Journal
Notes from inside the press: how a book gets written, edited, designed and published.
119 items, page 3 of 6
Editing
Endnotes, footnotes or neither in narrative non-fiction
Every source note is a small interruption. The question for narrative non-fiction is how to show your evidence without breaking the story.
Editing
Tense drift in long manuscripts
Past tense slides into present when a scene heats up, and nobody notices until chapter twelve. Here is why it happens and how to check.
Publishing
Selling translation rights
A book can be published in other languages by licensing translation rights. Here is how those deals are generally made and what a licence tends to cover.
Production
The barcode on the back of a book
The barcode on a book is neither decoration nor optional. It encodes the ISBN, and it has to scan first time.
Design
Old-style and lining figures
Numbers come in more than one shape. Choosing between old-style and lining figures, and why they behave differently on the page.
Writing
The long middle of a novel
Beginnings and endings get the attention, but most novels are lost in the middle. How to keep the central stretch moving and meaningful.
Editing
The first page has one job
A first page does not need to explain the world, introduce the cast or hook with a shock. It needs to make the reader turn to page two.
Publishing
Choosing a publication date months ahead
A publication date is not when the book is finished. It is the date everything else is planned backwards from, and it needs setting well in advance.
Production
Validating an ebook before it ships
An ebook can look fine in one app, fail in another and be rejected on upload. Validation catches most of that before readers do.
Design
Rivers in justified text
Rivers are channels of white space that run down through justified text. Why they form, how to spot them, and how to get rid of them.
Editing
Knowing when to stop revising
Revision has no natural end point, so you have to choose one. Here is how to tell improvement from mere change, and when to put the pen down.
Editing
Naming characters so readers can tell them apart
Readers take in names at a glance. Give two characters similar shapes and some readers will quietly merge them.
Publishing
One ISBN per format, and why the rule exists
A hardback, a paperback, an ebook and an audiobook are four products to the book trade, and each needs its own ISBN for sound practical reasons.
Design
Genre signals on covers, and when to break them
Readers decode a cover in seconds, mostly by genre. Knowing the signals is the first step; knowing when to ignore them is the harder one.
Design
Scene breaks: blank lines, ornaments and page turns
A blank line is the simplest scene break, and the easiest to lose. How to mark a shift in time or place so the reader never misses it.
Writing
What a subtitle does for non-fiction
A non-fiction title can afford to be intriguing because the subtitle does the explaining. How to write the line under the title.
Editing
Spelling invented words the same way every time
An invented word has no dictionary to check it against. The book's own glossary has to do that job, and someone has to keep it.
Publishing
Getting ISBNs in the UK and Ireland
In the UK and Ireland, ISBNs come from one agency. Where you get them decides who is named as your publisher, which matters more than most authors expect.
Production
Matte and gloss cover finishes
The coating on a cover changes how its colours look, how it feels and how it wears. It deserves as much thought as the colours themselves.
Design
Font licences for print and ebooks, in principle
Buying a font is really buying permission to use it in certain ways. Why print, ebook and web use are often licensed separately.