines elements of fantasy and science fiction or covers all forms of beyond reality fiction.

Spine: The binding on the side (back) of a book. The title of the book and the author’s name are usually printed here.

Spiral Bind: Continuous wire or plastic binding.

Stanza: A division of a poem made by arranging the lines into units separated by a space.

Style Guides: If you only buy one book on publishing style, make sure you get Style Manual: For Authors, Editors and Printers, 6th Edition. It is published by John Wiley & Sons, revised by Snooks & Co, ISBN 0-7016-364803, and regarded as the ‘bible’ for publishing professionals in both the public and private sectors.

Subscript/Superscript: Small characters set below or above the normal letters, e.g. C₂O or m².

Symbols are internationally recognised representations of units of measurement, words and concepts, e.g. km, W (watt), A$, %, &, @, ©. There are no full stops and capitals only if the symbol represents a proper name. The shortened forma of units of measurement do not take the plural ‘s’, as they are symbols rather than abbreviations or contractions, e.g. 10 kg (not 10 kgs). There is a space between the numeral and the measurement.

Synopsis: Used in the book manuscript or proposal sent to the publisher, and is a brief description of the chapters or overall work.

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Tanka: The classic form of Japanese poetry with five unrhymed lines of five, seven, five, seven, and seven syllables to produce a concentrated essence of a single event, image or mood.

Tautology: The unnecessary and excessive repetition of the same idea in different words in the same sentence, as ‘The house was completely dark and had no illumination’, or ‘A breeze greeted the dusk and nightfall was heralded by a gentle wind’.

Temperature can be expressed in words, ‘ten degrees’ or numerals, followed by a space, then the degree symbol and the letter C (Celsius): ‘20.4 ºC’.

Tempo should be maintained throughout your writing – especially in short stories. A descriptive passage about a train trip will remain passive until something actually happens.

That or Which: The relative pronoun, that, is restrictive, and means it tells you a necessary piece of information about its antecedent; which is non-restrictive, and does not limit the word it refers to. A handy rule is: if you can tell which thing is being discussed without the which or that clause, use which; if you can’t, use that.

TIFF (.tif): Tagged Image File Format is a flexible bitmap image format supported by virtually all painting, image-editing, and page-layout applications. TIFFs are used for reproducing photographs in commercial printing.

Time of day, in documents where few numerals are used, can be expressed in words: ‘quarter to twelve’, ‘ten o’clock’, ‘the eleven-forty train’. However, time presented as words can appear approximate, so numerals should be used when the exact time is required: ‘8.22 am’, ‘7 am/7.00 am’.

Title Page: Properly known as the full-title page, this page is the next right-hand page after the half-title page (the third page in the book). It contains the title of the book, subtitle (if any), edition number, name of the author(s) or general editor(s), name of the illustrator and the publisher’s name (imprint).

Titles: The titles of books and other long works (plays, operas, etc.) are italicised; the titles of shorter works (essays, poems, etc.) appear in quotation marks, e.g. The Importance of Being Earnest or ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol’.

Transition Books: Sometimes called ‘early chapter books’ for ages 6–9, they bridge the gap between easy readers and chapter books. Written like easy readers in style, transition books are longer (manuscripts are about 30 pages long, broken into 2–3 page chapters), books have a smaller trim size with black-and-white illustrations every few pages.

Trimmed Size: The final dimension of a book after the printer or bindery has cut it to size.

Typeface: The name used to refer to a complete set of character forming a type family in a particular style, e.g. Arial.

Typesetting: A term that originally referred to the setting of lead type for printing presses or phototypesetting. With advancing technology nearly all ‘typesetting’ is now done on the computer.

Typing Spaces: These days, with the advent of desktop publishing software, you only use one space after full stops, exclamation and question marks, commas, etc. If more than one are used, they have to be taken out when the manuscript is typeset.

Units of measurement should never be separated from their numerals at the end of a line: ‘100 kg’, ‘300 kilometres’, $10 billion’. Dates and names with initials should also not be broken at the ends of lines, if possible.

Unwanted or Unwonted: ‘Unwanted’ means not wanted, whereas ‘unwonted’ means not customary or usual.

Use all five senses in your character descriptions – not just sight. In this way, the characters broaden and they become more interesting.

Vanity plays a large part in writing. Unless a writer thinks he has something to say that the public is just clamouring to hear, he won’t continue to write.

Vanity Publishers: These companies distribute books under their own imprint. Unlike a commercial publisher, the author pays all or part of the cost of publication. The books remain with the publisher and authors receive royalties.

Verbs should be used in preference to nouns derived from verbs: ‘explain’ rather than ‘provide an explanation’.

Vignette: An illustration with tone that gradually fades away, blending with the unprinted page.

Villanelle: A poem in a fixed form, consisting of five three-line stanzas followed by a quatrain and having only two rhymes. In the stanzas following the first, the first and third lines of the first stanza are repeated alternately as refrains. They are the final two lines of the concluding quatrain.

Wasted Words: Many words and phrases rarely add anything to a sentence. Avoid these whenever you can: quite, very, extremely, as it were, moreover, it can be seen that, it has been indicated that, basically, essentially, totally, completely, therefore, it should be remembered that, it should be noted that, thus, it is imperative that, at the present moment in time.

Who or Whom: A simple test to see which is proper is to replace who/whom with he/him. If he sounds right, use who; if him is right, use whom.

Widow: The last line of a paragraph hanging over to the top of the next page.

WMF (.wmf): Windows Metafile Format is a native Windows format and should not be used for commercially printed or online documents.

Words of fewer than six letters should not hyphenated at the ends of lines. If hyphenation is necessary, at least three letters should be taken down to the next line and these should start with a consonant, wherever possible: ‘dic-tion’, ‘specu-late’.

Writer: One who expresses ideas in writing; one whose occupation is writing, as a journalist or author.

Writers’ groups are an invaluable way for the novice to gain experience, confidence and encouragement. Join one today!

X-ray: Written with a capital and a hyphen.

Xtraneous (sorry) material must be ruthlessly purged from your manuscript. If it doesn’t further the story – remove it.

Yoke or Yolk: Yoke is a cross-piece fastened over the neck of an ox and also means servitude. Yolk is the yellow part of an egg.

You must avoid anachronisms – especially in historical writing. You can’t have a character from the seventeenth century (or even an uneducated, modern-day character) talking about ecology, women’s rights, etc. Your writing must be compatible with the period and the particular characters.

Young Adult Books: For ages 12 and up, these manuscripts are 130 to about 200 pages long. Plots can be complex with several major characters, though one character should emerge as the focus of the book. Themes should be relevant to the problems and struggles of today’s teenagers, regardless of the genre.

Zealous writers may get the urge to quit their jobs, so that they can write full-time. Don’t. Plenty of time can be more difficult to deal with than that precious ‘squeezed in’ time. You may find that you put off writing – because you have so much time – or, you may find that you don’t write at all. Of course, if you’ve just won the lottery, inherited the family fortune or retired on a sizeable pension – got to it! But make sure you stick to it.

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