Nimble Books Style Manual

I see the leading apostropphe as a potential source of typographic inelegances and syntax explosions and would rather refer to them as bots.  there are quite a few books with the word “bot” in the title in Amazon (see http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=bots&x=0&y=0) but none of them use the leading apostrophe.

“Authored” is not a word. Or, if it is a word, it is a surpassingly clunky one.  Use “wrote” instead.

We rely on the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, unless documented here, or overridden by editor’s fiat. The Nimble Books Style Manual is a living document. For extra excitement, subscribe to its RSS feed!

Some specific rules:

Please use American quotation style: “double quotes.”

Note that when quotation marks are used preceding a comma or a “period,” the puncuation falls inside the quotation mark. This is a typographic nicety, but one that is universally observed rule in American publishing.

If vu-graph or viewgraph is used, make all usages consistent, but go with author’s choice.

“Slides” is preferred. Idiomatically “Powerpoints” may be allowed, as in “Powerpoint Rangers.”

Re: Vugraph? Viewgraph?

Re: Vugraph? Viewgraph?

Subject: Re: Vugraph? Viewgraph?
From: Thom Randolph To: “Halter, Meg”
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2000 23:51:29 -0800

Meg:

If you mean the clear plastic sheets on which text and
images are printed, and which text and images are
projected onto a semi-reflective viewing screen by means
of light transmitted through the plastic sheet while the
sheet is positioned on a (usually) horizontal glass
or plastic panel….

The machine is properly referred to as an “overhead
projector”, and the sheets used to carry the text and
images are called “transparencies”. One is called a
“transparency”. The transparent plastic is available
in rolls for properly equipped projectors, or in sheets
with or without cardboard frames.

The term “viewgraph” is sometimes used to mean such a
transparency. I try to avoid using it, since when someone
goes out to purchase blank transparency film, they will
not find it under viewgraph. Dictionary.com does have
a definition for the word, from WordNet, but none of
the unabridged dictionaries I have include it.

I’ve also seen the sheets referred to as “viewgraphs”,
“Vue-graphs”, “Vu-graphs”, “overheads”, and “foils”.

I have always found the term viewgraph to be confusing,
especially when I’ve had to train non-English students.
Of course they’re supposed to “view” it, but there’s not
always a “graph” on it, strictly speaking. On the other
hand, many more people are likely understand what a
projector is, and can by extension understand what an
overhead projector is. Thus, the clear sheets used with
one are easily understood as “overhead projector transparency
sheets”, or just “transparencies” for short.

I hope that helps.

Regards,

Thom Randolph

Oxford English Dictionary Urtext

An original text; the earliest version. Also attrib. or as adj.
1932 Times Lit. Suppl. 14 July 511/3 In these volumes..we have the nearest thing possible in Chopin’s case to an Urtext. 1959 Cambr. Rev. 6 June 598/2 Authoritative editions allegedly based on urtexts. 1963 S. WEINTRAUB Private Shaw & Public Shaw iv. 119 The earlier version still retains advocates, because of its more complete, ur-text quality, and the comfortable feeling that no Procrustean games were played with its vocabulary and sentence structure. 1974 Early Music Oct. 259/1 The edition is urtext, with prefatory staves, showing the original clefs and signatures. 1982 Times 2 Apr. 14/2 An urtext edition of the 21 Schubert piano sonatas. 1983 London Rev. Bks 7-20 July 21/4 Elaborate versions often point back to the gospel of Mark as a kind of cryptic Urtext.

I prefer Ur text, like Baltimore clamp (but unlike the Rosetta Stone). Ur is a place name. I veto OED’s single word version, urtext. Hyphenated is wrong, as the examples Baltimore-clamp or baltimore-clamp make clear.

If you are interested in publishing with Nimble Books, read these pages first:

1. What is a “nimble book”? – briefly, it is 32-120 pp, 8.5 x 10, color interior, 7,000 to 40,000 words with >= 10 full-page images.
2. The Nimble Books Standard Contract,
3. Books in Print & Forthcoming Books.
4. The Nimble Books Marketing Playbook v 3.0.

The business model is nimble, too: no inventory, no advances, no returns, better royalties. It’s the wave of the future because it fixes a lot of things that are broken with traditional publishing. HarperCollins recently started testing something similar.

Proposals for “Nimble” format books should be submitted via the form on that page.

Once you are writing a book for us, don’t forget to consult the Nimble Books Style Manual.

Questions?