08.13.08
The many delights of publishing
Bridget points out Rachel Toor’s “A Publishing Primer” in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Excerpts:
French flaps: Extensions of the cover of a paperback that fold elegantly back inside the book and hold extra copy, in imitation of the flaps of the jacket of a hardcover book. Très chic.
. . .
Headbands: Adorable, colorful ribbons at the top and bottom of hardcover books. They are there to delight you.
. . .
Monograph: A scholarly tome on a single subject or limited aspect of a subject. Monographs were once bought primarily by libraries that used to have “standing orders” for all books on certain topics from specific presses. Those days are gone. Those days have been gone for a long time. Remember that when you are revising your dissertation.
. . .
Orphan: This refers to the first line of a paragraph left sitting by itself at the bottom of a page. “Widows” are the final line of a paragraph left alone at the top of a page. It’s the publisher who creates that kind of loneliness; it’s the publisher who should take care of it.
Some of it is specific to academic publishing, and much of it is, sadly, pretty straightforward, but you may find it of use when trying to explain certain phenomena to the uninitiated.
Photo: 2008-01-25 3 Headband by Du-Sa-Ni-Ma; some rights reserved.
08.08.08
Job application tips
I’m in the process of hiring an assistant, someone who can toil away at the work thing while I’m at school making crafts, and I’ve finally dug down to the bottom of the pile of résumés that began pouring in thirty minutes after I posted the job. (And if you haven’t heard from me yet, it doesn’t mean you won’t—I’m still sorting and procrastinating, as will soon become more obvious.) And do you want to know what’s the most striking thing about most of these hopefuls? They are completely wasting their time. And mine, of course, but mostly their own. Because they’re not only not going to get a job with me, they’re not going to get a job with anyone unless that person is as slovenly and illiterate as these applicants.
Howlers spotted among the hundred-odd submissions include
- Misspelling or camel-capitalizing my company’s name
- Notebook
- Next book
- Nextbbook
- NextBook
- Misspelling the name of a past or present employer
- FexEx
- Merril Lynch
- Pareksy Ctr. [This is at my own college, so I know it’s Paresky]
- BabyAlpalca.org
- Rollingstone Magazine
- Misspelling a degree or job title
- bachelors | masters
- B.F.A | G.P.A | F.I.T | C.U.N.Y
- assitant [I feel that this should be a word, but if it were, it would denote someone who is an undesirable employee]
- photo- retoucher
- Communication’s Coordinator
- Misspelling or improperly camel-capping the name of a piece of software the applicant supposedly knows inside out
- PhotoShop
- Quark Express
- the In Design program
- Word Press
- In-Design CS3
- Abode Photoshop / Abode Illustrator / Abode InDesign [this is presumably marketed as a hamlet]
- Indesign
- word, excel [but the same person managed to type PowerPoint]
- Misspelling or improperly camel-capping the name of the site where the applicant found the listing
- Media Bistro
- media bistro
- MediaBistro.com
08.02.08
Speaking of reference books . . .
I just came across the lapsed bloglet Zimmer’s Words of the Week, which appears to have been abandoned some time in April. The archives are full of good stuff, though, much of it from the wonderful Erin’s Weird and Wonderful books. Consider, for example,
- bouffage [boo-FAHG]
- a filling meal. From an Old French word glossed in the OED with a quote from Cotgrave as ‘any meat that (eaten greedily) fills the mouth, and makes the cheeks to swell; cheeke-puffing meat.’ (Weird & Wonderful Word of the Week, 2/21/08)
- petrichor [PET-rih-kor]
- the pleasant smell that sometimes accompanies rain, especially the first rain after a period of warm dry weather. (Weird & Wonderful Word of the Week, 1/10/08)
- semordnilap [sem-ORD-nih-lap]
- a word that spells a different word when written backwards (“semordnilap” is “palindromes” spelled backwards). “Drawer” is a semordnilap, because backwards it spells reward. If this makes you uneasy, you might have aibohphobia, ‘fear of palindromes.’ (Weird & Wonderful Word of the Week, 4/10/08)
08.01.08
Yes, there is such a thing as a stupid question
Even though their CD-ROM and its tech support suck, I still love the Chicago Manual of Style Q&A:
Q. I’m editing a textbook that references a play. Should it be “Act 3,” “act three,” or “act 3”? A solution to this mystery would be greatly appreciated. I’ve looked at CMOS a hundred times for help with this issue.
A. Wow—a hundred times? If you can suggest how we can make section 8.194 more clear, we’ll try to do better in the next edition: “Words denoting parts of long poems or acts and scenes of plays are usually lowercased, neither italicized nor enclosed in quotation marks . . . act 3, scene 2.”
Q. At the annual meeting of our local PBK chapter, dispute on the pronunciation of “archival” arose: whether the stress falls on the first or the second syllable. Give us your wisdom. I will pass it on in the column I write weekly in a local paper about any subject that pops into my head.
A. As a style guide for writers, CMOS must resist the temptation to weigh in on an issue of pronunciation. We are editors, absorbed in our manuscripts. We can go for days without even speaking. I suggest you consult the linguists who write dictionaries for this purpose. (I’m sorry this won’t give you anything to put in your column, but thanks for your help with mine.)
Q. Is it “cell phone” or “cel phone”? I am working on a crash deadline, and would appreciate a quick response. Thank you so much!
A. Any writer who has deadlines should also have a dictionary. I always swear I’m not going to look up words for people, but it’s like being a mom and picking up socks—something just makes me do it. It’s “cell phone.”
Please buy a dictionary—and pick up your socks.
