Style and Substance

Every publisher has its own house style. Most trade book publishers base their style on the Chicago Manual of Style. (I would like to believe that the fact I graduated from CMS's birthplace and home, the University of Chicago, makes me more expert in its content than other people. I would be fooling myself.)

"Style" goes beyond the rules of (American) English grammar. (And as an aside, what I mean here by style is a little different from what you as a reader might refer to as an author's style, which is his or her tone and voice as a writer.) It takes in anything one might have to make consistent decisions about, e.g., what to capitalize, what to abbreviate, when to use numerals and when to spell numbers out, or how to cite references to source material. The rules CMS sets out aren't arbitrary; they serve a purpose in producing clear, readable books. Similarly, the rules a publisher sets out in its house style serve the needs of that publisher's books. For example, although CMS calls for spelling out numbers up to a hundred as well as larger round numbers, publishers of craft books or cookbooks are likely to make it their style to use numerals throughout because of the quantities and measurements that are integral to their books.

A Change of Direction

When I set up this blog, I thought I would write about issues of grammar, usage, and punctuation, and started to draft posts on those subjects. But as I did, I realized that there are plenty of places online for you to get that, and I lost interest. What I've never lost interest in is all the things (and language issues are among them) that go into making books. So the focus of this blog is hereby broadened to include all things of interest to me as a managing editor at a nonfiction book publisher. Some will be big-picture, future-of-publishing things. Some will be nitty-gritty, how-books-get-made things. Some will be about how to use a comma. That's why God gave us tags. You can find the ones that interest you and ignore the ones that don't.

You should be forewarned that many of my posts will be long. I am by nature an essayist, so if you're looking for the internet equivalent of sound bites, you're in the wrong place. If you want thoughtful discussion of what and why, stick around--and join the conversation. Please do so thoughtfully--if you can't back up your opinions with thoughtful argument and in a civil tone, you'll get the boot. You don't have to agree with me (not much of a discussion if everyone agrees), but you must behave yourself. My house, my rules.

The Grammopticon welcomes you.