Observations and advice on self-publishing, by Helena Wojtczak, winner of the Writers’ News/ David St John Thomas Charitable Trust Self Published Book Award 2006-7. This page was prompted by two members of the Writers’ News Talkback forum: Dorothy Davies (―Dorothyd‖) and Susan (―Butterfly‖). Butterfly, a charming lady, met me as we both collected our awards at Harrogate and suggested that I upload a page of hints and tips for self-publishing authors. Here it is! Dorothy Davies has bitterly criticised me, both publicly on the Talkback forum, and privately in some very judgemental and insulting emails, because I believe that as writers (and self-publishers) we should get our punctuation and grammar correct. This, she insists, is ―dictatorial‖, and when I said that we should all strive to learn the correct use of punctuation she described me as being like a bullying and domineering headmistress; while I am, according to her judgement, an arrogant-know-it-all because I have bothered to try to improve my grammar in order to be a writer. Now, strangely enough, when David St John Thomas stood on the speakers’ platform at the Majestic Hotel, Harrogate (on 3rd May 2007), he made much the same points as I did, and no one in the room could disagree with him. He has also said the same in his booklets on self-publishing. Looking wider, every book and website that I have ever read about submissions to publishers, or self-publishing, makes the same point: your spelling, grammar, punctuation and consistency need to be as perfect as you can make them. Someone else on the Talkback forum asserted that no publisher would reject a manuscript just because the punctuation was incorrect. I have several responses to this. 1. Isn’t it a bit risky to take that chance? 2. How can she speak for all publishers? I am a publisher, and it would put me off. 3. Isn’t it arrogant and lazy to expect a copy-editor to clear up your mess, because you cannot be bothered to learn a few simple rules? 4. Why waste hours arguing against learning to punctuate? You could spend minutes learning how to do it correctly instead. If one is self-publishing then of course it is even more important to get everything right because (unless you employ a copy-editor or skilled proofreader) there is no one to prevent you from going to press with mistakes. I teach self-publishing seminars, and collect examples of badly-presented selfpublished books, to show my students what not to do. It hasn’t been exactly difficult to find examples! Here are some typical mistakes made: Incorrect formatting. Many self-publishers do not indent a new paragraph (or leave a blank line like on this page). This is strange because they need only take a quick look at any book to see how to do it correctly.
Incorrect punctuation. There are only about twenty types of punctuation mark. If we want to be writers, is it really too much hassle to learn these essential tools of our trade? There’s plenty of advice on the Net, and simple grammar books are easily available. The aspect of punctuation that led to an avalanche of insult and personal attack on Talkback was my explanation of how to use hyphens, en-dashes and em-dashes, something that, I have discovered, few people understand. It was amazing: instead of spending five minutes learning something that would stand them in good stead for life, some people spent much, much longer attacking and insulting me for giving them free advice! So, when do we use these three types of dash? It’s really simple: hyphens come between words: Examples of use: Twenty-year-old; eighteenth-century (when used as an adjective); husband-to-be; numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine. Em dashes are used very frequently, mainly for asides within a sentence: I went there — to that shop — but they didn’t have any. En-dashes have only three uses. The main one is for putting between dates: Queen Victoria 1819–1901; Chairman 2006–7. It is also used for connecting two words such as the London–Brighton train, the Everton–Arsenal match. In Microsoft Word, en-dashes and em-dashes can be found by using insert/symbol. Inconsistency. Sometimes I have seen 18th century and eighteenth century in the same book, or 1st and first. Although writing numbers as numerals is not always necessarily wrong, they look ugly compared to eighteenth and first, so use of the latter is advised. Numbers from one to ninety-nine should be written as words, not numbers. I’ve seen some dreadful messes in my time, mixing up the format of numbers even on the same page, for example: John had a 6 year old son and an eight year old daughter. Why does it matter? It matters because, if you don’t follow the usual conventions, your work looks a mess. Your self-published book will be in competition with books from major publishers, and if it looks amateurish it won’t pass muster. It matters because, if we want to call ourselves writers, it is the least we can do to learn the tools of the writing trade. Who would take a composer seriously if he said he could not be bothered to learn how to write music? I’ve just bashed out this page in great haste and haven’t proofread it, as I’m in the middle of decorating today. I just wanted to upload something quickly for now, to
respond to Dorothy Davies’s attitude that sloppy punctuation is acceptable in people who call themselves writers. I will return from time to time, re-write and refine this page. (I might even proofread it!)