Guest Post: Ask the Book Doctor about Quotation Marks

Grammar advice for the self-publishing author:

Q: I am editing an article for a periodical and cannot find anything in my grammar books or copyeditor’s guide that addresses this issue. There is a sentence in quotation marks that lists within it the names of several songs. I am confused as to whether to use single quotation marks around the names of the songs or to use double quotes as you would usually do with a song.

A: Single quotation marks are used to indicate quotation marks inside of double quotation marks. Because the sentence is in quotation marks, any items within it that would have quotation marks around them would have single quotation marks.

Examples: “John, did you say ‘Thank you’ to your teacher?” Mary said, “I loved the Tommy Edwards song called ‘It’s all in the Game.’

Bobbie Christmas, book editor, author of Write In Style (Union Square Publishing), and owner of Zebra Communications, will answer your questions, too. Send them to Bobbie@zebraeditor.com. Read more “Ask the Book Doctor” questions and answers at http://www.zebraeditor.com.

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Book Sales and Self-Publishing

In my time writing and working in publishing, I’ve interacted with many authors. As you may imagine, discussion often involves author goals and determining the best publishing options to meet those goals. Who doesn’t want to sell books? Some authors have even made poor decisions the first time around; it helps them realize that it is never too late to switch to a better publisher.

Very often I hear the following question: “How many millions of books do you think I will sell?”

My answer is best summarized by this information, which tallies the actual BookScan sales figures for all published books in 2004—a typical year in the publishing industry:

Only 10 books sold a million copies or more.

BookScan is like the TV-ratings for books, and these figures do not track non-bookstore related sales. Far more books are sold outside of the book trade (to book clubs and catalogs, for example).

Some self-publishing options actually open the distribution door to all those venues and more, without the up-front printing costs of off-set printing. The publishing world is changing and authors are taking advantage.

Self-Publishing Book Review of the Week

Self Publishing Book Review of the Week: The Bare Melcessities

The Bare Melcessities

by Melanie Lutz

This self-published book was recently reviewed by Susan Bethany of Midwest Book Review:

Living under the cover of one’s own insecurities is no way to live. “The Bare Melcessities: A Self-Portrait” is an inspirational memoir where author Melanie Lutz encourages readers to find themselves and bring out their truth to the forefront, and bare it all to the world for a lighter burden. “The Bare Melcessities” is a fascinating and motivational read that should not be overlooked.

For more information or to order the book, visit the author’s webpage: www.outskirtspress.com/thebaremelcessities

Self-Publishing

Self-publishing Writing Tip: Ask the Book Doctor on Quotions

Q: I have a question about quotation marks. I know the punctuation goes inside the quotation marks when writing dialogue, as in: Ray asked, “What about quotation marks?” What happens when they’re used in titles, though, as in this example: Three very different styles are represented by “Nude Descending a Staircase,” “The Scream,” and “The Mona Lisa.” The punctuation (including the serial comma) doesn’t look right inside the quotation marks. I tried it outside, though, and it looked even less right. Which way is right?

A: The answer is not going to be what you expect. If you are writing a book and correctly following the guidelines set forth in The Chicago Manual of Style, the titles of works of art will be in italics (underlined in manuscript form), rather than in quotation marks, so the punctuation point is moot.

Bobbie Christmas, book doctor, author of Write In Style (Union Square Publishing), and owner of Zebra Communications, will answer your questions, too. Send them to Bobbie@zebraeditor.com. Visit Bobbie’s blog at http://bobbiechristmas.blogspot.com/. Read more “Ask the Book Doctor” questions and answers at http://www.zebraeditor.com

Self-Publishing Book Review of the Week

Self Publishing Book Review of the Week: Murder with a French Accent

Murder with a French Accent

by Janet Hannah

This self-published book was recently reviewed by Shelley Glodowski of Midwest Book Review:

Janet Hannah was born in Toronto, Canada. She earned a Ph.D. in Rutgers University. MURDER WITH A FRENCH ACCENT is the follow-up to her first Alex Kertesz mystery, THE WISH TO KILL, which was well received. She currently lives in Jerusalem.

Alex Kertesz has been tapped by his department at the University of Jerusalem to journey to a small French company who has acquired the rights to an organism for commercial development. Located in Toulouse, France, Alex arrives to a somewhat hostile atmosphere and little to be done on the surface of things. But an explosion in the lab; snide comments; and finally his own kidnapping convince him that all is not well at Agrogenie:

“‘I have to catch a plane,’ he said, extricating himself from her grasp, but the large man he now thought of as Boris appeared at his other side, pressing him toward the open door of a parked car. He spun around to make a dash for it, but Francoise blocked the way, and something hard and heavy smashed into the back of his head.”

Writing about something as complicated as biochemistry is not an easy task, particularly when the intended audience is mystery readers. But Janet Hannah pulls it off with aplomb, breaking complicated theory down into pedestrian language when the occasion calls for it. Dr. Alex is a reluctant traveler and hero in this whodunit, and Hannah has to spend quite of bit of the book putting everything into context for the reader.

But when Hannah gets around to the murder, she totally changes gears to create mayhem as Dr. Alex finds himself pulled into the vortex of a situation he hardly understands. It’s lucky that he is fluent in so many languages and that he has kept himself in good shape. He is called upon to perform stunts worthy of James Bond, and that’s where the real fun of the novel lies.

MURDER WITH A FRENCH ACCENT is a nicely wrought International mystery.

For more information or to order the book, visit the author’s webpage: www.outskirtspress.com/murderwithafrenchaccent

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The Bare Melcessities

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Murder with a French Accent

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