About this book

How to write Little Blue Books

Lloyd E. Smith

space for the printer to write in the page numbers when the type is divided into pages. Be sure you distinguish the Table of Contents from the Index. The Table of Contents is arranged in the order of the pages--that is, the chapters, stories, or whatever the book contains, are listed in the order they appear in the book, with the number of the page on which each such chapter or section begins. An Index is an alphabetical guide to the contents of the book. In the Index subjects are listed alphabetically, as in a dictionary, and the page numbers (added after the book is set in type and paged) are put in to correspond. An Index is necessary only in a book dealing with various phases of some subject where frequent reference, for ready information, is likely to be made by the reader. (See Little Blue Books Nos. 815 and 816 for examples of indices). In typing your manuscript indent the first line of every new paragraph three spaces on the typewriter. No other marking is necessary. Words you wish italicized should be underlined once. Words to be printed in small capitals (seldom used), should be underlined twice and marked “s. c.” Words to be printed in bold-face (seldom used), should be underlined (sometimes a wavy line is used) and marked “b. f.” A minor point in typing manuscript--but nevertheless an important one--is to make clear the difference between a hyphen and a dash. The hyphen on the typewriter is adequate to signify a hyphen in manuscript, and the printer will set it accordingly. But a dash, which is much longer than a hyphen in type, is not provided for on the typewriter keyboard. The best way is to use two or perhaps three hyphens together, thus ---. When so typed, these three hyphens will be set as one long line or dash. (As a matter of fact, special instruction to the printer is necessary in this manuscript to be sure he sets those three hyphens as _hyphens_ instead of a dash!) Inexperienced writers make oftentimes funny mistakes in preparing manuscripts. I remember one writer who persisted in dividing words at the end of the line and placing the hyphen (indicating division, or a broken word) at the beginning of the remaining part of the word on the line below! Of course, the printer set the manuscript all right, but the habit was annoying. _Please_ use 8½ × 11-inch manuscript paper, white, not too thin or too thick. White bond paper between 16 and 24 pound stock--as the stationer would say--is ideal. Do not use manila paper, or any color other than white. The color of your typewriter ribbon does not matter, but in typing manuscript use one color only--it is confusing to mix red and black, or red and blue, in a manuscript. Again the inexperienced author, trying to attract attention by being “different,” errs in preparing his manuscript. One Little Blue Book author succeeded in delivering every one of several books typed on heavy foolscap, with deckled edges! Fortunately, it was not perfumed. Another writer--this time an unsuccessful one--sent in a manuscript on sepia brown paper, beautifully typed in dark brown ribbon to match. Such idiosyncrasies are inexpressibly annoying to both editors and printers. Avoid them. _A Word About Special Sizes of Type_: Any necessary type or character can be used in setting up a Little Blue Book if it is essential. The books are standardized, as I have already said, being set throughout in 8-point type, with quoted matter (when it exceeds more than a sentence or two in length) set off from the rest of the text by being set in 7-point. Larger type is used for the headings (10-point caps--capital letters--as a rule). Boldface type, italics, small capitals, etc., can all be used in technical books if desired. Too many kinds of type in one book are in rather bad taste, so it is well to keep the typography simple and neat. The Little Blue Book dictionaries are usually set in 5½-point type, two columns to the page. (Examine Little Blue Books Nos. 192, 696, 697, 637, 1011, 1105, etc.). The lines are therefore set 7½ ems wide; with one-em space between the columns; this makes the page the usual 16 ems in width. An em, by the way, is a printer’s unit of measure. There are six ems--sometimes called pica ems for greater precision, since, strictly speaking, an em may refer to any size type--to the inch. A pica em is the width of a capital letter M (square) in 12-point type. Incidentally, there are 72 points to the inch. _Preparation of Illustrations_: In technical books illustrations are sometimes necessary. We expect an author to prepare and submit his own illustrations with his manuscript. If a technical title is assigned, it is given to someone who can send illustrations if they are necessary. Halftones (reproductions of photographs) should be avoided. In fact, it is so difficult to print halftones on the paper used for Little Blue Books, so they will show up well, that we are not using them at present. Illustrations should be outline drawings or diagrams in black ink. These illustrations may be much larger than they are to appear in the book, if it is any easier to prepare them that way. They will be reduced to the proper size when they are made into line cuts (zinc etchings). If illustrations are sent with a manuscript, be sure to indicate in the manuscript where, in the text, each illustration should appear, so that in making up the book the printers can place the cuts properly. Also, be sure to allow for the space the cuts will occupy in the finished book, and reduce the word-count of your manuscript accordingly. It is impossible for any Little Blue Book to be other than 32 or 64 pages in length. You _must_ make your work fit into one or the other of these--whichever is specified at the time you receive the assignment. Also, you must not let your work fall much short of these lengths, for it is just as bad to have a manuscript fill 50 pages of a 64-page book as it is for it to run over to 40 pages of a 32-page book. It just can’t be done. Do not hope to have an extra long manuscript converted into a two-volume Little Blue Book edition. This experiment has been tried and it is not feasible. Each title must be complete in itself, and run to either 32 or 64 pages. RULES FOR STYLE Consistency is a highly desirable virtue in setting anything in type. So far as possible we try to have all the Little Blue Books conform to one typographical style--but the colossal number of 1,400--soon, 1,500--different titles has made for a certain inconsistency that could not be avoided. By consistency here, I mean spelling the same word the same way throughout the manuscript; if possible, throughout the entire series of Little Blue Books. I mean a consistent policy of capitalization, hyphenating, punctuation, and so on. Use care in preparing your manuscript. Spell your words correctly. Do not blunder ahead in the notion that the editor or the proofreaders will be glad to correct your misspelled words, dress up your awkward sentences, and put in your missing commas. Train yourself to spell correctly, to write clearly and smoothly, to punctuate for the easy reading of your work. Such training can do nothing except speed your success as a writer. To ignore these matters may handicap your manuscript; better craftsmen than you will get work to do that might have been yours had you been more conscientious. The standard of spelling and hyphenating in the Little Blue Books is Webster’s New International Dictionary. In general, words like _theater_, _center_, _reconnoiter_, and the like, are spelled with a final -er (instead of -re). Words like _honor_, _color_, _valor_, etc., are spelled with a final -or (instead of -our). Wherever two spellings are permissible (as recorded in the dictionary), the spelling given first (as preferable) by Webster’s New International is the one to be used. Words like _traveler_, _traveling_, and _traveled_ are spelled with a single _l_, etc.; the rule here is that if a word (like travel) ends in a single consonant following a vowel, derivative forms do not double the consonant unless the syllable containing that consonant is accented. Thus, when _traveling_ is formed from _travel_, the consonant _l_ is not doubled because that syllable is not accented (the accent falls on trav-). But when _occurring_ is formed from _occur_, the consonant _r_ is doubled because the accent falls on -cur. So also in the other derivatives: _occurred_, _occurrence_, etc. As to capitalization, aside from the usual rules for the first word in every sentence, etc., all proper names are of course capitalized. The names of the seasons (spring, summer, autumn, winter) are spelled with a small letter. In place names such as Grand Avenue, Brown Street, Mississippi River, etc., the common noun is capitalized as an integral part of the place name (_not_ Grand avenue, Brown street, Mississippi river, etc.). The word Negro is always capitalized in all Haldeman-Julius Publications. As a rule, atheist, agnostic, freethought, and similar words, are not capitalized. In hyphenating words (compound words) follow Webster’s New International Dictionary _with this exception_: divisions of time such as today, tomorrow, and tonight are spelled without a hyphen. In punctuation considerable latitude is allowed. The general rule is one of common sense--punctuate according to the sense of your writing, to make it easy for the reader to grasp your meaning, and to avoid any possible ambiguity. Never use more than one exclamation mark or interrogation point after a single sentence. Put periods and commas always _inside_ of quotation marks; colons and semicolons _always_ outside of quotation marks. Put exclamation or interrogation marks inside of the quotation marks if they belong with the quotation, but outside if they do not belong with the quotation. For example, “Shoot him!” The exclamation is inside the quotation marks because it belong with the quoted words. But, “The word he used was ‘ain’t’!” Here the exclamation belongs with the entire sentence (not with the word _ain’t_ alone), so it is placed outside. Accent marks are kept over letters in words from foreign languages--as the acute, grave, and circumflex accents in French words. These should be indicated in your manuscript. You can write them in with ink, since the characters are not on most typewriters. In general, the principles set forth in Little Blue Books of grammar, punctuation, and spelling (Little Blue Books Nos. 681, 682, 683), are fairly safe guides for Little Blue Book manuscript style. If the prospective Little Blue Book writer follows these books rather closely, he will never go far astray. It is seen that the matter of style in Haldeman-Julius Publications is not at all extreme or individual. The standard is fairly universal, and though it may differ in minor points, the writer cannot make any great mistake in accustoming himself to these fundamental rules for spelling, punctuation, and so on. _One Last Important Word_: Always be sure that your name and address are clearly typed in the upper left-hand corner of the first page of your manuscript. Do not forget your name and address. _This is vitally important._ ABRIDGING AND EDITING Abridgments of the classics, or of any work which has appeared in print somewhere or other, are at present not much desired for the Little Blue Books. Realizing, however, that the editorial policy may again find it expedient to include material of this kind, I am putting in here a brief chapter on this phase of writing or editing for the Little Blue Book series. To cut down a work from 100,000 words to 15,000 words is an art. It takes a certain knack, if I may put it that way. You must have an